Re: [crossfire] Getting rid of AC/WC
Hello. Basically like spells - if you aim at something, you hit it. Aim in this context may just mean standing next to a monster and moving in that direction. For arrows it would be a lot like bullets, etc. One could think of it like always rolling a 20 on the attack roll (there is special coding that a 20 always hits right now). There isn't really any defending, but right now, there really isn't any defending either. There has been talk about redoing things so you have various attack options and defense options. With a slower combat method, one could make a greater case for these - in a sense, they might be like spells but for warriors - you do an action and your next attack does something special. You do more damage, but your armor rating is lower (and there could be actions that are reverse of that). Or an attack takes longer, etc. But removal of AC/WC doesn't really change the attack options and need to implement them - it just changes what some of those actions might be. snipped Well, that sounds ok for me. Let's implement that, and see what it gives :) Could you maybe write that down formally, with simple rules, so it can serve as reference? Nicolas -- http://nicolas.weeger.org [Mon p'tit coin du web] signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part. ___ crossfire mailing list crossfire@metalforge.org http://mailman.metalforge.org/mailman/listinfo/crossfire
Re: [crossfire] Character names, was Re: Changing connection texts
Looking at the code, something vaguely related here is character naming standards. Right now, character names are limited to letters and - or _, and the - or _ can not be the first letter. Spaces and numbers are not allowed. I can certainly understand spaces, as on unixlike systems, spaces in file names are a pain to deal with. But not sure why restrictions on numbers (like the - or _, I could perhaps see why we wouldn't want a character to start with number. But why shouldn't Mark99 be allowed? Ok by me to allow numbers. The other oddity (IMO) is that names are case sensitive. Thus, Mark and mark are 2 different characters. That to me isn't great. If I was adventuring with a person, I might remember their name, but probably wouldn't remember the details on its capitalization - it could be odd to find out the 'dave' I'm not adventuring with is not the same player as the 'Dave' I adventure with last week. Well, could make sense too, yes. So my suggestions on this: - Allow numbers in names - just the name can not start with a number. - Going forward, names should be unique in a case insensitive manner. The player can still choose variations on capitalization, you just can't have a 'mark' and 'Mark'. To handle that last one, simplest thing is to just store all character related files in a lower case version of the name (so Mark would be stored as mark/mark.pl for example). That's easy to do and solves the problem. The thing that is harder to solve is existing player files. Writing a script to rename them is straightforward. The hard part is dealing with any names that conflict (eg, server has existing Mark and mark). Unless I'm mistaking, there is no 1.x = 2.0 migration script for players, meaning people will have to restart their character. So name collision issues shouldn't matter. Nicolas -- http://nicolas.weeger.org [Mon p'tit coin du web] signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part. ___ crossfire mailing list crossfire@metalforge.org http://mailman.metalforge.org/mailman/listinfo/crossfire
Re: [crossfire] Player level vs monster level vs experience
Maybe. Or just say that the level basing is that a character of level X can reasonably take on a group of 5 monsters also of level X. But as said, I think some of the failure is the AI in crossfire, so the make up for stupid monsters, there are just more of them. That's part of the game genre, no? Many monsters, not smart. Should we try to go towards less monsters smarter? Nicolas -- http://nicolas.weeger.org [Mon p'tit coin du web] signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part. ___ crossfire mailing list crossfire@metalforge.org http://mailman.metalforge.org/mailman/listinfo/crossfire
Re: [crossfire] What to find in towns, what to find in the countryside
I haven't played it for a while, but one thing I recall is that the level range is pretty broad. Some of the undercity maps are suitable for low level characters (less than 5), while others are much tougher, with things like wyverns. So I'd probably say the level range is 0-20, but it really depends on what area you are in. One problem perhaps is that there is not enough exp to be gained here to start at say level 5 (easier area) and work your way through, to the point where at the end you are sufficient exp to complete it. If you start at high enough level to complete it, you may find some areas too easy. If you start at a level where the area is a challenge, you may find you can't complete it, and need to go adventuring elsewhere to get sufficient exp. Well, that quest could be integrated in a storyline, as per the advocated idea on another thread. So that'd be an opportunity to fix/balance the various maps. Nicolas -- http://nicolas.weeger.org [Mon p'tit coin du web] signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part. ___ crossfire mailing list crossfire@metalforge.org http://mailman.metalforge.org/mailman/listinfo/crossfire
Re: [crossfire] quest/storyline ideas
Hello. Recording for posterity a discussion in IRC about quests. I've probably forgotten a few things, but hopefully I got most of. snipped Seems ok for me. Some steps: - check existing quests, required level, existing hints - fix stuff so there is a real storyline - add hints at many places Nicolas -- http://nicolas.weeger.org [Mon p'tit coin du web] signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part. ___ crossfire mailing list crossfire@metalforge.org http://mailman.metalforge.org/mailman/listinfo/crossfire
Re: [crossfire] Player level vs monster level vs experience
Nicolas Weeger wrote: Maybe. Or just say that the level basing is that a character of level X can reasonably take on a group of 5 monsters also of level X. But as said, I think some of the failure is the AI in crossfire, so the make up for stupid monsters, there are just more of them. That's part of the game genre, no? Many monsters, not smart. Maybe. But many monsters may have abilities/items they don't effectively use. I'm not sure how much is historical relative to CRPGs vs tabletop - for tablestop, the monsters often would be smart (as they are played by a real person). I don't know for sure, but I could imagine that in early computer based games, the system just didn't have a lot of resources to have a really good AI (if you have memory and cpu speed constraints, you make do with what you have). So I guess it depends on how far ones go back into the genre. Should we try to go towards less monsters smarter? I think so - not every monster has to be an expert tactician, but at least having some of them be so would be reasonable. It would certainly be nice for the end of map/quest boss monsters. ___ crossfire mailing list crossfire@metalforge.org http://mailman.metalforge.org/mailman/listinfo/crossfire
Re: [crossfire] Character names, was Re: Changing connection texts
Nicolas Weeger wrote: So my suggestions on this: - Allow numbers in names - just the name can not start with a number. - Going forward, names should be unique in a case insensitive manner. The player can still choose variations on capitalization, you just can't have a 'mark' and 'Mark'. To handle that last one, simplest thing is to just store all character related files in a lower case version of the name (so Mark would be stored as mark/mark.pl for example). That's easy to do and solves the problem. The thing that is harder to solve is existing player files. Writing a script to rename them is straightforward. The hard part is dealing with any names that conflict (eg, server has existing Mark and mark). Unless I'm mistaking, there is no 1.x = 2.0 migration script for players, meaning people will have to restart their character. So name collision issues shouldn't matter. True - there is no migration plan/support. However, there are some number of servers right now that running trunk bits. But maybe we just state all trunk servers must convert over, and let them deal with any conflicts they have on their own. ___ crossfire mailing list crossfire@metalforge.org http://mailman.metalforge.org/mailman/listinfo/crossfire
