[crossfire] Items and balance, was Re: race/class lacks distinctions

[Alex Schultz]

Mark Wedel wrote:
>   But my thought for class/race specific items also does help out balance some.
>
>   For example, monks are banned from weapons and armor.  Certain races are also 
> banned from certain objects.
>
>   It may be desirable to give those classes/race combinations some items to help 
> restore their balance some.  However, you don't want to make them available to 
> everyone, as then the human fighter can use it and really get things out of whack.
>
>   So such a feature can be used to further help to balance the races and classes.
>   
This does remind me, one thing some players were sometimes thinking of
was how it would be having things like dragon-specific weapons/armor.
Those ideas never really went far, but some players occasionally were
thinking about it. Mainly due to the lack of ability to get many types
of attack with dragon melee (yes yes, there's the claw types, however
many high level things arn't hurt by any of those), though that is
perhaps more of an issue with the resists of monsters, as is being
discussed in other messages.
>   But the other thing, going back to the original discussion, is it starts to 
> add some distinction.  As a mage, I can were that diadam of spellcasting, which 
> gives some cool bonus, which fighters can't.  This would also likely make it so 
> that all high level characters don't go around all wearing the same equipment, 
> as there sort of is the 'this is the best set of stuff' thing.
>   
Well, I have found that my main high level character doesn't just use
one set of stuff. He carries around a vast variety of things, to he can
adjust to any situation, however, 95% of the time he is using a set
that's best for spellcasting, or a set that's best for melee.
>   Another thing, long discussed, was to split attack damages based on attacktype.
>
>   Right now, if a character does damage, it uses the best of any attacktypes the 
> item(s) he has does.
>
>   This means that any item that gives you an attacktype is really pretty handy. 
>   It also means that balancing some objects is harder.
>
>   But if you did things like 'dam_fire 12' 'dam_weaponmagic 4', it can help to 
> reblance things some.
>   
Personally, I think that would be a very welcome change, partially
because the current system of "uses the best attacktype" does confuse
new players frequently.

Alex Schultz