Re: CF: map exit with multiple destinations

[Mark Wedel <mwedel@scruznet.com>]

Hwei Sheng TEOH wrote:

> Hmmm, the reason I intended to use maps rather than have the server generate
> events (like pirate invasion) was so that the map designer can make a
> (hopefully) reasonable decision on how hard encountered monsters would be,
> based on the difficulty of the maps the ship goes between. I thought it would
> give more hesitation to players when they travel, so that people are less
> likely to run around between several cities hoping for something they want to
> appear in a shop somewhere (which happens to be what I do sometimes). :-)

 I think for the people shopping for stuff, the fix is somewhat in the shops
more than the ability to get to the different shops.  I have a feeling no matter
what is done, people will still be able to do shop surfing.

 The problem comes into what is appropriate difficulty.  There are some remote
cities which are fairly low level.  I can't think of many ship journeys which
should require a high level player - max of maybe level 10-15 or so?  I am not
sure at one point shop surfing begins and when it ends.

 I would really like to see the end to shop surfing.  For example, I have gone
shop surfing to find a specific spellbook - it would be more interesting that
the spellbook could known be found in some place.

 For low level spells, the quest could be something fairly simple, or
maybe there will always be at least one copy in some shops.  For other books,
the quest could either be fairly trivial for low level spells, or very difficult
for higher level spells.

 Now a player may still be able to find the same books in shop via random
chance.  But if you are looking for a specific spell, there should probably be
some way to find it someplace.

> 
> Also, I remember reading that we want to make travelling between cities more
> of an adventure? I get the impression that we might have things like being
> ambushed by orcs while on the road, etc.. It does seem to be a fine balance
> between annoying and interesting when making journeying less than 100% safe.

 The bigger goal is to increase the physical distance.  Right now, a journey
accross the country is only about twice as long as walking accross the towns -
that is really what needs to be fixed/improved.

 Now if you have random encounters, that is fine, but that should really be done
on the map you are journeying accross, and not load some new random map in which
you need to fight something. 


> 
> How about ships which are already on their own route? That sounds like
> something to consider.

 I like the idea of ships player could control.  Now you could have established
ship routes which could be done in some way.  But most games let the player
control where they are going - I general like that approach - a player should be
allowed to do whatever they want, and not be compelled into some other action.

 The other fact on this is that you could have remote islands and the like the
player could run accross or whatever.  As I think about it, I am not sure how
well that would really work out, as I sort of fear if interesting features are
added to the world map which sort of requires searching/running accross them
that they will get published and everyone will know about them pretty quickly.
-
[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]