Crossfire Archive
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Re: CF: Stupid: strange ring
On Feb 18, 5:51pm, Steve Yegge wrote:
> You could reset the server periodically, perhaps once a day. There
> are other online internet games that make daily (or weekly) resets
> mandatory even if they're not required for run-time stability,
> because resets are good for smoothing out problems with hoarding items.
But if we go along with it taking quite a while to gain levels, frequent
resets probably don't work.
A more interesting method could be to periodically have the artifacts
disappear (ie, you can have it one week, and then it goes away to be
regenerated.) I still don't really like this - I would like for infrequent
players to have just as much fun/just as fair a chance whether they play 6
hours on a weekend, or 4 hours each night.
What could make more sense/more interesting is needing to sacrifice certain
items to get to the next stage/map. For example, to enter some dungeon, you
need to show your worthiness and donate some artifact from someplace else.
> There are already lots of artifacts on the game, and as you point
> out, more are being created as time goes on. And you shouldn't have
> to have an artifact in your possession in order to play the game.
I agree with that. On the other hand, if you are playing and haven't seen any
artifacts, and some other character walks by with 10, and you know you can't
get them because he has them, it makes things a little less interesting.
> - make artifact shop prices extremely high, and don't allow
> people to save with artifacts. It encourages people to
> sell items to each other.
This is generally the case.
>
> - require people to place their inventory in "lockers" before
> saving. Place a daily surcharge on locker use, based on the
> value of the items in the locker.
Maybe a per access charge would be better (keeps things fair between the
frequent and infrequent players, and means you just can't keep putting stuff in
and out without some penalty.)
>
> - more importantly, restrict the money supply. Fix the maps
> so that it's only marginally profitable to clear a map out,
> after deducting the cost of healing and identifying items.
Healing is free. At low levels, it probably isn't profitable to clear out the
maps and identify all the stuff. AT higher levels, you identify the magic
stuff.
Where it becomes profitable is when you find stuff +2 or greater (probably
worth more than the cost of identifying) or find a whole mess of +1 stuff.
What should probably be done is add a hard weight limit (100 kg * str? or
maybe lower than that). Thus, no matter how many speed rings you have, you
just are not going to be able to pick up everything and take it out. Right
now, you can pretty much do that, and the speed rings will keep you moving at a
reasonable rate.
As for enchanting stuff: Maybe remove that from the player somewhat? Right
now, the player knows what he has to do and what he will get for it. Maybe add
a more random methodology (ie, at the bottom of some dungeon, there is an
altar, and if you put your sword on that, it may be enchanted.) And perhaps
through various lore (ie, people in the tavern), the player could find out
about this (and also, tossing on a bunch of potions or body parts or whatever
might improve the enchantment.)
The armor stuff has probably also gotten more out of balanced. Way back when,
there were basically 3 common armors that a player would wear - armor itself
(chain, plate, etc), shield, and helm. There were a few special pairs of
boots, and a few special pairs of gloves, and no cloaks.
Now, finding +1 or +2 gloves and boots isn't incredibly uncommon, and cloaks
were added. While none of these have any value, the fact you can find
enchanted ones with value mean that by 10'th level, a player can achieve 5 or 6
ac points that were previously not there. That is a certain in balance.
And I am not sure who brought up alchemy, but I will agree that finding
recipes is next to impossible by playing the game. I have been playing with it
for a while, and aside from the basic recipes (ie, stuff you need to make
before you can make useful stuff), I think I have only ever found one useful
recipe. Now maybe the books on that are just a bit high (I think the highest
literacy that character has had might be level 9 or 10), or maybe they just
don't show up. Whatever the case, literacy as an honest method of making stuff
just hasn't shown up.
--
-- Mark Wedel
mark@pyramid.com
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