[CF-Devel] Request for formulae/art/maps

[emaillist+cfdev at dogphilosophy.net]

On Monday 11 November 2002 02:55 am, Tim Rightnour wrote:
>
     
      So, I've committed some stuff to the alchemy code today, that allows a much
     
     >
     
      greater flexibility and variety of things to be done with it.  If possible,
     
     >
     
      I'd like to get some new stuff in there to show off this feature.  If any
     
     >
     
      of this piques your interest, please feel free to contribute.
     
     
Good timing - I just discovered how much fun it is to add new things to 
Crossfire.  I haven't looked much at the alchemy system, so my suggestions
could be completely bogus here.  There's also a bunch of standard formulae
in the suggestions to, so feel free to use or alternatively scoff at any
of them...

In general, it might be worth "mapping" some general characteristics of
materials to potential effects when used alchemically.  "In general" (or "by
default") what happens when you include Gold (Cha bonus because it looks
spiffy, perhaps and/or Resistance to Acid?)  I have no idea how hard that
would be to implement, but it might make the results of alchemy a little more
predictable or consistent (i.e. instead of having to list every single
possible combination of (object) + Gold + Philosophical Mercury = (object)
(Cha +1), the system would be able to "guess" that since there's not a
specific formula, that the inclusion of Gold should mean a chance of adding
Cha +1 to the object.  (I wouldn't actually get RID of the formulae - it
shouldn't ALWAYS be predictable what you get...just have a somewhat consistent
way of dealing with "if there's no pre-defined formula, do THIS")

I like the idea of having the ability to do "continued" building of something.
For example, with the jeweler skill, you might start with:
7 gold nuggets => Gold Ingot
Gold Ingot => Ring ("of Adornment")
Ring + 3 Ghost Ectoplasm => Adds "Resist Ghosthit +5" to Ring 
Ring + Unicorn Horn => adds "Resist Poison +5" 

Possibly also the ability to "combine" a smaller item of magical jewelry
with a larger one to increase the larger one's capabilities (and free up
"body-part" slots)?

Ring (Resist Fire +15) + Amulet (ac+1) + 7 Philosophical Mercury => Amulet 
(ac+1)(Resist Fire +15)

(etc.)

Or with smithery, the ability to use the skill to make small incremental
improvements to a weapon (improve weapon speed, dam +1, add damage types with
appropriate hard-to-find ingredients, etc.) or to armor (reduce weight, 
improve armour, improve ac, etc.)  

Sword + 3 Raas Ichor + Philosophical Mercury => Sword with weapon speed 
improved by 1...

or 

Chain Armor + 7 Pixie Dusts + 7 Pixie Wings + Philosophical Mercury => 3/4 
weight chain armor
(This is particularly where a "generic" system might help if it's not already
in there - it'd save having to include every single type of sword in 
otherwise-identical formulae in the list.)
[...]

>
     
      Books.  Perhaps a pile of scrolls could be bound into a book?  Maybe
     
     >
     
      special ingredients could be used, like skin, to make the binding for
     
     >
     
      special books, which could be combined with scrolls or other things to make
     
     >
     
      a tome/grimoire. (literacy)
     
     
Seven seems to be a popular number for the alchemy formulae:

7 Scrolls of Identify + Snake's Skin => Tome of Identify

7 Scrolls of Cure Disease + Snake's Skin => Prayer Book of Cure Disease

etc.

>
     
      Foods.  Different food ingredients might make a meal.  Perhaps a little
     
     >
     
      food with magical seasonings might make some of the more rare artifact
     
     >
     
      foods, like the magic mushrooms.  (woodsman)
     
     
Additionally, the ability to turn "poisonous" materials into edible food

2 Booze of Poison => Booze (non poisonous)

or possibly the ability to make food that also does a small amount of
healing or cures disease:

Roast Bird + Water of the Wise => Chicken Soup (cures disease, +5 hp, +50
food)

>
     
      It would be best, if some of the really cool formulae, required ingredients
     
     >
     
      from multiple skills.  So you might have like a special shield, that is
     
     >
     
      made up of items derrived from each of the other skills, culminating in the
     
     >
     
      "ultimate formulae" for that skill.  This would add an interesting element,
     
     >
     
      as now you might have to gather 30-40 items to make your one item, and
     
     >
     
      would require all of the different skills, or as gros mentioned.. players
     
     >
     
      might work together to pull it off.
     
     
I like this idea a lot.  Also if "incremental" improvements can be supported
without a major code re-write, this feature might similarly encourage player
cooperation.  A heavy duty warrior type with the woodsman skill might team up
with a wizard who knows how to do smithery...

[...]
>
     
      2. Graphics.  Some of the above is going to require new graphics.  There
     
     >
     
      really aren't that many cool foods in the game.  In additon, new graphics
     
     >
     
      for some of the skill items, like the forge, jeweler's bench, desk,
     
     >
     
      pot/pan, bowyer's workbench, and whatever you would make wands on.
     
     
I'll try my hand at the "chicken soup" arch and graphics if anyone wants...

>
     
      In addition, back to weather for a brief second.. The following would be
     
     >
     
      nice:
     
     [...]
>
     
      herbs, flowers, fruited trees.  Things I can plant on the world so people
     
     >
     
      can go out and pick apples and thyme for thier cooking skill.
     
     
A "food generator"?  Not a bad idea...

[...]
>
     
      Farm animals.  Cows, sheep, goats, pigs, horses.  For example, the ogre
     
     >
     
      royalty quest mentions ogres killing sheep.  Wouldn't it be nice if there
     
     >
     
      was a little farm by the ogre cave that had a bunch of sheep wandering
     
     >
     
      about?  Plus, you could slaughter them for ingredients! :)  If we ever get
     
     >
     
      transports working, maybe you could rent a horse and ride it to navar.
     
     
Hmmmm....

Wild Bear + 7 Foods (+ Woodsman skill) => Pet Bear? :-)

Am I right in thinking that one could make a "pick-up-able" animal with
nothing more than the appropriate flag (no_pick 0) in the arch, without any
other code changes?  Or would something screwy happen when the animal tries to
move while in the player's inventory?

>
     
      3. Maps.  [...]
     
     
>
     
      Additional ideas welcome.
     
     
I've started playing with adding spells and items to Crossfire (I'll post the
URL where I've been putting what documentation for doing so that I can come up
with in another mail momentarily), and I'm finding I'd like to have a "Crazy
Peddy's Experimental Equipment Shop" - where the admin can define a "list 
experimental_equipment" in the treasures and have only items from that list
appear in the shop.  That way, when someone wants to get a new spell tried out 
by players, players can find "Tome of NewSPell" at that shop for sale.  Same
goes for new weapon objects, wands, scrolls (including scrolls of [some new
skill]), foods, and so on.  Not necessarily more than one or two at a time
from the list, just so that players know that they can sometimes find strange
and interesting new experimental things there that may or may not be useful,
but are often at least fun to play with.  ("'Tome of Cause Milk?'  This I've
got to see....")