[CF-Devel] improving the PR-code (patch written)

[Andreas Vogl]

I'm sorry that this and my previous mail are rather long and not
at every point easy to understand. I try to make myself as clear
and short as possible. If there are still unsolved mysteries, please
ask me on IRC. If you got time, simply download and test my patch:
<
     
     http://mids.student.utwente.nl/~avogl/pr_patch.tar.gz
     
     >.

Another note: I'd appreciate it very much if the process to make my
patch accepted and "official" (-> CVS) would not take extra long. It's
just because my patch includes numerous files and I'm afraid it might 
get outdated after a short while, meaning doubled work for me. =)

In the last two days I asked every developer I met on IRC about his
opinion to my pr-patch. (Thanks for your patience guys!)

They are all in favour, except for two minor issues:
(Skip this paragraph if your time is spare.)

1. protection values for potions:
   Several people were afraid that 90% resistance for potions might
   not be sufficient. Expecially since some Races (Wraith, Troll) must
   rely on potions due to "caps" from vulnerabilities.
   (-> Remember: Vuln. caps can only be surpassed by the use of potions)

   Here's my strategie to solve that problem:
   First of all: 90% resistance is A LOT! Example: A lvl 1 character
   (miserable stats) with nothing but a cloak granting fire +90,
   cannot be hurt by the fiery breath of a red-dragon. (because
   the damage is < 1).
   I entered the dragon-hangar (dragonisland) with an average lvl 60 
   char with all resistances at 90% (except magic - 0%). I had a
   fairly easy time clearing the map out - with melee combat. I did
   receive damage but slow enough to heal myself.
   => So, I still think 90% is the perfect value for "immu"-potions.
   If it would turn out that 90% is too low in some cases, I will
   introduce a new hyper-duper-potion with 95%, only for fire and
   cold. It will be quite rare and expensive though.

2. vuln. caps for races:
   With my calc. scheme, worse than -30% fire (or maybe -50%) for the
   races wraith/troll would probably be too hard at high levels.
   But at low levels -30% might be rather harmless (1.3 x damage).

   Personally I believe it's okay, since the disadvantage of fire-vuln
   will always stick to the character during his whole (virtual-)life.
   At any point he will have a total amount of 30 less fire resistance
   than other races with same equipment.

   Peter M. proposed, in terms of damage, we should make vulnerabilities
   count doubled: So, if a player has a total of -30% res. to fire,
   internally it will be treated like -60%, but if one got +30% this is
   treated just normal. (This is what Peter was trying to say in his
   previous post).
   I have no objections to that and it's easy to do. Still, I would
   prefer not to insert this in my patch right now, but to add it later. 


Finally, to answer Mark's post:
>
     
      Just a note, the two unix clients have been modified to show resistance
     
     >
     
      values (in numeric form) in the stat bar window.  So it is very easy to
     
     >
     
      see what your resistance values are.
     
     
I'm aware of that. But I believe that the message "your resistance to fire
rises to 58%" is still far more interesting than "you feel more resistant
to fire".


If there is still someone having major objections to my patch, please take
the time to post them, or even better: Meet me on IRC.


AndreasV.