[crossfire] Re: In-game games

[Mark Wedel]

  As per some others comments, I don't quite as much see the point of solo in 
games, but I suppose if players find them interesting and it doesn't complicate 
things too much, no real issue not to add them (but those could be big if's, 
especially if it requires additional client and protocol support).

  That said, I wouldn't mind seeing lockpicking expanded/improved upon.  Right 
now, it is arguably a pretty useless skills - you can always bash down doors, 
and often, you can bash them faster than you can lockpick.

  Various thoughts I have, which probably wouldn't be hard to do:
1) Add more door archetypes - unlike the special doors that require special 
keys, these would be normal doors, just have a lot more hp and/or perhaps 
resistances (trying to bash through a steel door should be pretty difficult - 
difficult enough that perhaps lock picking would be a time game)

2) Related to above, these doors have different levels of difficult to lockpick. 
  Likewise, perhaps add more varieties to the standard keys we have - for steel 
doors, you need the steel keys, etc - thus finding all these key combos may be 
moer difficult.

3) Lock picking should be based on difficulty of door.  Add code for 
catestrophic failure (you break your picks).  Thus, you can't go and try to pick 
that level 50 door with level 1 lock picking and figure if you try enough, it 
will work.  It might, but you may go through 20 sets of lockpicks.  Related 
would be higher difficulty doors give you more exp when you do succeed.

4) Perhaps controversial, but allow lockpicking of the special doors.  If you 
have level 50 lock picking, why not give a chance for players to open those 
doors without needing the special key?  IMO, default behaviour would be the door 
remain impassable - the change here is to really allow the lock picking - maps 
can then be updated to update the doors for this based on the difficulty of the 
map (eg, a map targeted at level 10 players would have the door difficulty set 
so that players of that level have a so/so chance of succeeding, and same true 
for maps for level 50 players - that map would have doors of higher difficulty). 
      If a player wants to play a less combat intensive character, let them (one 
could envision interesting party dynamics - I'll lure away the big nasty monster 
that has the key but I can't kill while you go and pick the lock and get the 
treasure)

  Some of these, if done, would be very easy to integrate into the random maps, 
while other points would require maps to be updated, but that is often the case 
with new ideas/objects.