[crossfire] Spell rebalancing notes/thoughts

[Mark Wedel]

Nicolas Weeger wrote:
>>> Somehow, I don't like this definition of "fun"...
>>> But I admit I don't have many ideas of other definitions.
>>   I'm open to ideas to make this better.  Certainly waiting around for
>> HP/SP/Grace to come back isn't fun, yet at the same time, we can't just
>> ramp up the regen speed, as that effectively makes characters more powerful
>> (if a character gets all their HP back in 2 seconds, it means you just have
>> to avoid damage for that long).
> 
> What about making other fun activities the player could do while waiting for 
> sp/hp/gr to regenerate?
> Like, going to drink in a bar and falling in love with someone. Or trying to 
> decipher a coded message. Or getting around trying to be elected to mayor?

  I'd hope that spell regeneration doesn't take so long that you'd have the time 
to do too much in the way of other activities.

  Real point is to have fun - if I'm in the mood to kill some creatures that is 
a bit different than hanging around the tavern, whatever.

  That's not to say all parts of the game should just be combat - getting 
elected mayor, etc, is reasonable, but that is a bit different than adventuring.

> 
>>   While potions of heal/power/whatever work, one can't really give them out
>> in infinite supply.
> 
> What about "forcing" the player to accumulate some before they go in dungeons? 

  It may not be bad to have NPCS to help provide clues, like the old mage saying 
"I wouldn't venture into the caves with less than half a dozen potions".

  Of course, if the player doesn't bring those potions, it just means they are 
sitting around a bit while they get back their mana/hp.  Having a high regen on 
those doesn't cause a problem, except it changes combat if the character gets 
those stats back really high.

  This is one reason I made the change that if you don't do anything on that 
tick, you get hp/mana back faster.  That could perhaps be further refined - keep 
track of more of a running total of last time character took damage as well as 
did combat type action - if beyond some number of ticks, have regen go up even 
faster - the idea being here that character is presumably in a 'safe' location 
if they are not taking damage or doing combat, so why not have them get stats 
back faster.

> What about focusing on non-combat things too? Enigms and such?

  That would also make sense.  In some other games I've played, the mana regen 
problem is fixed in that there is not a continuous stream of monsters.  You 
fight a couple monsters, head down the passage a bit, and by the time you meet 
the next monsters, enough time has passed to regain that lost mana.

  And within crossfire, that could also work - have fewer tougher monsters that 
are more interspersed with open space.