[CF-Devel] Current status.

[David Hurst]

Thought it might be a good idea to just let everyone know where we are now
at.

PR
Implemented completely for both client and server. (client now has a list of
the players current resistances)
We are currently running as fast as we can through the balancing issues. AV
and peterm have done a whole lot of item balancing and peterm as
specifically done some monster balancing. Currently it is alittle (IMHO) to
easy to get to 80% resistance which currently allows a player to one on one
with a dragon with little loss of hp. Infact to let you know what I mean, I
was talking on irc while my player stood two sqaures away from a dragon, it
took the dragon about 1 minute to get a level 30 player on 79% resistance
down to 30 health (from 117). There is now no simple immunity to the three
major attack_types, fire, cold and elec and not even potions hand out 100%.
At 95% resistance however I find even greater demons are survivable.

Gods
All spells implemented and waiting. All changes listed (see
     
     http://mids.student.utwente.nl/~dnh/crossfire_pantheon.html
     
     ).
We are now simply awaiting Jan's patch before all this can be added to CVS.
We are still open to suggestion for anything ideas you have regarding god
intervention. I am especially interested to get feedback on items handed
out. =). Also, I believe the changes have made Ruggilli and Gaea quite
powerful again and I think we need a ruggilli temple in or around scorn or
some other major city (wolfsburg, Santo, dragon island, brest). devourers
also will be getting a major face lift with all new nasty attacks. If
someone is interested in adding some code to change draining to include
stealing of hp I would be most greatful. Also if a god attunes you to
wounding, it will steal gr too. These are very important changes and need to
be implemented soon. I will do it if no one else will, but I currently have
very little time, plus any changes I make are by definition slow =).

Maps
AV has been upgrading maps so they have floor tiles and has made some simple
changes to make alot of maps more pleasing to the eye =). AV would like
assistance on this I am sure, some major maps that need work are, the titans
castle above navar/navar and some old and unvisited maps. If you find a map
that needs "flooring" or just has got out of date/out of touch with the
current level of balance, please tell either AV or I and something will be
done as soon as possible =). Monster balancing for maps has also been taking
place.
Very recently crossedit has come into the spot light. It really needs fixing
up, the call goes out to anyone who is interested etc. as this is quite
important, if we can make it easy to make maps, more maps will be created
=). I feel the same way about monsters, I nice "monster creator" would be
cool which perhaps could also include "weapon smithery" and "player maker"
=).

Clients
Currently in production are the dxclient, which is being produced by
MichToen, and a new linux client which is still very much in alpha stage and
may not be seen for some time yet. More than likely after the dxclient. Alot
of game issues are coming up here, and if you have an issue with simple
interface stuff, im sure MichToen would be very interested to here your
idea.

Servers
Simply needs to be further optimized. If anyone has any skill in networking
code etc etc =). Any graphics would be MOST welcomed even if it is just a
sketch, the more monsters... the merrier =). Some issues regarding expanding
of the server to a larger market of also cropped up.. see Mark's posts.


Well this is about all I can think of, perhaps this information should be
posted on the main page of crossfire.real-time.com? Alot of new players are
appearing, especially on MiDS server, for which we are very greatful.
Crossfire is a rapidly expanding game and we are always wanting more
developers for windows or linux (or even Mac ;)). Well done everyone, keep
up the good work.

dnh