[crossfire] Balance changes

[Mark Wedel]

Anton Oussik wrote:
> Yes, fair enough. Some spells today are already improvements of older
> versions though, e.g. the snowstorms, so you already have a bit of
> chasing "higher version" of a spell around. Perhaps it is a question
> of striking the right balance between having too many similar spells
> of different levels and too few spells to encourage progressing.

  But current system, those are distinct spells, and not upgrades.  When you 
learn medium snowstorm, you still have small snowstorm available.

  There are two real effects of this - if you lose a level, you may not be able 
to cast medium snowstorm, but you still have the small snowstorm you can cast, 
since they are distinct spells and not an upgrade.

  It also means that for any given spell, there is still just one spellbook.

  I personally don't think having too few spells would discourage progressing so 
long as the spells you have get better.

  Fighter classes have no spells, you people progress in them because they can 
do more damage, get exp, etc.

  I see the spellcasting skills the same way.  If you learn those first level 
spells and never get any more exp in the spellcasting classes, you're likely to 
find out pretty quickly that those first level spells (or more relevent, first 
level casting level), just doesn't cut it.  Casting a level 1 bullet spell at a 
level 10 monster won't ever kill it, etc.


> 
> Having the action take a long time would just be perceived as lag, and
> so should be avoided if at all possible.

  It depends on how it is done.

  If there is a graphic showing the the character working, gives some feedback.

  Likewise, if the player can hit a key and say move, and thus stop what they 
were working on, that also eliminates any perception of lag.

> 
> Multi-stage item creation could easily be scripted and may get tedious
> unless exp and possibly money award is sufficient.

  IMO, item creation is only of interest for players that find that type of 
thing interesting.  Some folks find it interesting to play a game, going into 
the forest to chop the wood, bring it back, and spend time making arrows.

  If they do, crossfire should try to provide a way for that to work and for 
them to get exp, and perhaps take part in some way in the game (provide arrows 
for anyone that wants them, etc).

  However, if what you find fun is zapping monsters with spells or killing them 
with a sword, that won't appeal to you, and there probably isn't any way to 
change it that would make it appeal to you - or at least not change it in a way 
that preserves any sort of balance.

  Most anything in the game could get scripted, if someone has the incentive to 
do so.  I don't think there is any real way to prevent that - even something 
like a fatigue system (where you need to refrain from creating an item for some 
time) doesn't prevent scripting, it just slows it down (it means the script 
keeps the character idle until the requisite time passes).

  But in the end, it also comes out to basically the same thing - trying to 
limit how fast a character can do these actions - it can be done by making the 
actions slow, requiring rest period, multiple stages, etc.  I'm not sure what 
the best answer is.