[crossfire] Balance changes

[Mark Wedel]

  As noted in another message, I think the melee combat balance changes are 
about 90% there, with the remaining 10% being tweaking and adjustments (some 
monsters maybe too easy for the exp, some too hard, etc).

  While I haven't adjusted bow combat, from the basic uses I've done so far, it 
seems to be somewhat reasonable - the fire/kill rate is somewhat close to to 
melee - big advantage is that you're not right next to creature.  Big 
disadvantage is you need to carry thousands of arrows about.  A thought here is 
to greatly reduce the odds of arrows (at least non special ones) being 
destroyed, so you can at least get back most of the arrows you fire (special 
ones, like the assassinating whatever should still be one shot).

  Spells are the next thing to tackle. I think I'll go down the route of 
elemental spells, as discussed.  Some additional quick thoughts:
1) Each element has a first level cone spell and first level bullet spell (the 
bullet is like magic bullet - it doesn't explode, just does damage).  The bullet 
spells does more damage, but only hits a single target, the cone gets many 
targets.  You also get a protection spell.

2) Since the rebalance here includes scaling things up to level 100, it strikes 
me we can not give out new spells every level.  Maybe every 5 or so, so at level 
5 you get a small exploding ball and small bolt spell (maybe not at exactly same 
level, who knows)

3) In order to make these low level spells effectively, I think the damage on 
them needs to ramp up pretty quickly (creatures hp goes up about 10/creature 
level, so level 1 creatures have 20 hp, level 5 about 50 hp, level 10 around 150 
hp).  To counter this, max damage/range/whatever type things are added, so at 
level 15 (lets say) that firebullet you get a first level doesn't get any better.

4) Related to this, better version of low level spells can be put in the game. 
At level 10, maybe give out 'medium bullet' type of thing, which costs more than 
the small one, but does more damage and also scales up to higher level.

  I've also had some thoughts on other classes:
Thief/Rogue - crossfire doesn't really have much like this.  One thought to make 
this a more viable class is to remove the search and disarm traps from other 
classes - most game systems does not allow a mage to disarm traps.  This doesn't 
help as much in standalone, but helps in party play (having that thief to find 
and disarm traps would be useful).  I think the trap exp needs to be adjusted 
for this to be more playable.  We should probably also allow thieves to make 
traps, and if they kill a monster with that trap, get the appropriate exp for 
it.  I also think traps should probably be made deadlier.  A trapped door or 
trapped chest isn't all that dangerous if a character at full hit points will 
never die from it (an alternative is maybe longer term affects - we have 
discussed the idea of some spells lasting hours of real time.  Imagine you get 
hit with a trap which depletes a stat or slows the character that that lasts 
half an hour - you can't just run out of the dungeon and wait it out, like you 
can with most cases of poison or damage).  The last is hiding and sneak attacks 
- if player is hidden and attacks a creature, give them extra damage, and if 
they kill the creature, maybe split exp between hiding and the weapon skill?) 
Likewise, letting rogues steal from shops should perhaps be allowed, but if 
caught, they are tossed in the town jail for some amount of time.

Item creation classes - if someone wants to play a blacksmith and make weapons 
all day, who am I to say no?  But with other balance changes, we can know how 
this works - that blacksmith needs raw ore, and the facilities and time.  Maybe 
there is a mine near by he can go to get the ore - but if it takes 5 minutes 
realtime for him to get a load of stuff, that help factor out exp gain. 
Likewise, if he gets 50 exp for making a sword, it means he has to make a lot of 
swords to gain a level, and if an actual time delay is put in there (lets say it 
takes 10 seconds realtime to make a sword), it probably means that such a 
character will not gain levels any faster than any other class, so IMO would be 
considered in balance.  The only issue here is that I think such long time (10 
second) actions need to be interruptible - in a sense, it is almost like the run 
on stuff - the character keeps making the sword unless he chooses to do 
something else.  And there is some chance at failure - a first level blacksmith 
maybe only has a 50% chance to successfully make a sword for example.

  I think clerics/priests are basically OK.  Any other thoughts out there?