[CF-Devel] New Skill System

Wed Dec 4 13:21:49 CST 2002

Here are the clarifications to my previous post.

>

      > 1. you start with either a 'class' with a couple skills or get a equal

     >

      > amount of 'skill gems' and there is a skill altar in the hall of

     selection.
>

     >

        Idea of 'skill gems' or any object you spend to get skills bugs me -

     I'll go
>

      into more detail on that below.

This unfortunate term comes from other discussions, but what is meant here
is a visible,  non-dropable, inventory only object.  It could also be
invisible if there were facility in the client to show the number of them in
inventory to the player somehow.
This is a convienent description for a method of tracking enhancement
entitlements directly in opposition to using xp.

Skippin ahead to item six for a minute:

>

      > 6. there are skill altars dotted around the world (and a little mini one

     in
>

      > the random maps) where you can use your gems to increase your skills (x

     >

      > number of gems gives you a skill level depending on the skill -altar

     gets
>

      > input from player 'say list skills, say increase fire magic', checks for

     the
>

      > skill force and the skills table for cost or available levels - removes

     >

      > gems...) [...]

     >

        I'm not sure which point you were envisioning.

This requires more explanantion on my part.  What the skill altar does is
provide a place to spend your skill enhancements.  Every skill altar is the
same (perhaps better to call them training altars).  You stand on the altar,
you can get a list of all the skills ('say list skills') and you can spend
your enhancements to buy or raise your skills ('say raise missile-combat',
or 'say learn 'meditation').  This can be done through a client interface or
as I originally though just through the regular message window.  There
should be some flexability in this so that some skills you will have to
find/learn (via scroll) before you can use the altar to advance them (for
example some special cool magic paths or fighting styles)
The altar would have to perform basic player interaction(give and get
messages), item checking (looking for required number of 'gems' and existing
skill levels) and move gems directly in and out of inventory(update gems and
skill levels).  This could be done in python plugin pretty easily as a
prototype, but imagine it should be done in C.  The player information could
be stored as a single player information force or as individual forces sort
of like it is now.

>

      > 3. every level or so you get a skill gem

     >

     >

        I don't generally like the idea of skill gems or other 'spending'

     mechanisms
>

      for the character unless they are not done as objects.  The problem I see

     as
>

      doing objects the character spends are many fold: 1) They could give them

     to
>

      other characters.  2) They might lose them, drop them, sell them, whatever

     else.
>

        3) The idea of gems just magically showing up in your inventory just

     seems a
>

      bit odd to me - it just smacks as too much a way to shortcut writing some

     actual
>

      code to do the same thing.  Point #1 can't be easily solved by making them

     >

      startequip if you want the players to spend them on altars (as the

     startequip
>

      would have them go away before the altar would get a chance to process

     them).
>

     The 'gems' are only here to keep track of how many enhancements you are
entitled to.  Basically during the course of your adventures you will stop
and say 'gee I have three skill enhancements coming to me - better go use
them'  This is also the reason that the 'training' altars would be include
in the random maps - giving you a possible opportunity to train on the road
without having to get back to town.
The point of this is to do away with xp for skills altogether while allowing
for some method of increasing skills (asymetrically -depending on the skills
even)
I am not set on a skill gem system, but it does allow for quick notification
of enhancement purchasing power and provides a good granular system to do it
with (better to see - 'I need 2 skill gems to up my level in prayer or 3 to
up my level in melee combat' than to see - 'I need to move 65472 xp into
prayer, 32223 into meditation'...)
I don't like the idea of pouring xp around different buckets since the only
thing that matters is when the bucket is filled.  I think that if skills are
'levelized' then there is no need for using messy xp transfer.
Oh ya - skill gems would be non-transferrable, non dropable and not
stealable (or all hell would break loose I am sure).

>

     >

      > 4. you can learn some special skills (unlisted) at 'level 1' by scrolls

     >

      > still.

     >

     >

        This (IMO) is almost a different discussion.  How to get new skills and

     how
>

      you advance existing skills does not really need to be related.

This requires some explanantion on my part.  I was not explaining the altar
part enough and therefore this made no sense.
What this was indended to address were:
a: skills that were very basic (no levels - just a single ability)
b; skills that were unique (a special skill that is not available through
the training altar by default - kind of like special spells not available
through shops)

>

     >

        My personal thought is that there will be no great agreement on the best

     way
>

      to learn new skills, so keeping it flexible is probably best (skill

     scrolls
>

      might appear, or the server admin may remove them from random treasure, or

     make
>

      them exceedingly rare, or you have special quest maps, whatever).

Now it would be possible to have the training altar only advance skills and
have getting skills done by some other means but since it would be pretty
easy to make a standard set of skills available at the altars, I would tend
to build this in anyway and then extend the system to check for skills in
inventory in addition to the standard set.

>

     >

     >

      > 5. you have to buy/find spell books to learn spells and learn them

     similar
>

      > way as now (int or wis and general level), but they are cast based on

     your
>

      > skill in that magic area (can't cast or less effect).

     >

     >

        This would basically seem to be the way things are, except there may be

     more
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      magic skills.

Yes I really like the spell book thing, it is fun and is something worth
keeping.

>

     >

      > 7. skills are put on a table and redone to work on a level system (e.g.

     >

      > level 4 in two handed weapon gives you x to hit..., level 12 in

     meditation
>

      > gives you x hp and sp back, level 9 praying gets you x grace back...)

     >

     >

        Fair enough.  All this doesn't necessarily need to be in a table, but

     the idea
>

      of skills of different levels giving different abilities makes lots of

     sense.
>

      Eg, if you decide to be level 20 bowyer, you can make magical arrows or

     whatever.
>

     I think there is support for this idea in of itself.  I think you can get a
lot of mileage out of this and it does solve the problem of having many
single shot skills to advance- for example combining literacy, inscribe and
a general identify skill into a single skill (maybe lore or someting) would
be cool.  You could then get a handle on the lieracy level of items (instead
of having so many of different readable item literacy settings you could
have say 4 or 5 different literacy levels for items, (like basic, general,
medium, advanced, and sagely.) and pad out the skill with inscribing magic
levels, identifying some rare items and what not as the skill level is
increased.  This in addition to using the skill level itself in a
calculation for learning a spell or something.