[crossfire] Random ideas.
Andrew Fuchs
fuchs.andy at gmail.com
Mon Jul 4 19:19:23 CDT 2005
On 7/4/05, Mark Wedel <
mwedel at sonic.net
> wrote:
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Nicolas Weeger wrote:
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>>2) Does anyone right now really use the magic map command? One thought
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>>I've had would be to change it - instead of just sending the colors, it
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>>instead sends the faces of everything (or maybe limit it to just the
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>>floor/wall/other non living stuff?) this would probably make it useful.
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> Yes, I use it often, to spot monsters on maps, and such.
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> Sending faces could make more detailed maps.
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> Also, maybe we could implement automapping? So player knows some maps
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> already visited, and keep that knowledge between sessions. Maybe with
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> a 'forget' factor, losing some details :)
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Yes, sending faces would make it more detailed - perhaps arguably too
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detailed. OTOH, maybe not that bad if you go by the basis that for many maps if
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you've been there before, you sort of know what is around anyways. Certainly by
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sending faces, the client could use it to fill in a bunch of fog of war spaces.
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As far as automapping, that can almost be done automatically on the client.
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The real issue why it can't easily be done right now is that we hide the
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coordinates that the player is on when they change maps. This is done because
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without doing so, so maps become much simpler (if you can see where all the
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teleporters are taking you, very easy to see where you need to go and where
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you've been).
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A real example of this would be the electric church in brest. If coordinates
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are sent each time you fall through a bit, working your way through the maze
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would be very easy.
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That said, while playing, it can be very annoying to step on a teleporter and
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have your entire known map go away, even when you step back through again. So
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it really becomes balance on convenience vs trying to be secure.
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More random thoughts on client caching fog maps:
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1) If some coder was really clever, they could automatically try to figure out
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what map, and thus what cached fog map to use, based on data they see. A simple
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example is scorn - see 4 signs, a fountain, etc, and you'd easily identify that
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as scorn, and could load up the appropriate data. Many dungeons would be much
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trickier because the data isn't as consistent or could be more ambiguous (and
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client would have to catch that - did it guess the wrong map, or did someone
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cast an earthwall?)
The current map can be gotten through the "mapinfo" command, though
figuring out where you are located on a map, is more difficult; since
you can make several locations look the same.
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2) If client was to cache maps, it'd need some logic, just like the server, to
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time out maps that player hasn't visited for a while. For example, you don't
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want megabytes of random maps stored away, which by definition, the player can't
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visit again.
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3) Related to above, for random maps, map name may not be good enough to know if
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the right version is in use. Think of this case - server starts up, player logs
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in and goes to random dungeon (gets random0001). Server restarts, player
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repeats - gets the same name, but since map is random it is not the same map.
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Yet at the same time, there is some desire to remember random maps, like say
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when going down through a random dungeon - if for some reason you leave and come
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back, would be handy to be able to see where you've been before and make it that
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much easier to get through.
If the map's path (as returned by "mapinfo") ends in "random????",
check to see if the suroundings match what was cached.
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4) Client caching maps wouldn't have to be that complicated, and wouldn't take
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that much space. Could do something just like:
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mapsize 20 20
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space 0 0
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forest.111
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sign.111
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space 0 1
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cobblestone.111
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orc.111
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...
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because after all, the only think the client knows is the face name/number.
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It'd really need to store things by name since the face numbers can change from
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run to run (OTOH, it could be clever at create a bmaps file for each map that
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contains the number to name map for the faces stored in the map, thus making it
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even easier to parse those cached maps).
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5) Outdoor maps would need improved handling - right now, the client isn't even
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aware when the player moves across the tiles. It does have logic to recenter
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and clear out the old data as needed, but to handle outdoor maps, it would sort
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of need some idea of where it is (which goes back up to telling the coordinates).
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6) It would be neat to have 'map' objects within the game that show a map. I
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think tchize is working on adding image support to objects. But what I envision
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beyond that would be if you have one of these maps, and is actually where the
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map displays its stuff, if you applied it, it would 'fill in' the area around
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you on your map (fog of war) area.
That brings in the question, of if there should be a cartography
skill, and if map makers should be able to restrict it's use on some
maps. I think the results of mapping the maze mikeeusa has been
working on recently would prove to be interesting. (it would need to
be mapped in more than 2 dimensions, since it uses tricks with tiling)
In addition, I think the idea of having "bad" or inaccurate maps, for
the purpose of misleading players, could prove interesting.
--
Andrew Fuchs
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