Re: screwy

[Frank Tore Johansen <frankj>]

Goudge Austin wrote:
> There's something seriously screwy with this mailing list !!!
> 
> (I expect I'll get this back three times as well !)

Indeed...I didn't dare to write about it until it was fixed though.

I'm really sorry to have, for the second time, filled your mailing
boxes with these repeated messages...As I mentioned a week ago,
it was a sendmail problem.
I've flamed the local administration, but they don't have the time
to fix the problem right now.
As a temporary solution I've removed what caused it, the sites with
broken sendmail from the mailing-list.  There should be no more
echoes now.


While I'm mailing, I'll give a little update on what has been done.
I've written some documentation (gasp!) for those who are working
with the source.
Some work has been done in converting the maps to the new standard,
but no "quality control" has been done yet.  In other words, those
who have converted their own areas have generally converted it all,
without throwing out, or working on, the older maps.

I've received various patches, and all have been included...You can
change the game quite a lot by fiddling around with the various
defines in include/config.h
I haven't had time to actually play the game, thus I haven't hunted
down any of the various bugs which are known to crash the game...
Considering the number of patches I've received, this is sorely
needed before I release another version.

I'd also like to hear from those who I know are working on Crossfire,
but haven't received anything from, to avoid having several people
workin the same features...



Now, over to some points from the few three letters...

Alex Villamil wrote:
> o Perhaps something that would increase the 'magic'
>   on weapons and armor.  Kind of like the what the scroll of
>   enchant weapon does in nethack.  Why? Well, Dragonslayer
>   is nice weapon to have, but I'd kind of like to
>   do more damage than +3(dam11).  Or is this already implemented?

No, it isn't implemented, but it will be, with a certain chance of failure
which destroys the item.
The price and availability of such a scroll will have to be thought
through, since it will heavily affect the balance of the game.

> o Have info on monster attacks.  Decsribe what they're doing
>   while creaming you to pieces.

Yes, the current sustem is horrible.  But we can't have output like
some muds ("The goblin charges screaming into the melee, swinging his
battleaxe at your head, but you deflect his blow on your shield.").
It's just too verbose, considering the speed of the game.
The ideal would be to find a graphical way of displaying damage in
amount and type (physical/fire), since this is the only way for the
player to be able to parse all the output from the game.

> o Cloak of Displacement.  Monsters attack image a few squares away.

I've actually thought about this, and now know how to implment it
efficiently...consider it done 8)

> o Have pets be able to *learn* spells just by picking up books.

Intelligent pets do this...as far as I know.  Remember that only some
monsters are able to cast spells from books.  This includes most
intelligent humanoid monsters, and som others.

> o Let certain monsters follow you outside.

This is actually very difficult to implement efficiently.
But it is possible, now that I've made a timeout for when the map
will be saved after you leave it (typically 10 seconds).

> o Introduce the concept of luck.

It has been implemented a long time 8)  But there is only one item
which affects your luck as of now...

> o Ring of Conflict (Nethack). Monsters attack eachother if player
>   enters room wearing this.

This is _the_ most powerful item in Nethack, and it will have to be
tuned down considerably before being introduced to Crossfire.
For instance, it only affects monsters within a certain radius
of the wearer, and a successful saving-throw negates the effect.

> Also, Crossfire needs a purpose.  Right now, we pretty much just go
> around killing monsters and getting things for no reason.  It needs 
> some kind of ultimate goal.  From other games:

This is a map problem.  Crossfire already have the ability to make quite
complex "quests", with quest-iitems, with story, with... you name it.
The new editor is a terrific aide, all that is lacking is some more
documentation on how to make good maps, and how to use all the different
features in Crossfire.

Mark Wedel wrote (slightly edited):
> Alchemy spell (Got it from Talisman game actually).  Basically, you cast
> this spell, and anything in the area is turned to gold.

Hmm...it's unlogical that it would create coins, and it should only work
on metals...  Be careful with the economy of the game, it's very
frail, and easy to abuse 8)

>  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.)

I've thought about it, but it won't happen anytime soon...  But it would
definitely add to the feeling of distance, which, imho, is a good thing.

> [About joining several maps, and load the neighbouring map when
> approaching the edge]

This is a big can of worms.  It is possible to implement it, but it
requires lots of code, and lots of rewriting to old code...
Not to mention cpu...
The way to implement this would be to make it transparent for the map,
ie everything works as if it was _one_ big map, and insert_ob_in_map()
would have to check if any neighbouring maps will have to be loaded...

Goudge Austin wrote:

> I think that the main attraction of Crossfire (to me) is the multiplayer
> facility.

Indeed!  Too bad so few are utilizing this...

-Frank.