[CF-Devel] town portal (RE: CVS commit: maps/city/misc)

[Yann Chachkoff]

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     ===== Original Message From Tim Rightnour <
      
      root at garbled.net
      
      > =====
     
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     On 26-Feb-02 Yann Chachkoff wrote:
     
     >>
     
      If I remember well, there was a crossfire compile-time option to activate
     
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      "backfire effects" for failed spellcasting
     
     
<snip>
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     Basically, here is the problem:
     
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     Player A fights monster A:
     
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     Monster A can fire lightning at the player all day long, with no fear.  if 
     
     the
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     monster dies, it doesn't care, it repops.
     
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     I suppose you imply that monsters got an infinite amount of mana. Did I ever 
said they should ? (Unless, of course, the spells are "natural abilities", 
like the dragon breath)

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     Player A however, has limited mana, and if it dies, it's a very upsetting
     
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     thing.  The player has a spell which he painstakingly learned, and now
     
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     attempts to use against the monster trying to kill him.  Oh look, he rolled
     
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     00, he just blew his arm off.
     
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     The backfire effect should of course be a function of the player and spell 
levels. I simply can't imagine why a player should be killed when missing a 
level 1 spell.
Now, if the "painstakingly learned spell" is a difficult one (Very powerful 
spells like "Meteor Shower", "Resurrect" or "Chained Lightning"), I think it 
should be somewhat dangerous to cast. Note that I'm not the only one to think 
so - in many commercial RPGs, high level spellcasting is quite risky, and it 
does not seem to upset players at all.

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     This is just like critical hits/misses.
     
     Not really, as the critical hit/misses usually do not take the levels of the 
player and the attempt into account. Critical hits are usually triggered when 
you roll a special value on the dice (like 00 or 99).

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     I suggested the void, because it's a specific solution to a specific problem,
     
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     one which was being abused on our mud, and looks to be abused on CF.  If you
     
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     think about it, the portal is a kind of "cheat" for the player.  He can avoid
     
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     things that he would normally have to encounter.  The player is willing to 
     
     risk
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     the void, in order to cheat past the rest of the maze.  However, a normal
     
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     spell, like say meteor storm, is not a form of cheating, it's just a high 
     
     level
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     mage causing lots of fire.  The void is designed to balance the cheat out.
     
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     I do not understand how Town Portal could be used as a cheat to pass over a 
whole maze, since the player needs to reach the end of it to cast the Portal.
Now I admit that the Town Portal offers the opportunity of a "convenient 
escape" - but that's also the case for Word of Recall and, to a lesser extend, 
for Dimension Door and Amulets of LifeSaving. Should we consider them as 
"cheats" also ?

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     I don't mind if you take a certain spell, and find a logical and just 
     
     backfire
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     for it, on an individual basis.  Think of the void as "a rift in space time
     
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     caused by the portal".  But I think each spell should be evaluated one at a
     
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     time, and determined if it needs a backfire or not.  I do not agree that we
     
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     should penalize spellcasters in general.
     
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     I am not opposed to the idea of binding specific effects to specific spells. 
However, I think the problem is more general than just an unbalanced spell. 
What about spells like Word of Recall, Holy Word, Burning Hands, Create Bomb, 
Summon Avatar, Sanctuary, Restoration for example ? Should we also apply a 
specific solution to each of those ?

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     As yourself, why is it that nobody runs the backfire code.  :)
     
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     Maybe that's because the option is disabled by default and most people never 
change anything in the configure file ?
And, as I said, I do not think we should retake the current system as it is - 
but using it as a workbasis for a more general and flexible system.

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