Re: CF: more updates soon, comments/votes requested

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

> Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1999 22:55:54 +0200
> From: c.ohler@t-online.de (Christian Ohler)

> > - Portal spell
>
> There should be some message telling the player that the spell failed
> _for some reason_.  Might even just be "Nothing happens.".
> When the spell fails because of an invalid destination, does it count as
> fumbled (i.e. are there possible random side effects)?  Does the player
> lose mana?

If your destinaton is no longer valid, you are informed that it has
expired.  Similarly, if you haven't set a destination, you are told
that you need to set a destination first.  Either way, the spell
simply cannot be completed, and is aborted before any spell points are
wasted on it.


> > - Sacred weapons and armour
>
> What about negative effects when the player is wielding the weapon type
> of the enemy deity while praying?

Praying over your god's altar while using items sacred to your god's
enemy has similar effects to praying over the altar of your god's
enemy.  You lose a portion of your wisdom experience and might even
take physical damage.

If you're using a weapon or armour type that could be sacred to your
god, but has been blessed by some other (non-enemy) god instead, your
god *may* notice it, disapprove, and smite the item, removing the
other god's name from it and reducing its magic value.  Further prayer
has a chance of convincing your god to re-consecrate that item with
his own name instead.


> > - Hunger and starvation
> 
> So, when regeneration both hp and sp, is the food consumption still *4?
> Or *8?

While regenerating both, food consumption is eight times normal, which
is in most cases still less than 1 food for each hit point and an
additional 1 food for each spell point.


> One warning per food point? That means that you get each "hungry"
> message 250 times before you feel "more hungry". I think a message every
> 25 food points or so would be more appropriate.

Wait till you see the change before you judge the rate.  When you're
not using up food at a 1:1 rate with regeneration, one warning per
food point is sufficient.  One warning every 25 points would go
unnoticed, even with the non-black text.


> Or just change the scale, so the possible food points are +1000 to -200
> or something.

That's a possibility, but it would change the significance of food
much less.  I'll hold off on uploading this change until we can
further explore just how much we want to change the significance of
food.


> At how much food points does "you blindly grab a bite" happen? Maybe
> this has to be fine-tuned, too.

No change there.  If you reach zero food, you're too hungry to keep
from eating whatever food is available.  If you're still hungry,
messages start appearing to nag you and your regeneration starts
slowing down.  I did change the food-grabbing part a little bit,
though.  Instead of eating as much as necessary to get back above zero
all in one instant, only one food item is eaten per tick.


> Was having less than zero food possible before?

No.  Negative food and negative hit points were previously
equivalent.  Either condition indicated that you were already dead.


> If no, Are the clients able to handle food <0?  Even if it worked for
> you so far, the client code for storing/displaying food should be
> checked.

Now that you mention it, I didn't actually test that with the standard
cfclient, only the gcfclient.  There was no problem there and the code
is fairly similar, when not actually shared, so I don't anticipate any
problems, but I'll check anyway.


> Clients should then display all values >0 in black (I think they get red
> below a certain amount of food), so there aren't two different "hungry"
> states which don't differ in anything except display.

Below 250 (25%) food, the display turns red, which is still
reasonable, since it's still a good idea to eat before your hunger
becomes intolerable and starts physically affecting you.  The meaning
of the red display simply changes from critical, lethal danger to an
early warning.

-- 
            -Dave Noelle,                 dave@Straylight.org
            -the Villa Straylight,  http://www.straylight.org
Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email  ==  http://www.cauce.com

Disclaimer: Any resemblance between the above views and those of my
employer, my terminal, or the view out my window are purely coincidental.
Any resemblance between the above and my own views is non-deterministic.
The question of the existence of views in the absence of anyone to hold
them is left as an exercise for the reader.  The question of the existence
of the reader is left as an exercise for the second god coefficient.  (A
discussion of non-orthogonal, non-integral polytheism is beyond the scope
of this message.)

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