Re: CF: corpses and Animate Dead spells (fwd)

[Bob Tanner <tanner@real-time.com>]

Are other ones getting archives?
Quoting Rick Tanner (leaf@real-time.com):
> 
> This message wasn't added to the archive for some reason, that is why I
> sent it again.
> 
> - Rick Tanner
> leaf@real-time.com
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1999 15:53:35 -0400
> From: Hwei Sheng TEOH <hsteoh@cs.toronto.edu>
> To: crossfire@ifi.uio.no
> Subject: CF: corpses and Animate Dead spells
> 
> Hi!
> 
> I've been experimenting with a new Animate Dead spell, that turns corpses into
> zombies, and the like. Right now, I can get it to produce zombies from
> anything on the ground called "corpse". But I found that it's extremely
> difficult to generalize this spell, because of the way corpses are made.
> 
> For example, if on the ground is a "hill giant's corpse", I'd like to have it
> produce a hill giant zombie. Or if it's a "goblin's corpse", I'd like to have
> it produce an undead goblin. I *could* potentially compile a list of corpses
> and their re-animated equivalents (although this could become rather ugly),
> but the bigger problem comes when there are monsters that have their own name.
> 
> What I really want in that case is to re-create the monster from its archetype
> (the name doesn't really matter, since the monster has already died anyway,
> and its name -- which probably was associated with special attributes -- isn't
> relevent any more). However, corpses as they are currently have no such
> information available. (Eg., hill giant's corpses are the same archetype as a
> goblin's corpse or a human corpse). If I were to simply check the archetype
> name alone, you'd get odd results like a hill giant's corpse turning into a
> zombie which is much smaller than a giant!
> 
> <aside>
> On that note, has anyone else observed that eating a hill giant's corpse
> gives almost the same amount of food -- if not less -- than a zombie's corpse?
> And that a hill giant's corpse has similar weight to a zombie's corpse?!?!?!
> Hmmm, is it because hill giants' body-matter is so light-weight that they can
> grow so big? :->
> Also, I've always wondered how *any* character, no matter how strong, could
> actually carry several hill giants' corpses around?? I mean, how does one drag
> 3 or 4 giant corpses up a ladder to get out of a dungeon, anyway?
> </aside>
> 
> Is there any consistent way to get the original archetype of a monster (or NPC
> or player, for that matter) from its corpse? Is it too much to change the
> monster death code so that it attaches the monster's archetype to any body
> parts that may be left? (This *does* sound too much... but I'll ask anyway. :-)
> Or perhaps I should just be patient and wait for the new object structure in
> 0.96.* ...?
> 
> I suppose in the meantime I'll just stick with manually listing corpse names
> and their corresponding "zombie monsters", and live with the fact that
> specially-named monsters' corpses will not work with the spell.
> 
> 
> T
> 
> -
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-- 
Bob Tanner <tanner@real-time.com>       | Phone : (612)943-8700
http://www.real-time.com                | Fax   : (612)943-8500
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