[crossfire] How to integrate old stories in the game?

[Mark Wedel]

Nicolas Weeger wrote:
> Hello.
> 
> 
> How would one integrate old (as some hundred years old) in-game stories in the 
> gameplay flow?
> 
> 
> Right now, we have kind of the "Know-It-All" sage who will conveniently know 
> everything of things that happened hundred years ago, without any mistake or 
> such.
> 
> 

  There is the lib/messages file, which will be used for random readables that 
show up in dungeons.

  However, the current instance of readables (nonmagical scrolls, books, etc) is 
pretty low.  And even if one is generated, it could contain info about alchemy, 
monsters, spells, etc.  And it can also have a high literacy rate requirement.

> 
> Things I could envision:
> - old manuscripts, in languages a player would need to learn to decipher

  One could sort of say that the literacy skill, as is, might represent that. 
I'd be a little reluctant to make it even harder to find useful information in 
readable books.

> - wrong (plain or slightly mistaken) things around, to have the player try to 
> figure what to trust

  That seems completely reasonable to me.  The likelihood of someone precisely 
recording information would be remote.

> - partial stories only, leaving the rest to deduction.

  That is also good - but perhaps more for oral messages (the sage/random folks 
in taverns).  Having folks with random tidbits of information may make it more 
likely to actually talk to folks.


  Certainly more game information would be a good thing.  The messages file 
could certainly be better - more like the artifacts file so that instead of just 
having messages, one could assign likelihood of different messages showing up 
(there could very well be complete and accurate copies of information around, 
but quite rare), as well as literacy requirements.