[crossfire] Game play thoughts, ideas, ramblings :)

[Nicolas Weeger]

Hello.


Been thinking of the game play lately, so I figured I'd share some ideas, 
ramblings, thoughts about that :)

I'm not saying I'll change the game to match what I say in this mail, I merely 
want to share ideas & such to see what other opinions exist :) I'm not either 
saying I'll fight against patches going in another direction :)


Everything reflects my opinions and tastes, even if I write it as an affirmation 
for simplicity, and nothing is an absolute truth of course :p And I may be 
wrong or forget things, feel free to correct :)

And I of course may be influenced by other games, hack & slash ones, quite 
possibly :)



First and foremost, CF is a keyboard-based game. Yes it's possible to use the 
mouse for some things, but mostly the game uses the keyboard.

Therefore it is not a point-and-click, and I for one don't want CF to become 
one - keyboard is fine.


In the same way, the game is tile-based, not a discrete grid.


About the world, it's mostly fantasy-based. There are hints about mechanical-
like things (in Euthville notably), and maybe we could add some items or maps 
in this taste, but I'd rather not be going into a real cyberpunk universe, or 
a science-fiction one. So magic, monsters, gods, maybe some mechanical, but no 
spaceships, no planes, or such :)



There is much content, scattered in the world. Many maps have no hints so one 
has to just wander around to find'em, others are linked to quests or texts or 
such.

I'm not for a guide-based game where every & all maps have hints pointing to 
their existence, having to move around to explore is fine, but maybe right now 
there aren't enough hints or such...


Random maps aren't that interesting. They are mostly experience source, or a 
filler between handmade maps. Maybe we could try to generate dungeons with eg a 
final boss, some special reward, and reduce "filler" maps (like Valriel's or 
Gorokh's temples which have like 100 levels...).

And random maps look too similar, too small for many monsters...



Currently, the game is based on D&D rules, with AC/WC, classes, races, and 
such. With our current implementation, characters can't really be customized, 
they all tend to be similar. Classes don't really have much sense, except the 
monk with meditation. Races have slightly more meaning, with restrictions on 
weapons or armour or things like that.

I think I would prefer having more distinct playing styles, so not jack-of-
all-traces characters but ones with real distinctions, maybe special skills 
for some classes or races, real skills to kill monsters that make a difference 
in how we play.

One consequence of the D&D rules is that attribute points don't really matter 
soon after starting playing - once you reach 25+ in all stats (except cha), 
not much else to do... I'm not sure whether I like this system or if I prefer 
gaining points for each level that you can position on stats like you want (eg 
gain 2 points per level that you can inject in str or dex or wis). This would 
allow customizing the character more. But this means we have to figure how 
those points affect eg damage, ac/wc, and such.



About items, I think there are waaaaaaaayyyy too many. Junk given by monsters 
is just too much, it takes a while to sort items. Yes it makes for more 
realistic stuff (why would only 1 goblin on 10 have a sword?), but it becomes 
quite a chore to sort.

I was thinking about the possibility of giving treasure items a chance to be 
god-given. Eg a goblin would have a sword and a shield, each having a 70% 
chance of being god-given. Thus the goblin would be equipped to fight, but 
wouldn't drop so much junk. Or the item would break and become a dust pile, 
something like that.


I like the idea of being able to customize weapons or armour (maybe other 
items?), with scrolls or spells, but that needs to be balanced to not push 
towards the same customization.

Ha, and I'd really love fun items to change the game play - a sword that 
randomly bites you or cast a spell? A powerful armor that randomly teleports 
you a few cases away? An amulet that sucks your sp to give fire resist?



About spells, I think there are too many, and many useless. Why the need to 
have "small fireball", "medium fireball", and "large fireball"? Why not having it 
scale better, or the medium replacing the small and such? Or allowing the 
player to balance the spell's effects between duration, range, damage?

Some spells like poison cloud don't seem really useful...

Some skills are way too slow to level. Summoning is quite bad, summoned 
monsters are just too weak. They definitely need a big boost, to make it more 
interesting.


Resistances are too numerous, and messy - 50% for acid is enough to protect 
your items, but eg confusion at 70% may lead to being confused. So some 
rethinking may be in order.




About character leveling, I think the "speed to level" really depends on the 
"endgame" we wish to have. Is the aim of the game to become a really powerful 
character who can slay anything? Is the aim to just explore and find 
interesting maps/items, leveling being a side-effect? Both have drawbacks, 
mostly the need to create content or the need to balance monsters :)

Given the game style, aiming for a "all-monsters-slayer" doesn't sound that 
great to me, I think I'd rather aim for "explore the world to find good and 
interesting items or maps". Which of course requires to add content...

We don't have a "final boss to kill", and I don't wish to have such endgame :)




Sorry for the long mail :)


Best regards


Nicolas
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