[crossfire] alchemy ideas (was: Idea for skills)

[Anton Oussik]

On 28/11/05, Mark Wedel <mwedel at sonic.net> wrote:
> Nicolas Weeger wrote:
> > Btw, it could be used for "secondary" skills (alchemy, woodsman, ...)
> > skills only, not main combat ones. This way no penalty for
> > fighters/wizards, just for players wanting to do other things than combat :)
>
>   But I then wonder if an actual cap on exp/skills is needed, or if it would be
> good enough to give exp bonuses in specific skills for specific quests.

Now that you say it, it seems like a plausable idea. Alchemy,
woodsman, etc. are all closer to knowlege than to something else, so
players can level in them like they do with academic subjects in real
life.

At the moment the main problem with it is:
Eiher it is very very tedious to level, and takes many months to get
to making simple potions, as you try to stockpile some ingredients,
then eventually after dying several times and spending several
thousand on extra ingredients, cauldron access, etc, make something
that is cursed, and costs 4 platinum to sell.
Or you can spend a few very tedious days iding altar ingredients and
get to the point of making something usable.

First approach is far too boring for anyone to seriously consider, and
I think second approach is a cheat in a way, and needs substantial
financial backing.

Either way there is not much incentive to do so apart from selling the
items for wealth, as by the time you can make the items you can either
find them in dungeons, or can afford to buy them in shops.

So, I suggest some interesting changes to how these skills can work,
some alchemy-related changes in group A, and some general change in
gorup B, which are not essential, but would complement alchemy
changes. By "alchemy" here I mean alchemy and all related skills.

A   Alchemy related changes:
  1. Do not award experience for identifying items. I find the fact
that you can make summoned water (or get things from altar) and then
say "What is it here? Ah, yes, here is a bottle of water! I now know
more! What is it here? Ah, yes, here is a bottle of water! I now know
more! What is it here? ..." quite silly, and would have complained
about it long ago if it was not the only plausable way of raising
experience at lower levels.

  2. Players should only recieve more experience for alchemy by making
formulae that are of difficulty comparable to that of their alchemy
level. This is explained by the fact that you do not learn more by
doing something you can already do well again and again. It is not
challenging, and does not teach you anything new.

  3. Players would only recieve experience up to a point (say, level
19, 39, 59, ...), after which they need to do an "exam" (I propose a
combination of oral and practical, I was never much of a fan of
written exams) to get the next level (and academic title), after which
they would be able to get into the next institution, be able to make
cooler stuff, and earn more experience and wealth. If institutions
that taught them were dotted around world (so to level alchemists
would have to move from place to place throughout their life) players
would also be encouraged to explore.

  4. However this does not encourage interaction between players, as
you would end up having the alchemy crowd completely ignore the normal
people, and so to compensate I propose that alchemy generated items do
not sell well in shops (if at all?), and so to generate wealth
alchemists would need to sell the items to other players. However if
shops and altars continue to readily sell the items, or items are
plentiful in the wild, this idea would never succeed, and so
alchemy-generatable items should be removed from auto-replenished
shops and altars, and be made rare in the dungeons.

  5. Also, the institutions can act like hubs to alchemy-centered
quest hubs, which would be mostly puzzle solving or humorous (eg.
deriving ingredients to the next formula you are learning by solving a
puzzle, and then getting an xp bonus when you succeed, or "Our
neighbours complained to the city authorities that our emissions are
dangerous to the health. They reported the smoke causes mutations with
some other magical side effects. Go clean it up." for a more
combat-oriented quest.). Since these quests should offer substantial
experience in alchemy awarded (extra bonus that mwedel suggested),
they should only be allowed to completed once. I'm not sure if the
current quest system can accomodate this readily.

  6. To compensate for the difficulty of advancing formulae should be
changed to use more findable ingredients, as at the moment people
simply do not bother - to level up making complicated potions you will
never find enough ingredients, no matter how much you look and even
hire others to look for you. If difficult potions are made difficult
only by their difficulty it will add much more incentive for people to
do them, especially now that most "alternative" formulae have been
cursed to failure by the forces above...

  7. Another incentive that can be added is some alchemy-only items
that can not be found in dungeous, such as cool swords and armour
plauers would want to buy for good money. Ingredients for those should
be rare, but it should be made known what they are, so players know
what to look for.

I see most of the work here as map-making, as if this is to work it
would need something like 5 different institutions per skill, each
offering about 10 quests, so it is a lot of work.

B   General changes:
  1. Item wear would work really nicely with this, since players would
be in constant need of new items. Rare artefact armour and swords
should not age quickly if at all, but permanent items should either be
not as effective items that wear out, or only be avaliable at very
high levels (100+), all other things should wear with use, and become
less effective and fall apart, therefore keeping alchemists in job,
and generating a working economy, where figher people do dungeous,
find wealth, spend wealth on buying new items etc. from alchemists,
alchemists spend their wealth getting themselves better items and
advancing themselves.

2. Buildable land plots would enable player owned shops and workshops
to be set up, therefore establishing a proper economy for the game. It
could also be used for new skills such as farming, foresting, etc. to
make a stable wealth source, and a complete self-supporting economy.

3. Transportation improvements would enable a "trader" player class to
emerge - someone who can pilot a horsecart or a ship (or maybe even a
hot air baloon very slowly) loaded with goods, and sell them between
areas, although most probably trade between player owned shops listed
in B2. For this to work teleportation between areas should be
disabled, and conventional methods of travel should be used to get
around, but maybe with some improvements. For example directors could
be placed around the roads, so to travel along a road, a player simply
needs to step onto the road, and they will be carried along it, until
they step off. Likewise, shipping routes can be made with directors.