[CF List] New experience system on metalforge

[Steven Lembark]

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      I wonder how much of the dislike of cooperative questing comes from the
     
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      fact that the combat system and much map design sort of discourages this
     
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      style of play.
     
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        The crossfire design probably isn't great for multiplay for the various
     
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      reasons:
     
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      1) Many dungeons have narrow passages, so you really can't get two people
     
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      side by side bashing on that monster.
     
     
Depends on the spells: destruction, for example, isn't a problem.
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      2) Monsters vs player hp is a large disparity - this basically means that
     
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      most attacks players do will kill (or seriously harm) other players -
     
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      thus, it becomes very dangerous to get in the way of another players
     
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      attack (be it weapon or spell).
     
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      3) There isn't any way right now to cast spells over/around a player in
     
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      front of you.  You can't use the tactic of big tough fighter stands in
     
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      the corrider while   mage sits back and helps with offensive spells like
     
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      many live RPG's allow (if this was possible, point #1 wouldn't be as much
     
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      an issue).
     
     
One way to look at this is that if you stand in front of
people casting spells you're gonna get hit. Dungeons can
work around this (e.g., raffle w/ two ways for warrier &
mage), but most don't.

The tweaks might be better made by adding limited immunities
to spell types from players (see below) or giving

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      4) most combats are over _very_ quickly - either you kill the opposing
     
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      monster in a few seconds, or you don't have much hope.  There are very
     
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      few combats which go on for any amount of time - this also makes
     
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      cooperation harder - if for example you have someone that backs you up
     
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      and casts healing spells, by the time you can tell that other person 'I
     
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      need healing', your probably dead.  So all that person could really do is
     
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      just cast a spell on you every second or two and hope that pacing is
     
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      correct.
     
     
Again, this depends on how you use spells. I've wandered
around helping people get points by paralyzing heavy-duty
monsters while they beat up on them. Net result is that
the party system worked nicely. I can also cast protection
and stat spells at the person before they dive through a
door. This allows a wraith, say, to be useful around dragons
(albeit at a safe distance). I can also stand around casting
heal spells at certian rate; they may be somewhat wasted but
will help whomever.

It might help if things like x-ray vision could be cast at
another char; would make for nice alliances between magic
users and warriers/thieves. That or add a class of "party"
spells which could only be cast at other players (e.g.,
speed). Certian mage/priest classes could learn these
spells and form alliances with warriers.

There are also useful alliances based on shared immuities (e.g.,
between fireborn and Quet'z who can burn things to their heart's
delight). It might be that adjusting come of the god/char
attributes to allow, say, elves immunity to some Devourers
spells might allow elves and undead to form useful alliances.


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      Point #4 can be corrected pretty easily - easy enough to just add some
     
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      multiplier that is applied to all damage (eg, 0.50) - that would double
     
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      the length of combats for example.  However, for fairness, everything
     
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      else that adjusts hp also needs to get hit by this multiplier
     
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      (regeneration, curing spells, etc).  Could be just as easy to change that
     
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      multiplier for number of HP the characters/monsters have (if you double
     
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      everyones hit points, combats shoudl also take twice as long, and don't
     
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      need to much with regen/healing spell logic).
     
     
Most of the issues really are with dungeons: there are
several maps that require groups and support party play
well. It may be that the biggest hurdle is the map
design software, which encourages single-player maps.

Fix for that might be to have some people who are really
intersted in designing a top-notch map maker to go at it.



--
Steven Lembark                               2930 W. Palmer
Workhorse Computing                       Chicago, IL 60647
                                            +1 800 762 1582