CF: "Creeping Immunity", Crystals, and rest/regen (was Re: Incompatible objects)

[David Andrew Michael Noelle <dave@Straylight.org>]

Doug wilder wrote:
> 
> I've been rading these post and what really comes out is this:
> 
> Most people think that items as they are need a little fixing and a few of
> us like trying to limit the characters a little more than just a little.
> 
> First i might ask this. Is it the object of the game to get to a certain
> level and stop advancing? If we limit the power of a character to much then
> he might as well stay 1st level the entire game.
> 
> a 100th level character should be powerful i don't think any of disagree on
> that. he should have abilities or items that make him powerful.
> 
> If you start by placing limits on protection items we are going to find that
> soon they won't be worth the effort to carry them. then we will all be
> spellcasters (oh, but the we'll worry about the protection spells too and
> we'll have to fix them)
> 
> Protections arn't the problem

    I'll admit that I'm not convinced that accumulating protections is a big
problem.  Protection, as it is currently implemented, merely cuts damage (or
probability) in half, while the source of the damage generally keeps
escalating fast enough to make half damage more than sufficient.  Immunities
to most things are either very hard to come by or short-lived.  Some
attacktypes, like slow and paralyze or death, drain, and depletion, are
easier to obtain immunity to, because they're just particularly nasty
effects.
    This is all likely to change once additive protection is implemented,
since it will no longer be irrelevant to have the same protection from half
a dozen seperate objects.  I suggest we should just not worry about
protections and vulnerabilities for now, since decisions and changes made
now will more likely than not be obsolete as soon as we have the 0.96
objects and additive protection.


> The problem is perception. Sure we see that a crystal can hold 1000 sp and
> if i had a wizard i could really crank out the damage for a short time and
> probably blow away a dungeon or 2. If carrying 5 crystals is that big of a
> deal why wasn't it corrected long ago. i personally don't see that many
> wizards using them that it is a problem. Personally, ive never even owned
> one. switching items around in a battle is dangerously foolish. Everyone i
> know prepares fo a room as best he can ahead of time anyway.

    Having five or six crystals isn't a problem.  Having 25 or 26 is what
unbalances things.  I've been playing with my crystal-merging modifications,
and being able to treat a couple dozen crystals as one object is a major
advantage, a definite balance problem.  That in combination with removing
the 1sp/tick cap on spell point regeneration really throws things out of
whack.  They both seemed like good ideas at the time, but without other
changes to balance them, and especially in combination, they're just too
much.
    I think what this experiment has revealed is a basic problem with spell
points being too restrictive and Glowing Crystals over-compensating for it. 
Glowing Crystals let a player trade the awkwardness of finding and clicking
them in combat and the tedium of charging them for a much greater reserve of
magical energy.  Without crystals, spellcasters may be able to deal huge
amounts of damage in large areas, but they can't keep it up long enough, and
spell points naturally regenerate too slowly, even with the assistance of
+magic artifacts.  With too many crystals, a spellcaster can destroy whole
maps full of enemies before resting, and without taking any appreciable
damage.  Then, after completing the quest, he'll spend an hour or two
twiddling his thumbs and clicking his crystals.

    I suggest that the Glowing Crystals do need to be re-balanced, but so do
the spell points themselves.  Entirely removing the regeneration limit was
too much, but I think raising it, and raising the natural regeneration rate,
would improve the overall situation noticably.  Raising the regeneration
limit might be accomplished by means of a charging station in some town
magic shops.

    Alternatively, or additionally, a "resting" status could be
implemented.  I recall some suggestion to that effect a little while ago. 
Each tick a player spends idle, or engaged in management tasks like
examining loot and shuffling objects between various packs, could increase
some resting rate, which would enhance hp and sp regeneration as long as the
player remains idle.  Movement would reduce the resting/regen rate, while
casting spells, attacking, or being attacked would just set it to zero.
    A "sleep" state could even be introduced by cranking the regeneration up
to some maximum, disabling vision (even with x-rays), and setting movement
speed to some minuscule level so that any command that would require waking
up would take a few seconds to register.  Of course, characters should
automatically awaken when they've regenerated completely (or when they're
attacked), and should be assumed to be asleep while not logged in. 
(Subtract time when returning from the time they left, and regenerate that
much.)
    Sleep wouldn't necessarily require a new command, just a new object type
for things like sleeping bags and beds (other than "reality" beds.)

    On a related note, why is it that grace regeneration by prayer is
determined by movement rate?  Grace regenerates automatically only up to
half of maximum, and that rate is not related to movement.  To regenerate
past half of your maximum, you use_skill praying once for each point of
grace.  Wouldn't it make more sense for using praying skill to set some
prayer mode, similar to the "resting" mode described above?  Using praying
skill would set the grace regeneration rate to some reasonably high level,
and let it regenerate completely instead of only half-way.  Taking other
actions, such as would decrease "resting" rate, would decrease or cancel the
prayer rate.

-- 
            -Dave Noelle,                 dave@Straylight.org
            -the Villa Straylight,  http://www.straylight.org
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