[crossfire] The future of Crossfire

[Mark Wedel]

  One thing that can also help in this discussion is figure what should/will 
remain the same.  I suspect that for most crossfire players, there are aspects 
they like already.  But you also want to avoid the discussions that basically 
amount to a new game (or maybe more like some other game out there)/complete 
rewrite.

  To me, the biggest immutable thing is probably the map (both file format and 
how displayed) - changing it to a 3D game (which sometimes comes up) is such a 
major change in many areas that it hardly would seem to be the same game after 
it is done.

  I also think that except for some balance, the spells and combat stuff is OK 
(but perhaps a bit fast).

  I also think that somewhat specific examples may be needed.  For example, 
saying you want a 'fun game/fun quests/fun whatever' sounds good to me, but is 
somewhat vague - does that just mean more maps?  Or what does it take to make a 
question fun vs boring?

  So after playing some single person non on-line games, some quick thoughts of 
mine:

- NPCs in crossfire a really quite boring.  Trying to have any conversation with 
them is often annoying (as trying to figure out correct words is sometimes 
difficult), but they are also very static - you go to the bar, and just see a 
bunch hanging around.  Improving conversation is easy, but that doesn't remove 
the pretty static nature of them.

  Within other games, the NPCs move around - they can join you to help you do 
something, or maybe they are duping you into something (take me to my friend 
joe, and which point when you get near joe, the npc with you ends up attack joe, 
etc)

  And just seeing some wandering NPCs on the world map would add some color.

- Maps:  All to many are just hack and slash - if you're tough enough, you 
survive and win, if not, well, your dead - need to be more maps where the focus 
isn't killing everything.  It's hard to really think what all types of puzzles 
there can be.  And while it may not suit everyones taste, even having some maps 
where there are few/no monsters but instead a puzzle or gathering of items to 
reassemble or whatever would probably be interesting to some.

  Other problem I find is that often times, movement of both creatures and 
player is so fast that very little in the way of tactics come in -  often time 
by the time you realize that weapon A isn't working, by the time you switch to 
weapon B, you're in big trouble

  Last problem is that I think the map content of crossfire is not expanding 
fast enough - this may be one reason why there are still lots of bad maps about. 
  If you look at most commercial RPG games, it often isn't the gameplay that 
changes much between versions, but rather a completely new mapset (effectively), 
so there are new things to see, new dungeons to go in (with no clue what to 
find, etc).  So for long term players, there really isn't any sense of newness - 
I don't play a lot, and one reason is because there isn't any sense of newness - 
it sort of goes down to playing these set of maps, then those, etc.

  One cause of this may be that most of us are more programmers than map makers, 
so we gravitate towards programming.  It may be that we should aim for 1 big map 
addition per month/quarter - for example, a goal of making an underground 
dwarven city with 10 associated quests.  If several people worked on such 
projects, it certainly would be achievable (and a nice benefit of several people 
working on it is that none of them would be familiar with all of it, so when 
they went to play it the first time, there would be portions of it they haven't 
seen before)

- Immersion:  Crossfire, given its limited sounds (and until recently, no music, 
but client side support for music is still needed) was really only a visual game 
- I know some people don't have any computer volume when playing crossfire, but 
for those of that do, having more sound effects to add ambiance.

- Races/classes:  Would be nice for more of these to have longer term affects 
than they do right now - we've discussed that in the past.  Some could just be 
certain objects usable only by certain classes (helm only usable by wizards, no 
one else, etc), some could be more special maps (fighter guild hall only allowed 
to fighters), etc.

  I've probably rambled more than enough here.  Some of these points are easier 
to do than others.