[crossfire] Spell rebalancing notes/thoughts

[Mark Wedel]

Kevin R. Bulgrien wrote:

> Except perhaps that the savvy fighter finds ways to avoid hp going down,
> and the caster cannot avoid spending mana or grace, so be careful of
> that comparison, I think.

  What I really care about is not whether hp/sp/whatever goes down (because as 
mentioned, a clever fighter could perhaps prevent that), but rather total time 
it takes to gain a level.

  The real time it takes for a fighter and mage to gain a level should be the 
same.  If it takes the mage 3 times longer, that needs to be fixed.

  If it does take the same time, and it means the mage is spending 25% of the 
time gaining back SP, that isn't much a problem, especially if the fighter is 
spending 25% of his time getting back HP.

  If a fighter has a tactic to defeat a monster and take no damage, that is no 
problem, as long as he can't do it a lot faster.  For example, right now, I 
suspect a figther using a bow could probably clear out so low level dungeons and 
not take any damage.  But I believe the bow is a slower way of killing things, 
so in the end, while it may be safer, he doesn't get a big advantage.

> 
>>   But there are also a couple key points here - one actually needs the
>> space available to fall back.  In the newbie tower, once I started making
>> progress, I could basic remain beyond the monsters detect range and hit
>> them with spells (and once the kobolds are dead, gives an outer circle to
>> move in.  But the difficult time was initial assault - after opening the
>> doors, kobolds come out eliminating much space to move about.
> 
> The monster smart movement seems a bit out of whack, but I can't be sure
> what is going on with that.  Maybe it is monster tweaking or map oddities
> instead.  It seems that some maps have all the mobs flooding the entrance,
> so the level is a ghost town when you get past the front door. Not, I think,
> what the map maker had in mind.  Some mobs too easily detect the player
> (through walls, non-line of sight, etc.).  Others seem normal, which makes
> me think it might be something other than the smart movement code.

  Different monsters also have different detection ranges.  Some monsters can 
detect the player from pretty far away, so try and go to the exit.

  Some monsters have limited range, so unless player is nearby, they won't 
detect it.  For example, in the newbie tower, it seems that the kobolds have a 7 
or 8 space detection range.  What this means is that if I play with a big 
(25x25) display, I can see the kobolds sitting there doing nothing, and blast 
them with a range attack.  Now once they are damaged, they do take notice.

  What should probably be done is that when a monster is spawned (or original 
ones on the map for that matter) have that original location recorded.  Monsters 
should basically hang out there unless they have clear line of sight view to 
player or take damage (there are certainly some spells which could have large 
spell effects and thus do damage)

  Likewise, if the player disappears or isn't around, the monster should have an 
affinity to head back to their home.

> 
>>   The generator limit I put in is quite important - without that, progress
>> would be quite slow - getting through the front doors may have been
>> difficult with those generators always being there.
> 
> There are a few places where the generator limit breaks the maps, but so
> far, the limit seems primarily reasonable, even for places like Raffle 1
> which still lets you gain an awful lot of XP before all the generators
> disintegrate.
> 
> I'll add that fixing the broken maps may be hard to get done.  Even for
> the ones I found, its not always easy to remember to work on the map when
> you find the breakage, then for me, at least, it seems hard to decide
> what a reasonable change is to fix it.  I'm not necessarily saying to not
> do adjustments like that, but it probably is good to keep in mind that
> saying maps can be fixed, and getting them fixed are completely different
> things.  I think that getting them fixed is one of those things that does
> not excite people, and thus is easily ignored.

  If not sure, I'd say just file a bug on the broken map, so at least it gets 
better recorded.  But this is also somewhat a balancing act - not doing anything 
because it may break things probably isn't the right approach for most any 
changes that may get made.

> 
>>   Another change I made was to give the pyromancer a spell regen bonus -
>> this helps reduce the waiting some more.  Rather than that being a force
>> (how I instituted it), doing it as a ring may make more sense - player can
>> upgrade it, but it also means that they don't really get a bonus if they
>> choose a wizard and play it as a fighter (at some point, they'd likely find
>> a ring more suitable for a fighter, and thus loose that sp regen bonus)
> 
> You talking about a ring granted at character creation?  How would this ring
> be different from any other ring of say magic+, regeneration+, stat+, etc?
> It should not be taken back by the god that granted it if dropped, IMO.

  It would basically just be a ring magic+.  The only difference being that the 
character starts with it (otherwise, it could be quite a while before a mage 
would get one).

  As for it being god given - unclear if it should be any different than the 
other initial items.  I personally don't have much issue with all initial items 
being dropable - they should just have zero value.  But then you get issues with 
things like special items - like spell crystals, etc, where someone could 
generate a bunch of new characters to get a nice selection of starting objects.

>>   Another change I'm thinking of is item destruction.  The firebullet
>> > doesn't destroy items, but the bolt does.  I'm thinking that maybe bolts
>> > shouldn't destroy items either - as I see it, bolts are maybe a 1' diameter
>> > bolt that is 3' or so off the ground as it travels - as such, things on the
>> > ground shouldn't be destroyed.  Otherwise, especially I think at lower
>> > levels, using bolts is a pretty big disadvantage because of all the
>> > treasure it destroyes.
> 
> I'd probably add that some kind of movement blocking spell in each magic
> class seems like something to consider.  I often am annoyed that I can't
> get something like earth wall if I'm the wrong kind of caster.  That sort
> of difference is part of what makes it seem wrong to start talking about
> blocking the ability to learn new types of magic from what you start with.


  One of the changes is that the evoker, summoner, and sorcerer classes are gone 
- instead it is all elemental mages (fire/water (ice)/earth/air (lightning))

  Creating a low level wall spell is reasonable - each could have different 
effects (borrowing from AD&D a bit here) -

wall of fire - doesn't block movement, but does block sight.  One can walk 
through it, but would take damage (monster code may need to get refined so 
monsters try to avoid this).  This is a limited duration spell, and duration and 
damage would go up as levels do.

Wall of ice - blocks movement and sight.  Does no damage if you sit by it, but 
does damage if you try to hack through it (but one can hack through it) - would 
be vulnerable to fire.  Its hp and damage it does goes up by level, and will 
persist until destroyed.

Wall of stone/earth - like earthwall now.  Blocks line of sight.  Doesn't do any 
damage to break through it, but has a lot more HP than the wall of ice, so lot 
harder to get through.  Lasts until destroyed.

Wall of force (air) - blocks everything, does not do damage, can not be 
destroyed, but has a relatively short duration