[crossfire] tavern combat server, was Re: Project: Slow down combat

[Mark Wedel]

  Decided to change the subject to make it clearer what the message is about.

  First, I just want to note that what I do on the tavern.santa-clara.ca.us 
server should not be seen as a final product.  I just think it is a good point 
of experimentation - in a sense, taking something from the lab and trying it in 
the field.  Many of the things there I try may fail in terms of right way to go, 
but in many cases, giving it a try is easy enough, so I feel no harm in trying it.

  I made some changes tonight:

- Made the AC of the creatures I had previously modified worse (easier to hit). 
  The AC is still a bit better than the original.

- Give all players a 30 hp/grace/mana boost.  I did this as a race attribute, so 
one could tune this different (elves get 20 hp, 40 mana, 30 grace for example). 
For now, I just gave all player races 30/30/30.  Existing players on the server 
will see this when they log in (don't need a new character)

- All new characters will start with a stat sum of 105.  Previous, range was 82 
to 116 - that is a very big difference - I think a standard number like this 
makes it better for testing, as things are more consistent - a character with 
stats in the 80s is going to have a much harder time than a character with stats 
in the high 100s.

- If a character is resting (standing around not doing commands), hp/mana/grace 
regen rate goes up.  With the higher starting values, this reduces time waiting 
about to regain those, but doesn't make battles easier, as while in battle, you 
don't get the benefit of the faster rate.  The rate increase is by 2 ticks, but 
could be increased more - this was mostly just an expiremental test value.

- I added 'you miss foo' messages to the server, and also modified it so it 
prints all attack messages (before it printed about a third of them).  This 
makes things quite a bit more verbose, but in this testing server, it makes it 
much easier to see how fast the character is actually attacking, and the effects 
of those attacks.

- Modified (fixed) wc - the old code had wc improve 1 point for each level in 
the skill (which is why high level characters have a wc of -120).  Now, wc on 
the server increases 1 point/5 levels, so things don't get easier quite as fast. 
  It also means that at 15 level difference in melee skills is only a 3 delta in 
hit probability, so characters that are mostly mages could go in and still be 
able to hit things with melee.

- increased the hp for orcs, kobolds, goblins, and gnolls.  It is not nearly as 
big an increase as it is for players (in the 5-10 range for all those creatures 
I think), but this means it takes an extra hit or two to kill them.  And since 
not every swing hits them, adds some definite extra time.  Note that other than 
AC and HP, monsters have not been modified in any other way (their chance to hit 
is the same,the damage they do is the same, etc)

---
After doing those changes, I made up a new character.  On Kevin's note, I made a 
paladin - something that isn't pure fighter.  I also arranged the stats in that 
manner (put some of the better ones in wis and pow).  And because not all 
characters start with armor, I took the armor off the character.  My notes/thoughts:

- Kobolds are actually dangerous now.  With the higher hitpoints, I was never in 
any real danger of being killed, but at the same time, I couldn't just waltz 
anyplace - getting surrounded by creatures is much more dangerous, as it takes 
much longer to hack your way out to safety.  The hardest part was killing the 
initial swarm out of the newbie tower - once those were killed (after taking a 
rest now and again to get back HP), going in and killing the generators and the 
smaller group of kobolds wasn't as much a problem.

- Orcs are tougher.  The character didn't have any real problem killing the 
orcs, but getting surrounded is more dangerous.  The characters only spell was 
cause light wounds, which with the 30+ grace, could be cast enough to kill the 
orcs (2 casts would do it), but that is slow.  I don't think that is much 
different here than old system - cause light was never a fast way to kill 
things.  the real problem the paladin (not wearing armor) has is killing orcs 
faster than the generators put them out.  I never liked generators much, and I'm 
tempted to remove them from that map and see what it plays like (or maybe 
greatly reduce number).  I did find I perhaps did use more tactics with the orcs 
than I might otherwise do, luring them in small groups to kill them to reduce 
risk of death.  Death here was only a real danger if one got too agressive - 
trying to go deep into the orc pile to get the generators.  That may be one 
reason at at least a few generators are needed.

- The increase in starting hp but same number of hp gained per level (about 10) 
changes dynamics quite a bit - getting second level really didn't help things 
much, nor did third - extra hp are good, but going from 40 to 60 is not nearly 
as a big of jump as from 10 to 30.  Maybe a good thing?  Not sure.

- If the reason for not using armor was lack of money, once the orcs started 
falling, that probably starts to go away, as they tend to leave lots of loot - 
probably enough at least to buy non magical armor.

- I do like the fact that the character no longer mows through kobolds, and that 
these other creatures start being dangerous enough to pay some attention to. 
I'm not sure the speed balance is quite there yet.