[crossfire] Vote: Next major project

[Mark Wedel]

  We've pretty much figured out the choice of major projects, now to decide 
which one to vote on.  Like source control vote, we will do a ranked choice 
vote.  Brief list of choices below:

A) Redo races & classes
B) Re-organize the world into different difficulty areas
C) Make a new beginner area/town
D) Slow down combat so one can use tactics
E) Balance magic & combat skills so they are more equal
F) Rebalance spells, so meaningful from level 1 to 100
G) Add class guild halls
H) Re-do/fix/improve alchemy
I) Improve party support
J) Make AC into dodge, with most armor giving AC penalty
K) Add/improve lore
L) Improve NPC chat

To make processing easy, please follow this sample ballot:

--- Start Here ---
Developer: yes/no - if yes, please include sourceforge name
A 6
B 3
C 9
D 4
E 2
(and so on for rest of choices).
--- End Here ---

This is open to voting by everyone that plays crossfire, so please redistribute 
this message.  Please send votes to me, mwedel at sonic.net, with same subject. 
Not positive when voting will finish, but probably a week or two (I realize some 
people may be on vacation, etc, during that time period, but that is probably a 
small enough number not to be too significant.  And other question then becomes 
how long does one keep a vote open to cover everyone.

The information below is only first working draft.  There is also information at 
http://wiki.metalforge.net/doku.php/dev_todo:cf2.0:roadmap but I'm not 100% sure 
that the proposals will follow the detail stuff written there.

----

A) Redo classes & races so their is more difference in them - stat bonuses,
skills, special per race or per class items.  As part of this, I think different
versions of the same skill is needed (apprentice/journeyman/master level skills
for example) - I say that should be part of this because the different versions
of a skill would be a major way to redo the classes & races.  Maybe also change
the max stat cap also.

B) Re-organize the world so there are different areas for different levels
(level  1-10 area, level 11-20 area, etc).  Add a main quest(s) that would lead
a character through these areas up to high level

C) New beginner area - perhaps start them off on their own island, and one way
exit once you leave.  Have this beginner map be full of tutorial maps, easy to
use places, etc.  If the above point is done (reorganize the world), this may
then fall into a subproject of that, or be a precursor if done first.

D) Slow down combat, so there is time to use strategy, coordinate, etc.  Part of
this is to reduce/eliminate monster vs player hp disparity.  this may also help
party play.

E) Balance magic and combat skills, so at most all levels, they are of equal
power/killing potential (this is not to say that some tactics may be more/less
effective at some monsters).  Point being a level 50 evoker should have same
ability to kill creatures as a level 50 melee weapon user.  Other skills should
be balanced/fixed so it is reasonably possible to get to a decent level in all
of them, and having a decent level is important (a level 60 chest may demand
level 60 search, disarm trap, and lockpicking)

F) Rebalance spells - highest level spell is under 30 - spells should cover the
entire range of level 1-100 (not necessarily 100 different spells, but there
should be a level 100 spell for each skill out there).  This point may be
related to #5 above, as if combat is redone, spell potency would also have to
get tuned.

G) Add class guilds - basically, your best skill determines what guild(s) you
can belong to - get certain benefits from those guilds not otherwise available.

H) Redo/clean up alchemy and related item creation skills - in a sense, every
item in the game should be creatable by characters (I'd exclude true
artifacts/map special items - those should be of legendary nature and created in
a bygone time, and details and elements of their creation long lost).  But
characters should be able to create all the potions, most rings, armor, weapons,
etc.

I) Improve party support - ideas talked about are more party quests, more party
spells, having more detailed information about current health status of other
party members, perhaps other

J) Move AC into a dodge attribute, with most armor giving dodge penalty, and
some skills giving dodge bonus - this may tie in with point #4 (slow down
combat).  Doing this requires adjusting all the in-game armor, and likely
adjustments to combat rolls.  Also, dodge and wc should go up in value to denote
they are better, not down like ac & wc currently do.

K) With crossfire, there is a lore field that can be used to hold information 
about creatures, objects, etc, but this is infrequently used.  As such, most 
readable materials found within the game are pretty useless.  If lore was used, 
then this readable information would be useful, and could also provide a way to 
have hooks for quests or dungeons.

L) NPC chat right now really isn't very good.  The main reason is that there is 
no way to know how a conversation should/will progress - the NPC itself has no 
state to where it is in the conversation, and no clue is given to what keywords 
might yield more conversation.  Would suggest that all NPC msg stuff should be 
updated with the tags that the clients now support - maybe even add a new 
'special' tag that denotes conversation point.  In this way, the client could 
display them in some way to make it easier (perhaps even clicking on the word). 
  Secondarily, it would be nice if NPC conversation had some state - right now, 
for any given world, there will be a set response, and if you know the right 
word, you can get deep into the conversation - being able to chain same word to 
different responses based on state would also improve conversation logic.