[crossfire] race/class lacks distinctions

[Wim Villerius]

On Thu, 2006-06-29 at 22:48 -0700, Mark Wedel wrote:
>   It has long been discussed that with a few exception (the non humanoid races 
> and the classes that prohibit weapons/armors), a lot of race/classes tend to 
> blur together.
>
> There are several reasons for this:
> 
> - There are not really any race/class restrictions for objects (or conversely, 
> not any objects that only clerics can use, or that only fighters can use, etc). 
>   While there is a 'ring of the paladin', you don't need to be a paladin to use 
> it for example.
> 
> - Pretty much all the skills are learnable, so what skills you start out with 
> are not very important - you can learn everything else later.
> 
> - Most differences in stats can be overcome fairly easily by use of items that 
> improve your stats.
> 
>   In terms of these issues, I think the first could be fixed by adding new items 
> and a little code - use a key/value to store what class/race can use an object, 
> and add some code in the apply logic to check for it.
I would suggest also to modify quite some existing items. Adding still
more items degenerates the value of current items. Why would you search
for 'special item' if the so-and-so not so special item gives almost the
same benefits?
Perhaps - but that's quite a different discussion - it's worth to remove
a lot of (more or less) special items from the game.

>   For the skills, my thought would be there should be different levels (for lack 
> of better term) of skills.
> 
>   For example, there may be 4 different skills of sorcery - basic, expert, 
> advanced, mastery.  However, these all tie in with the same skill.
> 
>   The sorcery class starts with the mastery skill.  Some of the other classes 
> (if they get several casting skills) maybe get those at advanced.  Skill scrolls 
> would give you basic skill, and perhaps quests or other harder to do things give 
> you expert.
I'd suggest that mastery is not something you can start with. the name
suggests that you need some experience in a skill to become a master of
that skill. 
That could even make six different grades.
basic and basic mastery
advanced and advanced mastery
expert and expert mastery

Perhaps it would even be possible to completely remove skill scrolls. If
your class doesn't have skill X, you can learn it at basic lvl in the
elementary school.
Access to a school for advanced students could be limited to certain
classes and a University of X could be restricted to one class only.

Every skill level should have spells in it, some restricted to masters
of the skill level only.

> I don't really have any good solution to the stat problem - I don't
> think that is really solvable.
It might not be solvable without a lot of work, but I really think
adding a zero to the max stat would make a huge difference. That would
as well allow a change of the effects stats have. Now the difference
between 29 and 30 is incredibly big. It seems to be exponential, which
doesn't make much sense IMO. I think the difference between n and n+1
should become smaller and smaller (now it's bigger and bigger)
(Anyway, this is quite a distinct discussion)


Another great way to eliminate the problem under discussion is to remove
quite some races/classes! Simplicity is a key to success.
Besides, that allows to create really different races/classes