writing an important and tense point of character decision making into the game only to have people dismiss the empathetic option as pointless, thereby completely affirming the entire point of this decision being in the game.

Lastly there's the narrative layer. Lancer's combats aren't just throwaway skirmishes against a random encounter, they're specific fights against specific enemies with specific narrative contexts, and the maps need to sell that context while enabling the player experience the writer wants to create.

Lancer is a tactics-focused TTRPG with detailed combat rules where positioning and movement is very important. Because of this, the design choices behind the specific layouts of each map, the positioning of cover etc. have a very significant impact on the flow of combat and player experience.