[crossfire] Player accounts, new player creation mechanism

[Mark Wedel]

Nicolas Weeger wrote:
> Hello.
> 
> Here is a proposition for new player account mechanism and character 
> management.

  Note that this has been discussed a lot before on mailing list on wiki - 
probably good to look there for some starting points on this.

> 
> To be clear:
> * player = human playing on Crossfire
> * character = ingame character
> 
> When connecting to a server, a player can create or log in to an account. This 
> account is linked to characters, and the player can manage (add, delete, 
> maybe other things) them.

  this is a step that is not there right now - I'd like a little more 
information on why to add an account that is linked to characters instead of 
just having the current method.

> 
> Character creation mechanism is mostly moved to client, where the player can 
> select race and statistics.
> I'd keep class to be chosen ingame for now, as it depends on maps and such.

  disagree on that - having half the character creation in the client and have 
still done on maps really isn't the right answer.  A new player only has half 
the necessary information to create a character - race and stats.  He chooses 
those, and then finds out that based on class, maybe he didn't choose good stats 
and race, and has to start over.

  Also, there really isn't much on the map related to classes - yes, there is a 
selection mechanism in the hall of selection, but all of those just use the 
generic archetype for the different classes.

  Just as we can send race information to the client, it should be easy enough 
to send class information to client.  Give all those classes some unique type 
(if they don't have one already) so that the server can easily find all the 
classes and send relevant information.  The data sent is really going to be in 
the same form as race data (stat adjustment, special notes, etc), so if we're 
sending one, sending the other wouldn't be much more work.

  If some server wants to add or remove classes, it is just a matter of changing 
the archetypes.  Right now, if you want to change a class, you have to change 
the archetype and change the hall of selection, so just making it an archetype 
ability should make it easier to change classes.

> 
> Characters can possibly be transferred between accounts. Account "survives" 
> until removal by player, characters disappear on death on permadeath servers.

  I'd still need to see more information on what benefit/meaning accounts have here.

  The first that come to mind are for servers that want to be private or pay for 
play - they can then have some alternative mechanism to create the initial 
account (once I get the money, I'll create an account type of thing).  Thats 
fine, but I'd almost say folks that want to run those servers should write and 
maintain that code.

  Second point is that it may make character management easier - I log in as 
mark, and I can see all the characters with my account.  I say may make 
character management easier - this really depends on how many servers I play on, 
if I can get the same account name on all of them, etc.  If I end up having 
different account names on the different servers, doesn't really make things 
much easier (OTOH, I suppose the client could remember different account names 
on different servers).