[crossfire] RFC: dynamic alchemy

[Anton Oussik]

On 24/05/06, Raphaël Quinet <raphael at gimp.org> wrote:
> On Wed, 24 May 2006 14:56:16 +0200, Wim Villerius <wim-cf at villerius.nl> wrote:
> > On Mon, 2006-05-22 at 20:50 +0200, Raphaël Quinet wrote:
> > >  Also, shadow alchemy is player knowledge and not character knowledge:
> > > this gives an unfair advantage to experienced players regardless of
> > > their character level.
> > Yes, shadow alchemy is player knowledge, not character knowledge. But
> > the same goes for current alchemy, maps (passwords), where to find
> > artifacts, how to beat monsters, etc etc. In other words, (almost) the
> > whole game is player knowledge.
> Well, it is worse for shadow alchemy: it is player knowledge that is very
> hard to acquire while playing, but easy to remember (or write down) once
> someone or some program tells you how to do it.  So it is a bit like "cheat
> codes" for the game.  The shadow formulas are of very little use for the
> normal players.

Which is why I proposed the dynamic dynamnic alchemy - there are no
formulae, and a beginner player has the same knowlege as an
experienced player, and the result is bounded only by their level at
the skill. It will allow a huge amount of new items to exist, since
generally it will be possible to create any item at all, which can not
be obtained otherwise, thus encouraging trade and inter-player
interaction. If you further want to restrict it, you can say that
ingredient foo is needed for max transferred property to be 40%, bar
for 60%, and so on, but I don't think it is a good idea since it will
make alchemy too troublesome to use again. If you see a problem with
overpowered items, perhaps created items need their item_power
adjusted, so any super-times will be unwieldable because of the
item_power requirements.

> On the other hand, the most powerful recipes should be
> locked because they are quest items.  Even if I remember how to create the
> potion of fire immunity, I do not expect to be able to use it immediately
> when I create a new character: I know that I have to go through the fire
> temple first.

Although I do not think recipes should be locked as it restricts
players, I see a better way of locking them, if that is what everyone
wants. Recipe learning can be made to work just like spell books. I.E.
you apply a recipe book, and memorise the recipe. After that you
should be able to recite it, and when you try performing it, alchemy
code should check if you have learnt the recipe in the past. This
approach will be much more consistent with the rest of C.F. than
arbritrarily locking some recipes.