[crossfire] Cursed items

[Mark Wedel]

Nicolas Weeger wrote:
>>   I'm not quite sure how to fix that - I had suggested in the distant past
>> that spellbooks could be cursed, and if you read them, you'll lose that
>> spell (as a problem right now is that trying to read a spellbook is an easy
>> way to identify it) - but with that change, I suspect players will just
>> wait until they can properly detect curse on items.
> 
> That's actually implemented :)
> Cursed/blessed items. Read a cursed spellbook, 20% chance to lose the known 
> spell.
> For scrolled, blessed means a small chance the scroll doesn't turn to dust.

  Good to know.


>>   It's interesting that a lot of commercial RPG's don't have cursed items -
>> maybe simply because of the reasons mentioned - if you have a way to know
>> what is cursed, you'll just wait for that.  And if you don't, then you're
>> just saying that players will be screwed 10% (or however often cursed stuff
>> shows up) of the time.
> 
> 
> Probably 'detect curse' should be reduced, something like that, then.

  Even if the spell (and skill) were removed, it probably wouldn't mean much so 
long as the detect curse tables still exist.

  I think one problem is that players acquire so many items on an even normal 
outing that it is a sure thing that at least some of them are cursed.  Right 
now, the people that usually seem to get hit by cursed items are new players who 
don't have the resources to get rid of them and don't know that it is fairly 
easy to know what is and is not cursed.

  Couple thoughts come to mind:
- Reduce occurrence of cursed items greatly (<=1% of items).  In this way, it 
would be fairly rare for players to find cursed items.
- Remove detect curse methods or make them much more expensive (identify will 
continue to work)

  That may make it worth it for players to try to equip items (instead of 
identifying them) when they sell them, since they get more money but don't have 
to pay for the identify.

  Even if cursed items are impossible to identify, I suspect players will just 
wait until they are in town to see what they are - It would such to use one in a 
dungeon and find out you are in bad shape because you are stuck wearing crappy 
armor.

  Live action RPG tends to have cursed items because the GM can control when the 
curse takes effect - there is no way to detect it, and usually manifests itself 
only in life or death situations.

  A more interesting approach in crossfire is that curses are undetectable, but 
in rare circumstances the item does something unexpected.  For example, a cursed 
wand might 5% of the time fire in the wrong/random direction.  A player may 
still find that wand useful.  Weapons could suddenly disintegrate, but until it 
does so, may be a nice weapon (and when it does fall apart, just means the 
player needs to equip something else)

  So in other words, cursed items still have some positive use - they aren't all 
bad.