[CF List] levels & spells

[Mark Wedel]

Steven Lembark wrote:
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      That would cut down but not eliminate the problem. Network
     
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      latency can cause the repeat messages to still cause problems.
     
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      One approach would be for the server to send a heartbeat-
     
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      type message indicating that the last event is still
     
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      continuing (e.g., you're still praying). That would limit
     
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      the traffic to one event per, say, second. Until a new
     
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      message gets passed.
     
     
 the index method also doesn't work when a large percentage of the message may
be the monster your are killing (eg, define code 1234 as 'Your flaming aura zaps
the %s' saves some amount of bandwidth, but is still costly if that %s is
'greater demon'.  Unless things like greater demon and all the other names are
also tagged.

 It should be mentioned that the server DOES have the functionality to repeat
messages.  The problem is that too many messages pass the NDI_UNIQUE flag to
draw_info.  The reason NDI_UNIQUE exists is that it preserves ordering and
reduces latency of sending that particular message (if NDI_UNIQUE is not set, it
may be several ticks before the server sends the message to the client).  The
other reason is that if the message is really unique (say a shop listing), you
don't want it invalidating the cache of messages the server is buffering.

 Obviously, things like the praying messages and some spells should not be using
the NDI_UNIQUE flag.  a simple fix to the problem.

Scott Wedel wrote:
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      As for experience levels, sounds to me like the table of experience needed
     
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      per level should be contained in a configuration file read at startup that
     
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      can easily be editted.  The cf distribution could contain a couple of different
     
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      sample configs with comments on how each affects gameplay.
     
     
 This is a good idea - compiled in values are generally not good.  IT should be
mentioned that in the past, I believe the level differences were much more, but
there were problems with that.

 Increasing the level limit IMO is a bad idea.  As it is now, most of the game
is designed for levels less than 50 (spells you get, etc).  Increasing the level
limit is not likely to do anything but delay by a minor amount of people getting
maxed out, and even more whining that 'there should be more level 200 dungeons
out there) and what not.