Re: More Thoughts.

["Eric A. Anderson" <eanders+@cmu.edu>]

master@cats.UCSC.EDU (Mark Wedel) writes:
>  Alchemy spell (Got it from Talisman game actually).  Basically, you cast
> this spell, and anything in the area is turned to gold.  This means
> that you don't have to haul 500 lbs of stuff back to town with you to
> sell it.
I think it is reasonable to have to haul it back to town.  That's part
of reality, moreover, it means that if you have stuff a long way away
from the towns it's harder to get it back.

>  Scale: Perhaps different scale for different maps.  For example, must
> dungeons and towns would be scale 1 (no change.)  However, outdoors (outside
> of towns), the scale might be something different.  Then, when you meet
> something, the game loads an encounter map for that terrain, and
> you are placed on it (like (at least) some of the Ultimas did.)  As such
> one monster image on the outside map may actually be half a dozen.
> Likewise, if the party wishes, they can be grouped into one image
> to move with.
Ultima 4/5 did this, when you entered into a map it zoomed in, -- or
at least it acted as though it did.  Indeed, crossfire pretty much has
this already since the way of getting into a town is the same as
Ultima 4/5.  Ultima 6 went to a single size and I thought that was a
mistake.  I'm not convinced that you want to zoom in on combats,
mainly because I'm not sure about what it should look like to other
people walking around.

[outside maps with tiling]
It's not clear why not just making a large map would not be sufficient
for this purpose.  Can you elaborate?

[single vs multiple player]
I personally would prefer that it stay multiple player.  This is
because when a game is single person only, it takes more work to make
it interesting.  Hopefully as crossfire matures, more people will play
it and so you will get more interactions with many people.  Even
better would be a way for people to compete with each other.  This
would keep the game interesting, because people learn whereas monsters
generally don't.
           -Eric 
*********************************************************
"It seemed like a good idea at the time"
           -The Mad Hatter
"Yes, you're very smart.  Shut up."
           -In "The Princess Bride"
*********************************************************