[crossfire] IRC traffic for Sunday Oct 22

[Alex Schultz]

Hi all,

Well, on Sunday alot was said on many many crossfire issues. Here's a
summary of what was discussed for anyone interested. I'm hoping we can
come up with some solid plans on some issues :)
When replying, please only reply to one issue at a time, and change the
subject line to account for what you are replying about :)

Alex Schultz



Lack of popularity:
    -No advertisement being a large reason
        -Google ads (Ryo_) (was the joking or not? :P)
        -Slashdot article for 2.0 (Rednaxela)
            -For 2.0 alpha/beta, like freeciv. Good for testing (cavehippo)
                -Should have a stable enough test server for 2.0 alpha/beta
            -Need to ignore trolls
    -UI nitpicks
    -Gameplay nitpicks
    -Don't want to go so far it bogs down servers.
    -Hopefully means more devs and content (map, image, etc) makers.
        -Improving Gridarta
        
Gridarta Ideas:
    -Better 'connection' (i.e. buttons and gates) interface. Perhaps
even give
     the server new object types for boolean logic, and give Gridarta a
     flow-chart-like interface to that.
    -NPC dialog editor
        -Understand @match syntax and the subset of regexp syntax
    -Warn users when they are doing 'the wrong thing', as in putting
object on
     the map or in inventories that should never go there.
        -Daiminion already does this. Code just need to merge this code
and make
         crossfire-specific rules for it.
        -Perhaps warn about connected object in inventories, because that
         doesn't work and could confuse map-makers.
    -"but I think more importantly, it should be possible to create a crappy
     'my first map' in 10 minutes or less" - Cavehippo

UI Ideas:
    -hp bars on player/monster images (darkschneider)

Graphics:
    -Symbolic value lacking in some cases
        -Good symbolism means "recognizable at first glance"
    -Consistancy lacking it many cases
    -Larger?
    
Hanuk:
    -Is he too easy to get too for how deadly he is?
    -Is he too deadly?
    -Are the warnings enough
        -Do players heed warnings enough? Why/Why not?

Death penalties:
    -One of the things that bugs players the most
    -Remove them?
    -A "limbo" map?
    -a choice between certain penalties?
        -Could make them more "tangible"

Map design:
    -Are maps designed badly so players can die too suddenly?
    -Proposed standard view size
        -Is it needed? Perhaps LOS should always limit seen distance
instead of
        a hard map size limit.

Why do people spend days leveling a skill up?
    -Because it would be useful at a higher level
    -Should we focus on making it just as fun to play at a low-level
        -Spell rebalancing and adding new spells as one specific case
            -"We played around in the arena a while ago: most spells are
useless
             because nothing hurts a player. Or you use meteor swarm or
             banishment which kills instantly." --Ragnor