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CF: incompatible objects (was Re: Experiments)



On Wed, 25 Aug 1999, Scott Wedel <scott@campy.Tymnet.COM> wrote:
> I'd limit a player to one Glowing Crystal by running an inventory
> check for any other Glowing Crystals when the character picks up a
> Glowing Crystal.  If another GC (glowing crystal) is found then
> create an object associated with each GC that starts to heat up it's
> GC.  The rate of heat increase and the force of the eventual
> explosion would be a function of the number of stored up spell
> points in each GC.  I suppose once a GC "found" another GC to react
> with then it would continue to react even if dropped and speed of
> the reaction would be a function of distance between GCs.  Which
> could allow two GCs to be charged up and placed on a square to blow
> up a monster as a creative solution.

I like this idea very much and I think that it should be applied to
other objects as well.  All artifacts and quest items should have some
strong ego that makes them incompatible with other objects or prevent
the player from carrying or applying more than one of them.

In the current game, some items can be too powerful if the player
collects more than one of them.  Glowing crystals are a good example,
because a player that carries many of them can have an almost
unlimited supply of mana (provided that he is patient enough to
recharge them).  As suggested above, there should be something that
prevents the player from using more than one of them at the same time.
So solving the same quest several times after each map reset will not
be interesting anymore, and I think that it is a good thing.

Other items gives an unfair advantage if they are used together with
another item.  For example, a weapon that protects from cold without
giving a vulnerability to fire, used together with an armour that
protects from fire.  It should not be possible to use a combination of
items that protects from both cold and fire at the same time (although
it should be possible to get these protections by using spells or
potions).  There should be some code that detects the incompatibility
between these items and causes one of them to un-apply itself or to
have some creative effects on the player.

I think this would help a lot in balancing the game: currently, the
players are almost encouraged to solve the same quests several times,
in order to accumulate the useful items without many risks since they
know the maps already.  Also, it becomes more and more usual for
players of all kinds (fighters, mages or priests) to be protected from
almost everything.  This in turn encourages the map designers to
create tougher maps and monsters, but at the same time they add new
artifacts that unbalance the game even more, and so on.  If there were
more incompatibilities between powerful items, then the players could
not get so many bonuses and would have to think about the best
armour/weapon combination before entering a fight (note: we should
also check the maps so that there are not too many traps in which the
player has no way to guess what kind of monsters is nearby).  This
would also improve the balance between fighters and mages, because the
fighters rely mostly on the protections given by their equipment,
while the mages or priests could also use spells or prayers to get
these protections.  If the high-level fighters cannot get as many
protections from their equipment as they do now, then the mages regain
some advantages.

Finally, this would also reduce the need for "unique" items, which are
sometimes unfair in multi-player games: the first one gets the good
stuff and the other players get nothing.  If we can be sure that it is
no possible for a player to get more than one of the same item, then
it is not necessary for them to be marked "unique".  By the way, we
should also check that it is not interesting or not possible for the
player to sell the extra items that he cannot use.

> I'd even be willing to entertain the thought that different items
> with that uniqueness flag set can interact with the character and
> each other much like item ego and so stop player from equipping the
> item or unequipping the item depending upon the item's mood.  A
> lowish level player with too many good items could end up being
> overwhelmed by the items and lose control of what is equipped and so
> on.

Yes, this has been suggested before and I think that it is a very good
idea.  Very powerful items should have a very poweful ego.

-Raphael

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