[crossfire] What about a gameplay revolution?

[mail-lists+cfdev at dogphilosophy.net]

On Sunday 14 December 2008, Kevin Bulgrien wrote:
[...]
> > 3) Don't give so many powerful items. Have players actually create such
> > items, with difficulty, so they need to take time (or buy it from other
> > players). Makes a "craftmanship" or even alchemy skill much more
> > interesting. Want a sword with fire damage? Go find a rare stone of fire
> > or harness the power of a volcano to make such weapon.
>
> "So many powerful items" is not something I have experienced, but, I do
> find that the unlimited map replay in CF is annoying. (Plug for feature
> request on limiting, but not eliminating replay).  I am in support of
> finding a reasonable way of to do this (replay/limit powerful artifacts),
> but I do think that the restrictions should not completely eliminate
> replay, especially when large periods of time elapse between playing
> spurts.  I personally love the fact that I can come back to CF after
> months and optionally "start over" playing long sequences that take many
> hours of gameplay.  I am not in favor of making CF a game where you must
> burn 100's of hours to gameplay to attain anything cool.  That said, the
> idea of using craftsmanship and "ingredients" is welcome.  I personally
> never played with alchemy, but have found games that concentrate on
> resource collecting and craftsmanship have been fun.
[...]
> > 5) Remove map reset. A player destroyed a map? Well, another needs to
> > rebuild it ingame - or let an NPC do it. That costs money and time,
> > that's fine. And no need to rebuild it the same way :)
>
> No.  Replay limits instead (penalty to loot/experience to the point where
> if you replay enough, there is absolutely no value to the map except
> exploration and taking in the scenery).  I don't care if there are maps
> that work the way this is described, but it should not be the norm.  This
> smacks of being a playground for people to spoil the game for other people.
>  I see no good reason to make CF a game where the first guy there is the
> only one who can play the game at the expense of everyone else.

I've got two thoughts here myself.  

For one thing, the fact that an item can be labeled with a blanket "powerful" 
or "not powerful" may be part of the problem.  It might be beneficial to look 
at ways to make items more useful outside of the context of big numbers, hard-
to-defend-against damage types, and "hit points".  

As for map resets: it would obviously take a fair amount of additional new 
code, but perhaps a type of map that "grows" or develops naturally might be 
introduced.  If something vaguely resembling the AI code for a "resource 
based" RTS game were implemented, computer generated groups could take over 
"cleared" areas and redevelop them.  One might wipe out a Kobold warren, and 
then come back not long after and find some kobolds had come back and started 
rebuilding (adding new tunnels and rooms in the process).  Or that Orcs had 
come along and taken over instead.  Or that the ramshackle village of bandits 
hidden in the woods that was cleared out previously has now been taken over by 
undead cultists...

It might even be feasible to have map-makers predefine who the first few 
groups running the map will be (e.g. predefining that lizard-people are 
waiting to move in once adventurers kill off the dragons in the cave).