[CF-Devel] Adding New Stuff (again) - Requests and suggestions

[crossfire-devel-admin at archives.real-time.com]

Finally had a chance to start playing with Crossfire again...

Looking at the "what new stuff do you want to see in Crossfire" poll 
at the website, it looks like there is quite a bit of interest in
seeing new spells, skills, races, and monsters.

One problem I run into trying to add new things is the fact that MOST
of them require recompiling from scratch - and getting anyone else
to try them out requires generating a diff and talking someone else
into also recompiling from scratch (and hoping CVS hasn't changed in
the relevant areas in the meantime...).  Realistically, this means
only the person who created the new "thing" would ever try it out, and
nobody on a dial-up line would ever be able to contribute effectively at
all (as running a server on a dial-up line is not as simple to keep up long
enough for anyone else to try it out...)

While this is unavoidable in some cases, I think it'd be helpful to have
support for reading "external update" files for any of the data files that
are read on startup (such as the treasures file, the archetypes file, etc.).

This way, if someone generated a new race (requiring nothing more than
new arch's, barring any completely-new abilities that can't be 
defined there), anyone who wanted to try it out would need only drop
the generated "add-on" files containing the extra archetypes-file info and
extra treasures-file info into the appropriate place and restart the server.

Similarly, it would be helpful if more of the "generic" functionality were
to be split out of the source code and into configuration files/arches (such
as hand-to-hand attacks, the "generic" bullet/bolt/ball/cone spells, creatures
summoned by different summon-type spells, etc.) would make it easier to
contribute new variations for testing and evaluation for inclusion in the
"real" source.  As I recall, all of those categories in the game are really 
defined by external config files, but it is currently still necessary to
edit header and source files to add the names (and recompile), which cuts 
out a lot of potential testing of new spells.  I don't know how difficult
this would be do do in practice, so I assume it's incredibly easy for any of
the official developers and therefore I demand that it be done immediately.
:
     
     -)
     
     
(I'm still surprised that there's no "biting" HtH attack, given the number 
of biting monsters [mice, snakes, wolves, etc.] wandering around...)

Finally, some published semi-official guidelines as to what's required
for "acceptable" submissions of new races, spells, foods, materials, etc.
would be helpful, similar to the existing documentation regarding new
skills, e.g. something along the lines of:

"For a new race, one must have graphics for a minimum of 4 directions and
an arch file.  The race's attribute modifiers should not normally got
beyond about +10 or -5 in total, and no individual modification should be
more than +15 or -15.  If the race has any abilities beyond variations
of existing abilities, the submission must include a patch against current CVS 
which supplies the necessary code."

or

"A new hand-to-hand attack must include the appropriate arch, treasure-file
entry, and appropriate attack messages.  Base damage should not exceed
(whatever) and speed should range from (x) to (y)."

and so on.

Thoughts?  Or is this just another gigantic can of metaphorical worms on
top of the ongoing "materials" discussion?  (Incidentally, I LIKE the new
materials system, though obviously some quirks [naming, etc.] still stand
to be worked out...)


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