No Subject

["Mark Wedel" <mark@icp.siemens.com>]

________=22Re=3A_CF=3A_Races=2C_starting_cities=2C_word_of_recall=22_=28Ja?=
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References: <199812081403.QAA13857@linguine.tte.vtt.fi> 
	<369B92B8.2AECA168@eed.ericsson.se>
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To: CrossFire mailing list <crossfire@ifi.uio.no>
Subject: Re: CF: Races, starting cities, word of recall
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On Jan 12,  7:21pm, Rapha=EBl Quinet wrote:

>
> Prerequisites (code changes):
> - the player structure contains a new field giving the player's
>   home, i.e. the place where the character will respawn after death
>   or word of recall (instead of the hardcoded central square in
>   Scorn).

 easy enough to do.

> - two new archetypes: a special altar that resets the player's home,
>   and a special teleporter that sets the player's home, race and
>   other things (see below).

 Probably don't need a new archetype for the altar - extending many altar=
s to
allow them to set the home might make sense.  So a flag or some other val=
ue in
the altar specifying that is it updates the return to home would probably=
 be
better.


> A newly created character would start as a ghost (or some representatio=
n
> of a soul) on a special map ("/limbo" or "/start").  That map would
> contain special exits to the different starting cities.  In the first
> version, they could all point to Scorn, but that could change when more=

> starting villages are added.  These special one-way teleporters would s=
et
> the character's race, abilities and equipment, adjust the stats and set=

> the character's home to be the place where they are teleported.  They
> would in fact do a part of what is done currently when the player selec=
ts
> a race just after rolling the stats.
>
> It would be nice to have that special starting map, because it could
> contain some signs or magic mouths explaining some features of each
> race before the player chooses one (including some warnings for the
> "challenge races" that cannot use weapons or armour).  Also, it would
> then be very easy to integrate new starting villages for some races by
> changing the destination of these special teleporters.  And if these
> exits also set the character's home, then the word of recall would work=

> correctly when more than one starting city exists.

 But most all of that could be done without the special new map (the play=
er
archetypes could contain the home city also, and just updating the archs =
to
point to the new village could be done.)  It does have the problem that i=
f you
add a new class, you now need to update that map to contain the teleporte=
r for
that new class.

 I could certainly see some benefit to having documentation within the ma=
ps.
 On the other hand, having everything documented within crossfire may not=
 make
sense.  Another solution to this which does not require code changes is t=
o make
up some relatively quick and complete documents, put them on a web page
someplace, and change the motd of the day to include something like 'For =
hints
on creating a character, look at http:/whatever'.

 While the playbook is a very good resource, it is probably a bit long fo=
r
those who just want to fairly quickly get into the game.


> As I explained some weeks ago, another nice addition would be that some=

> temples in the cities would contain the special (pre-aligned) altars th=
at
> set your religion and at the same time reset your "home".  This means
> that when a player selects a god, he would also be resurrected in that
> god's temple.  This feature would add more atmosphere to the game.  Not=
e
> that, as I wrote previously, this change of the home location would onl=
y
> work on the special altars that are pre-aligned to some gods, so that
> nobody could use this feature to cheat by praying on a random altar nex=
t
> to a treasure room and come back to this place easily.

 This makes some sense.  Ideally, most towns should have a row of temples=
, so
you can pray in a town nearby where you are adventuring so if you use wor=
d of
recall to get back to town at least somewhat close to where you are.


-- =


-- Mark Wedel
mark@pyramid.com

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