[CF-Devel] Future crossfire changes/projects

[Mike Ponicki]

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      > imo, crossfire has a much better engine/framework than ultima online or
     
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      > everquest do. maybe that's just because crossfire has been around so long
     
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      > (so as to give developers a chance to implement features), but I think
     
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      > crossfire, as is, has a lot less work to go in being "awesome" than uo and
     
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      > eq do, which have a number of big problems. so I think that crossfire
     
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      > definately can compete with the bigger games, which tend to be released,
     
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      > then stagnate as no new features get added after release. crossfire, on
     
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      > the other hand, has already shown that it will survive indefinately and
     
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      > continue to evolve.
     
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       To be honest, I haven't played either of their commercial games.  I would be
     
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      interested in hearing in more details where crossfire is better.
     
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       I have no doubt that crossfire is worse in other areas.
     
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     well, crossfire is worse in the area of how many players you can have
playing at once. Both the world size and the client/server stuff is a lot
slower. In EQ, and maybe in UO also (been YEARS since I've played it, and
even then, I wasn't in to it much), there's like 1500 people in the game
world. even MUD's similar to crossfire (ex. solace) have at least 10
people playing at once.

In areas where crossfire is better, the magic system is much better under
crossfire. having spells and prayers is a really neat idea. Also, the
whole flow of the game, and the process of leveling up is much better
under crossfire. in EQ, you'd sit in a dungeon, kill a few monsters, then
get killed, which was both extremely frustrating, it was like a two step
forward, one step backwards sort of thing. The camera angles (1st person
was the only useful camera angle) made it hard to keep good awareness of
surroundings. The dungeons were too crowded, and you ended up arguing over
who gets to kill what with all the other players. when you die, you lose
all your items, and have to go back and find your corpse to get
everythig back. Basically, EQ was extremely frustrating! crossfire has
none of these nuances.

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       The one big thing crossfire may have going for it is that since it is open
     
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      source/maps, players can extend it on their own (make new quests and the like).
     
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       Stagnation is a tricky aspect.  At some level, people don't like things
     
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      changing one day to the next - to log in and find out that artifact XYZ is not
     
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      nearly as good as it was would probably upset some players, especially those
     
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      that have XYZ.  So the amount that gets changed in major releases has to be
     
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      carefully controlled.
     
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     I understand that part, but if you look at how much UO and EQ have evolved
since release, it's been very little. They've released expansion packs,
but most players I knew of back when I played didn't buy them since 
they're $20-$30 a pop, plus the cost it takes to play the game ($10 a
month for both games when I played).

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      > remember that the more popular crossfire becomes, the more developers
     
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      > we'll have, and the faster development will go
     
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       There is of course a limit to this (too many cooks in the kitchen syndrome). 
     
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      And even with more developers, major development only moves forward if those new
     
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      developers want to take it in that direction.  If they're more interested in
     
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      making new spells, things don't really move forward that much - you just get
     
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      more features in what you currently have (which is not bad in itself).
     
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     That's true. but all the same, I think having not just actual coders, but
more mappers is a great thing. Having 200 people making maps is a lot
better than 5 people. It just means we'll have to be more organized with
the development, and have some sort of committee to determine what
direction development will go.

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      > I don't really get what you mean about copyright issues
     
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       Basically, everything done has an implied copyright.  This mail message right
     
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      here has an implied copyright.
     
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       Thats not to say that freely distributible files are not available.  Its just
     
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      that the source for this has to carefully be examined.
     
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       Personally, background music has never been a big deal for me.  when I first
     
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      get a commercial game, I may leave it turned on for a little bit, but it doesn't
     
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      take too much playing before I have heard all of them, and quickly tire of it. 
     
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      I think much more important that background music is just a lot more different
     
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      sounds for crossfire (grates cranking open, fountains making noise, some big
     
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      monsters may even make some different sounds).
     
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I think you're definately in the minority there. Background music is a
huge issue for most gamers, myself included. I quickly get bored when I
don't have music playing during a game. When I play crossfire, I have
mp3's going constantly in the background. It's an ok workaround, but I
would much rather have music that's part of the game. heavy metal (all I
listen to) doesn't go along with an RPG too well, not very conducive to
good atmosphere :)

Also, I think stripping the music out of a game (ex. by disabling it)
takes away from what the author was trying to do with the game in the
first place. It'd be like taking the music out of a movie. It'd wreck the
atmosphere, it's as a big a part of the movie as the special effects,
script etc. is. So I think it would add a ton to the value to crossfire
if it had a soundtrack.

I guess what I didn't understand about copyright is how someone making
music for crossfire is any different than people making maps for it. I
mean, maps would have the exact same "implied copyright" as a mod would,
assuming the person made it for crossfire, and didn't mind us using it.

Are there any good mod trackers out there who could write some fantasy
music for use in crossfire?

-Sniper
     
     sniper at citilink.com