Crossfire Mailing List Archive
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: CF: Experiments



Scott Wedel wrote:
> 
> RE:
> > > - merging Glowing Crystals
> 
> Multiple Glowing Crystals is actually an item which I would like to adjust so
> that a character may only have one of at a time.  Sort of like getting too much
> Uranium 238 together in one spot in that they'd feed off of each other, overheat
> and probably blow up or at a minimum break.
> 
> Limiting a character to one Glowing Crystal also has some nice gameplay effects.
> First, it would no longer be as easy to walk around with unlimited Mana points in
> reserve.  Second it creates the possibility of other dungeons having as a quest
> item a more powerful Glowing Crystal (presumably with some negative side effects
> such as STR -1 or such).

    Sounds good to me.  How do we enforce this, though?  With the current
method of charging and draining the crystals, they aren't readied, and can
be dropped in a bag and switched easily enough.
    One solution would be to have players equip a single crystal so that it
automatically charges at some rate.  Perhaps the player's spell point
regeneration, once they've reached their maxsp, would start going directly
into the crystal until it's full, too.  Then the crystal could transfer its
energy back by doubling their regeneration rate as long as it has energy and
its owner is below maximum.  That would mean that the player's spell point
regeneration rate would determine how quickly they can charge a crystal and
how quickly they can draw from it.
    That would also allow crystals to simply lose their energy when they're
unequipped, so there would be no point in having more than one.  This would
completely change the function of the crystals.  Instead of mana batteries,
they would basically add to the player's maxsp.  Is that the change we want?

    Alternatively, we could search the player's inventory (and containers)
every time they apply a crystal, and have the crystals "short-circuit" each
other if a second crystal is found.  That would make it *almost* impossible
to use multiple crystals.  You'd have to carry the extras around seperately,
leave them outside, and only carry one into battle.  Then when that one's
empty, retreat and hope they're still where you left them so you can switch
crystals and go on fighting.


> In general, quest artifact items probably make sense being limited to one per
> character.  Only because the game refreshes maps can players do the same quest
> multiple times.  It is clearly nonrealistic for a player to complete a quest,
> wait a day and then do it again.  It would be quite hard and require severe game
> adjustments to absolutely prohibit a player from repeating a quest, but
> limiting a player's ability to carry numerous quest unique items strikes me as
> a reasonable gameplay solution.  Glowing Crystals are one of the few quest
> artifact items where it does make sense to have a number of them.  Once a
> character can do that quest then you repeat it a few times and suddenly life is
> a whole lot easier.

    So, rather than enforcing the uniqueness of quest items, we're trying to
make it pointless to own more than one?  Or two, in the case of rings, I
guess.  I was definitely going in the wrong direction with making stacks of
crystals *easier* to use, then.  They'll definitely need a change, but that
wasn't it.

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

Disclaimer:
This has been a public service announcement brought to you by the makers of
Fat-Free Nutra-Sweet Coated Decaf-Coffee Crunch cereal!  New and Improved
with "I Can't Believe It's Not Lard"(tm) synthetic fat-substitute!

Quote of the Day:
The two most common things in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.
-
[you can put yourself on the announcement list only or unsubscribe altogether
by sending an email stating your wishes to crossfire-request@ifi.uio.no]