[CF-Devel] Future crossfire changes/projects

[Mark Wedel]

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      Change: Improved animations
     
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      -Details: Currently, you don't _see_ anything when you hit a monster with
     
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      your weapon or with karate/punching/etc. The idea is to create animations
     
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      showing your character using his weapon. This system may also be implemented
     
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      for some 'critical' monsters.
     
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      -Pros: The game will definitely look better. It will be easier for other
     
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      players to see if your own character is actually fighting or just waiting
     
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      before a monster. Do not involve any changes on the Crossfire protocol/client.
     
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      -Cons: May require extra CPU time to handle all those new animations.
     
     
 To me, the biggest con on this is for the new images that show this.  We could
generalize it some (ie, one image for each class which shows an attck, whether
hand to hand or via weapon, one for casting spells, etc).

 I don't think cpu time will be affected much by this - whenever the appropriate
action is done, the function that deals with that action could update the face.

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      Change: New Map Features
     
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      - Details: It is not always easy to create a map. If you want to add your own
     
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      monsters or treasures for example, you may not always find a suitable picture
     
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      in standard archetypes. The idea here is to allow new monsters/objects/etc.
     
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      to be created and saved completely (including XPM/PNG) inside a map or even
     
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      another object. Another map extension: the ability to take current time into
     
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      account (for example to cast nightfall when time>22:00 and daylight when
     
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      time>7:00). Why not even support for a weather system ? And a music support
     
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      (a music tag containing the song to play) ?
     
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      - Pros: New monsters/objects submissions would be much more easier since the
     
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      only thing you need to get is the map. Standard atmosphere would be improved
     
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      a lot with 'real' nightfall.
     
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      - Cons: This may also mean a general increase of map sizes if lots of custom
     
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      objects are created. May require extra CPU work to handle weather/night.
     
     
 The day/night is one of those things that may be nice to add.  Crossfire (IMO)
would operate at a faster timescale (not in sync with earth), so that even if
you always played at night, the time in crossfire would vary.

 Shops would close, other things may open depending on time.  Depending on level
done, this could mean lots of updates for objects/maps, but nothing really hard.

 I've addressed music in another mail - I'm not really big on it.  I also have a
feeling that if we are telling people 'download this 300 megs to get some
music', not a lot of people are going to bother downloading that 300 megs.

 I'm not sure I like the idea of embedding images into the map itself, but
certainly having something like a /maps/images directory which holds additions
could work - when server loads a map that has a referance to an image it does
not have, it checks that directory for the image and updates its information
accordingly.  This may require some changes (I think some of the code presumes
the image name -> number is in alphabetical order and uses that for finding the
images).  But that could be changed to not be terribly inefficient.

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      Change: Improved Alchemy System
     
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      - Details: The Alchemy is not often used in Crossfire. This may be because it
     
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      is seen as somewhat too difficult for too limited effects. Why not extending
     
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      its possibilities ? I think of a system allowing you to create objects that
     
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      have the added abilities of ingredients used to make them (ex: Sword + Potion
     
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      of Dex + Potion of Cha = Sword (Dex+1)(Cha+1)).
     
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      - Pros: This may make Alchemy more interesting and fun to play. New fields of
     
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      investigation for mages would be opened.
     
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      - Cons: May disturb playbalance a lot.
     
     
 I think some of the problem is that if you play honestly, you'll never find
useful recipes either.  I think just having more information on what to make
with alchemy may improve how often it is used.

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      Change: Improved Combat System
     
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      - Details: The current combat system is very simple: you run into a monster
     
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      to hit. It may be interesting to improve this a bit by allowing special
     
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      combat techniques and critical hits. Monsters could be
     
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      immune/protected/vulnerable against some special combat techniques. In short,
     
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      the idea is to create an equivalent of spells but in the field of fighting.
     
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      - Pros: Make the warriors much more fun to play with. May allow more tactical
     
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      play.
     
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      - Cons: May become too complicated for many players to use.
     
     
 I largely agree with this con - especially if it remains as it is now, with
most maps packed with lots of monsters - you're probably not going to want to
try out these special techniques.  I think the biggest problem is the speed of
what crossfire is played - you don't have much time to experiment, so I think
generally, players will find what attack works best and stick with it and not
try to change things in combat.  I may be wrong on that.

 I think for things to be more tactical, things would need to be at a slower
pace.  When right now you kill the monster by attackign it for 10 seconds, there
isn't a lot of time to try different things.  If it took 30 seconds, then maybe
that would be enough time to try some different things out.