[CF-Devel] A brief introduction, and some thoughts
Scott Barnes
reeve at ductape.net
Sun Sep 16 11:42:42 CDT 2001
On Sun, 16 Sep 2001 02:46:44 Tim Rightnour wrote:
>
Hi!
>
>
Before I started just spewing wish lists onto your list, I thought I'd
>
introduce myself briefly. I'm a long-time player of crossfire, on and
>
off,
>
since about 93. I am an avid AD&D and nethack/moria player, and used to
>
be one
>
of the primary programmers for GENERIC diku mud. I am also an offical
>
developer for the NetBSD OS.
>
>
Now, for some of my thoughts about crossfire. I have a separate
>
proposal that
>
I'm going to send after this message with some concrete stuff I'd like
>
to write
>
up a patch for.
>
>
1) Lythander sucks. You get stealth, luck (useless, more on that
>
later), and
>
attuned to missiles (nearly useless), and some other minor things. In
>
return,
>
you get a -40 to Acid and Poison. -40 to poison is really bad, as alot
>
of low
>
level maps have scorpions and spiders, which are basically instant
>
death.
Actually, I prefer Lythander for low level characters. For one, the
improved magic regen and resistance to confusion are very useful. Plus
Lythander seems to uncurse things more often than most of the others.
>
>
2) Anyone can worship any god. A troll can worship lythander, an elf
>
Gnarg,
>
etc etc. I don't think we should restrict it completely, but there
>
should be
>
some racial restrictions on what you can worship. A human worshipping
>
an elven
>
god is just plain bizzare. (an elf wannabe?)
Agreed.
>
>
3) Weapon types. Earlier someone on the archives had brought up the
>
idea of
>
classifying weapons, such as bludgeoning, slashing, etc. I think that
>
is a
>
really good idea, and one I programmed into my mud. Some benefits that
>
we used:
>
>
a) When I attack with a dagger, and do lots of damage, it says "you
>
smash the
>
troll" How exactly did I "smash" him with a dagger? We can have
>
specific
>
messages for different weapon types, a knife might stab, dagger pierce,
>
sword
>
slash, rapier slice, hammer crush, etc etc.
Very good idea.
>
>
b) The above could be extended to attack types. When I attack with
>
fire, I
>
should singe, burn, ravage. Acid might burn or sizzle. This adds
>
flavor to
>
the game. You don't simply hit the monster, now you are clawing him, or
>
stinging him, or he is doing that to you! It's not all hit/miss, it
>
adds
>
character to the fight.
Ditto.
>
>
c) Certain monsters can be immune to certain weapon types. A pudding
>
might
>
divide when you slash it, but not crush. A dragon might not care if you
>
stab
>
it. A monster might also take more damage from a certain weapon type,
>
like a
>
slash might be really dangerous to a soft bodied kobold. (stabs might
>
suck for
>
beholders)
I SO want this feature :)
>
>
d) Classes can have weapon type restrictions. Priests can't wield
>
rapiers,
>
they get crushing/bludgeoning weapons. Thieves can't carry warhammers,
>
knights
>
don't use knives.
I was thinking of suggesting that myself.
>
>
e) You can use weapon type as a skill. (this is something I implemented
>
on my
>
mud) Every class/race starts out with an innate skill in N weapon
>
types. For
>
example, a quez might be *really* good at clawing, but not as good at
>
swordsmanship. (looking at how skills are done, this might be difficult
>
to
>
implement) This means a thief could learn to use a hammer, but would
>
have to
>
slowly work himself up to it.
Definitly a good idea.
>
>
4) More skills, more uses for them. Some of the skills are nice, but
>
generally
>
not useful. Take karate. If I've learned karate, maybe every now and
>
then I
>
might kick the monster while fighting. Maybe thieves making an initial
>
attack
>
against a peaceful monster might have a random chance of a backstab
>
ocurring,
>
doing extra damage in the first hit (if you were hiding, perhaps you
>
could
>
backstab an aggro monster).
Karate is nice for chars that can't use weapons, like fireborns and monks.
But yes, I think more skills would be a definate plus, and I'd like to
add that specifically I'd like to see more personality skills added.
>
>
Maybe divide missile weapons into bows and crossbows. Just because I'm
>
good at
>
one doesn't mean I'm good at the other. Add more missile weapons, like
>
slings.
That's a neat idea, but that might be going a little too far.
>
>
Perhaps new fighting styles, like judo, where I might throw an opponent
>
a few
>
squares away, or stun him temporarily. Perhaps punching could randomly
>
KO a
>
monster, and put him to sleep.
Things like that need to be added to the game ASAP!
>
>
Maybe a warrior skill that lets me fight with two swords, or a thief
>
skill that
>
lets me fight blind with no penalties, or an evasion skill that lets me
>
evade
>
attacks better when I'm not fighting back.
Cool ideas.
>
>
5) Emotions. On the mud we had emotions, that players could use to
>
convey
>
thoughts to eachother. I might nod my head, or sneer at another player,
>
or
>
slap him for a challenge. These are little things, but they make the
>
multiplayer interactivity more interesting. It can add an emotional
>
attachment
>
to the game, where other players actually interact with eachother,
>
instead of
>
just teaming up and killing madly.
Wow, that's pretty slick. Very spiffy indeed.
>
>
>
Just some thoughts. I'd be interested to hear feedback on some of this
>
stuff.
>
Alot (not all) of it I can produce some amount of code for, if it's
>
something
>
desireable.
Well, I know this feedback was more of a "me too" than anything, but at
least you know I agree with you :)
>
>
---
>
Tim Rightnour <
root at garbled.net
>
>
NetBSD: Free multi-architecture OS
http://www.netbsd.org/
>
NetBSD supported hardware database:
http://mail-index.netbsd.org/cgi-bin/hw.cgi
>
_______________________________________________
>
crossfire-devel mailing list
>
crossfire-devel at lists.real-time.com
>
https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/crossfire-devel
>
--
-- --
Reeve the cat
----BEGIN FORTUNE----
You had mail. Paul read it, so ask him what it said.
----END FORTUNE----
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12
GCS d? s: a? C++++ UL++++ P+ L++++ E- W++ N o K- w---
O M-- V-- PS+++ PE Y PGP t+++ 5 X+ R+++ tv+ b+++ DI++ D+
G e* h-- r+++ y**
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
More information about the crossfire
mailing list