Re: CF: Obsolete options

[Mark Wedel <mwedel@scruznet.com>]

Kjetil Torgrim Homme wrote:
> 
> [David Andrew Michael Noelle]
> 
> I generally concur with you both, just some comments.
> 
> >       On the other hand, an ice storm shouldn't be damaging the
> >   dragons across the room as much, or more than, the ones that are
> >   in clawing range.  Instead of just pulling out the #ifdef
> >   NO_CONE_PROPAGATE, how about replacing it with a test for whether
> >   the creature being hit is a multi-space object?
> 
> To make it more realistic, the force an ice storm impacts should be
> reduced if you hide behind a couple of goblins.  Not by much, but by a
> little.  I'm not sure what stat to use to calculate the reduction, it
> could be weight, max hp, number of tiles or encumbrance if we add such
> a stat.  I think max hp will work best.  (Whoo, I'm really helping
> building consensus here! Instead of choosing one of two possible
> behaviours, I opt for a third, new method ;-)

  Note that can spells sort of work out like:
        1
       121
      12321
     1234321

 (maybe not exactly like that).  But the main point being that if something is
in the center portion of the code, they get that much more damage, while the
fringes get less damage.

 Adjusting that some so perhaps monsters it runs into reduces it could do some
of hte above.  So if where that 3 is on the third row is instead a monster, the
last row may instead be something like:

 1223221

 That way, hiding behing big creatures reduce affects at least some.

 The problem is that if you are surrouned by creatures right next to you, your
cone is effectively absorbed at that point.  So perhaps adding adding some min
range, where the cone continues to grow in power until it gets to that affect
would work out.  So you would know that your burning hands will at least go 2
spaces before starting to get absorbed by the monsters or something.


> Food handling has gone out of hand.  Remember Crossfire was designed
> to end at level 20.  It was impossible to have more than +2 magic and
> Int 25.  So the spell point levels have been inflated, and the food
> levels haven't been keeping up.  I believe there are rings of
> sustenance, but they may not reduce the food consumption for spell
> point regeneration.
> 
> But the fix I favour is potions of restore mana, readily available at
> the right price.  This removes the waiting if the character is
> wealthy, so he can zoom deep into the dungeons if he's stocked up
> enough.

 Note also that from the history I recall, the origins in crossire was gauntlet,
where food was almost like hit points - needed to survive.

 I can see consuming extra food to regen HP - that is physically damage that
needs to be repaired.  I am not so sure about that for mana, since that is more
mental and should not really demand food as much.

 The other thought I have would be to remove food as such a visible stat.  Do
more like nethack, and say you are hungry.  Perhaps when hungry, mana and hp
regen is slowed down, since you don't have food in your system and that way you
have at least some more time to get food before starving to death.

 Not sure on the current starvation code, but one thing would be  when at 0
food, no hp/sp regen happens.  Maybe track food into the negative, and when you
get to -1000, then you die of starvation.  Chances are, the lack of
hp/sp/mana/whatever regeneration before that time is likely have some pretty bad
affects.  If worse affects are needed, add some weakness effects to the player.

 One idea I have here is that a person (in real life, and perhaps crossfire) is
not likely to starve to death by not eating food for a day.  But crossfire
pretty much does cause death at that point.

> 
> >       Permadeath is much more realistic though, even with
> >   reincarnation and resurrection spells.  My complaint isn't as much
> >   with permadeath itself as with the way it amplifies the present
> >   prejudice of the game against mages.  If steps are taken to
> >   correct that balance issue, I'd be in favor of making PermaDeath
> >   the default setting, if not the only setting.
> 
> Permadeath is prejudiced against single-player play.  If you party
> with your friends, they're usually able to clear out the dungeon and
> resurrect you.  It can be nail-biting to watch, though!

 That is also true about permadeath (or the same player needs a second character
of the like).  It certainly seems that crossfire is actually starting to move at
least a little more multiplayer with the client, since back when it was X11
mode, one slow connection would spoil it for everyone.



> The motivation for reducing the experience gain based on level was to
> remove the cheat: Stock up on waybreads.  Brace yourself in a doorway.
> Hit towards the oncoming hordes which are continually popping out of
> the generators.  Go skiing for the weekend.  Come back to a high level
> (well, it was, those days) character.  BTW, this is why you get less
> experience when you kill something while standing braced, too.  Now,
> if we get rid of infinitely generating generators, this is not a
> problem anymore.

 If we also got rid of bracing, that would also make that method of exp gain
harder.

 I would also think that with skills, such an exp gain is less useful - sure
your phyiscal exp will be up there, but your other skills will suffer.  But in
the old days, there was just one level which determined all spell casting
abilities and the like.

 Of course a clever programmer could write a client robot that basically does
the same thing (stands in the doorway, eats waybread, and casts burning hands or
whatever else in that direction once in a while).  Of course, all that waybread
doesn't come cheap.

 One thought on this would be the idea someone else had on reputation - if that
player is known as the great orc killer, then the orcs would not come rushing
towards him.  At minimum, monsters should perhaps take a rough look at the
player and make some simple judgement calls - those orcs, while they may try to
rush taht level 5 player hoping to overwhelm him, will probably leave that level
10 person alone.  So if that is done, then such method os exp really won't work,
since the mosnters won't approach.

 Such a simple level comparision/run away is fairly easy to code - certainly
much easier than many of the other ideas that has been discussed.
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