[crossfire] classes & guilds, was Re: class guild map

[Juergen Kahnert]

On Fri, Jun 29, 2007 at 07:34:58PM -0700, Mark Wedel wrote:
> It seems to some extent (could be wrong), that some amount of the
> motivation behind this new set of guilds was to add some meaning to
> the classes (maybe not the only motivation).

Basically, yes.  Guilds offers a consistent way to implement class
restrictions.


> However, it has been discussed (and is even on the 2.0 todo list) that
> classes get redone so skills are important.

And guilds will help you to implement this in a logical way.


> http://wiki.metalforge.net/doku.php/dev_todo:race_class_changes

There are a lot of "may", "could", "would", ...

Let us create a consistent race and class concept first, instead of
implementing parts of the list, because they're easy to add.


> I'll note that some changes are very easy to make, and require
> little/no code changes.

If you list those, we could take that into account while creating the
new concept.


> In particular, the skills do have self contained information about how
> much exp ones gets for the skill.  So it is just a matter of creating
> some new archetypes with different values (basic/expert/master skills?

Doesn't show the level itself the knowledge about a skill? Is having a
"master level 1" better than "basic level 50"?


> But maybe a better name, as that suggests more how good you are in the
> skill, not how well you learn it - something like attuned/normal/repelled
> is almost better, but would be confusing with spells).  But whatever -
> one could easily make up instances of the existing skills that have a
> difference in the exp gain rate.

What about a second value for skills. This could be called "disposition"
or "affinity" or something like this. It would be a float value which is
used to divide the xp gained by this skill.

So having an "affinity" level of 2 means, you will get 50 xp out of a
100 xp monster. Having 0.5 "affinity" will give you 200 xp for the same
monster.

This "affinity" value could be changed with skill scrolls. You start
with an affinity value of 4 or 5 (or whatever) and each scroll you read
will reduce this value by 0.04 x affinity value.

Make the bonus / malus symetric. If you start with an "affinity" value
of 5, the lowest value will be 0.20.

The class skills will start with lower values and maybe each level
advance will reduce it automatically without skill scrolls (because of
the master in the guild teaching the skills - as long as you manage to
stay in the class guild).

Every skill level you're able to read one skill scroll to decrease the
"affinity" value. And make skill scrolls a rare item.

Only the class skills will be allowed to decrease below 1. And skills
unlikely to the class not below 2.

This could be fine tuned if you like the idea.


> The treasurelist for the races/classes then just get modified to give
> the appropriate skills.  Eg, the fighter gets the attuned version of
> the fighting skills, and repelled version of the magic skills).

I don't understand what you mean by this.  Could you explain it a little
bit more?


> I'd almost think skillscrolls should get removed from the game (what
> skills you start with is what you have, but you'd just start with
> repelled versions, so would be sucky at them all).

This means you have to add real party support to CF.  Not only sharing
xp, but assistance modes; group healing, archers able to fire from
behind without hitting party members, ...

I'm not sure if this will work well in the 2D square world we have.

So stay with the concept to be able to learn every skill but powerful
class items are only available through the class guild for members.

For example the guild master has given you the hanuk quest.  If you
killed hanuk, you have to return for example the "scepter of hanuk".
Now, depending on the guild, you'll get different rewards.  Being a
pyromancer, you'll receive meteor swarm.  Being a fighter, you could get
a powerful flamesword, or something like that.  Than the flag for the
solved hanuk quest will be set, so you're unable to receive for the same
quest a different reward (if you managed to change the guild).


> IF skillscrolls should remain, then they would only give the lowest
> quality (repelled) versions of the skills.  And in fact, to make it
> easy to upgrade existing servers (and try and get players to start new
> characters), all the existing skills could become the repelled version.

If you ask me, just make a clean cut between CF 1.x characters and CF 2
ones.  Don't try to keep them, they won't fit anymore.

    Jürgen


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