[CF-Devel] A brief introduction, and some thoughts

[Tim Rightnour]

On 29-Sep-01 Mark Wedel wrote:
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       The problem with doing this is that it is a lot of work.  IMO, the easiest
     
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      path
     
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      would be first to change the internal representation of objects to the norm
     
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      form, and have the object loader do the conversion (which really means
     
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      populating into the new fields), and write out in new form.  Then work can be
     
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      done to actually update all the arch files to the new form.
     
     
So.. I get the jist of what you are proposing.. and I like it..  What I don't
fully comprehend is the underlying structure behind it.  If you have this
thought out in really gory detail.. I'd like to see some examples of what a
ring or sword might look like in your new setup.  I want to implement this
ASAP, and would be willing to either undertake it alone, or with someone elses
help (preferrably).

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       In terms of slash/bash/poke, if you really wanted added reality, you could
     
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      actually make that different attack types - basically split phyiscal into
     
     
See my other post.  Basically, I agree 100%.

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       True.  But unless there are advantages to certain attack types, I think the
     
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      likely scenario is people will just use swords starting from a very early
     
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      time,
     
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      as I'm pretty sure most of the really good weapons out in the game are
     
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      swords.
     
     
Well. as you say later.. the right thing to do is to go into the monsters and
fix them up WRT the new attacktypes.  In addition, it might inspire some
mapmakers to make some new artifacts of non-sword style.  It definately can be
done, and as it is worked more and more into the maps, I think it will balance
out nicely.  I especially like the idea of having certain gods grant bonuses to
certain weapon types.  Perhaps a priest of Gaea would be frowned upon by his
god for choosing to fight with a sword.

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       Presumably, the messages won't be any worse then is currently there.
     
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      If message length was really a problem, you could let the client do most of
     
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      it,
     
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      ie, the server sends something like ATMSG 15 orc firebrand, and the client
     
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      looks
     
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      up message 15 which is 'you singe the %s with your %s', and does the right
     
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      thing.  Aside from bandwidth savings, it also would let some of the
     
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      localization
     
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      (if desired) get moved to the client, which probably makes more sense than
     
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      trying to have the server do localization.
     
     
The problem there is simply one of having to update 7-8 clients.  It's getting
to be too much.  Right now, my current patch has a file called attackmessages
or somesuch, which is loaded like the formulae file, and the attackmessages are
contained therein.  Most of them aren't too long, and the players who have seen
them seem to like them.  If the DM thinks they are annoying.. he can easily
edit them.

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       Yep.  And making shields better is probably not the right approach here. 
     
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      This
     
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      could be done by some trickery - for example, if we ever add the
     
     
Thats a good idea.  You could also just make the offhand weapon not grant any
bonuses.  ;)

---
Tim Rightnour <
     
     root at garbled.net
     
     >
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