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CF: some thoughts on skills
Hey All,
Back again with a redux on some thoughts on further possible
development of the CF skills code. This is something Id like
to work on soon.
Since I previously mailed on this subject to the list, Ive
integrated the feedback of others and incorporated some new
insights into my thoughts. What follows is a refined outline of
"objectives" for working on the skills code. Comments are
encouraged.
-b.t.
PREREQUISITE SKILLS
-------------------
We should change the code so that its easy to specify somewhere in
the skill arch that another skill must be learned first. In this
way we can build any arbitrary tree of skills (right now, only the
use of writing skill requires another skill -- literacy).
Use of this new code would allow us to develop "key" skills to limit
the development of characters (if this is so desired).
CODE TO ALLOW REMOVAL OF SKILLS
-------------------------------
This shouldn't be too hard, but there should be conditions under
which we can remove skills from the player, for example at death (but
we never remove a "starting" skill) or by attack ("the reaper hits you!
You forget your skill of <name>!!"). One day, we may also wish to
remove skills so that better, 'mastery' skills (that provide additional
benefits) can replace the older ones (for example 'archery' replaces
'missile weapons').
CHANGES TO SKILLS
-----------------
0 - Change the talisman and holy symbol archs so that they always
are of a more limited effect than having spellcasting/praying
skills.
1 - Increase the cost of most skills (~ x5). This will help promote
multi-player parties. Another idea (Im just throwing out, NOT serious
bout it) would be to allow players to learn skills from NPC's for
a good fee. We determine what we can learn from what skills the
NPC possesses (NPC may need to have a level greater than say ~10;
we can generate these 'teachers' as random monsters occasionally,
providing a ready made quest for players).
2 - Here's my revamped list of skills ideas. Some new skills are needed
in the game (esp splitting up the "smithery" skill), while others are
a revamp of a current skill.
Skillname (exp. cat) Description
------------------- -------------------------------------
* Movement enchancing skills *
Running (Misc) User gets to move faster while the skill
is readied. Amount of speed gained depends
on the str/dex/con of the user.
Riding (Agility) User can 'mount' a neutral/friendly monster
that is of race 'animal'. We change our speed
based on the creatures (BUT don't use its
straight speed value which would be very slow).
We also change our carrying capacity too. To
dismount, you change to another skill. We use
the monsters arch while we are mounted. This
skill should be level based, an only allow
us to mount animals that have level less than
ours and are tame (ie, not aggressive, but
not necessarily friendly either). For further
consideration, we could limit the use of this
skill to a particular set of races (eg animal,
dragon, etc). If the animal you mount can
swim (see below), then you can also cross
water as well (while mounted). Its possible
to be thrown off the mount under a number
of conditions.
Swimming (Misc) User can move onto floor squares that have
the FLAG_IS_WATERY set. If you change to
another skill *while* still 'in the water'
then you start to drown as per the deep
swamp code. We would have to edit some maps
to retain their playbalance. Note: we retain
the ability to have 'dangerous water' where no
body can swim by having FLAG_NO_PASS set.
Shiphandling (Misc) User can navigate (eg "move") a boat (thats
and vessel that allows you to move on those
is_watery squares). Of course, we anyone to
get on the vessel.
* Survival/protection skills *
Slow Metabolism (Misc) User can slow down their digestion. Poisoning
and bleeding effects are also slowed down (as
are also the healing of wounds!).
Cold Survival (Misc) User gets some protection to COLD only while
skill is readied. Foresee a time when players
will walk on cold floors (aka ice and snow)
that do cold damage.
Mental Block (Mental) User gets the protection to CONFUSION, FEAR,
SLOW and PARALYZE attacks while skill is
readied. Defense versus spells of path_mind
and path_transfer.
* Misc 'Fun' roleplaying skills. Give very little exp. *
Philosophy (Mental) User gets no advantage, and is in fact paralyzed
briefly (based on your mental level!) for each
active use :). Plan to use this as something you
need in order to access certain maps (like
the university, sage/scholar's home, etc).
Theology (Wisdom) As per philosophy, but for gaining access to
inner temple areas, etc.
Begging (Mental) User can get a few coins from a friendly/neutral
NPC. Can provoke them to aggression.
* craft skills -- we can make stuff found in the game! *
Cartography (Mental) User can make a map of the area your in.
Need a special (expensive) vellum scroll and
pen. The way this works is you add all
currently viewable squares w/ each use. You
apply the vellum scroll to see (aka magic
mapping) what you have mapped (there will
be "blackout sections" until you map the
whole area). User is "paralyzed" for each
use. Maps are worth money based on completeness
and default difficult of the map.
Gardening (Mental) User can make a garden of plants using 'cuttings'
(which are any food object w/ FLAG_IS_GROWABLE
and other_arch <mature_plant_arch> set). User
level sets the success of growing and number of
resulting 'herbs'/'seeds'/etc.
* the rest of these craft skills allow id of items and we
can re-use the alchemy recipe code to allow creation of
various new items by players/npcs *
Tailoring (Mental) User can id ARMOUR items that have leather,
cloth as material. User can use this skill
in conjunction w/ other items to perform various
tasks such as: repair (w/ use of needle & yarn),
spin yarn (w/ spinning wheel), weave cloth
(w/ loom) and make new items (w/ raw materials
and a needle). Skill level sets the quality
of the work performed and what may be made.
Carpentry (Mental) User can id WEAPON and ARMOUR items that contain
wood as a material. User can use this skill
in conjunction w/ other items to perform various
tasks such as: repair wood (w/ use raw materials)
and build (furniture, all-wood weapons, doors,
chests/shelves and wood walls) using wood raw
materials and hammer/nails.
Blacksmith (Mental) User can id WEAPON and ARMOUR items that contain
mostly metals as a material. User can use this
skill in conjunction w/ other items to perform
various tasks such as: repair metal items like
weapons and armour (using an anvil & hammer),
build/make metal items (weapons, armour, and
metal doors) and refine ore (using a smelter).
Mason (Mental) User can id WEAPON and ARMOUR items that contain
stone/bone as a material. Can build stone items
from raw materials (eg stone wall, stone chest),
and can make bricks (from mud).
Cooking (Mental) User can id FOOD items and make food from raw
materials using a stove/pot.
Poisoner (Mental) User can id poisoned items. Can make poisons
from raw materials (but note that we will allow
anyone to apply a poison to weapon/lock/etc).
Tinker (Mental) User can build various items using raw materials
and the appropriate tools. Tasks include:
creating locks on doors/chests, making clocks,
building traps (on doors, chests, etc), making
copies of keys, and building other sundry
'luxury' items like eye glasses, telescopes, etc.
Siege Weapons (Mental) User can make/id a new type of weapon
"SIEGE_ENGINE". These items are heavy (like 200+
kg) and slow to fire, BUT do lots of damage. A
good possibility for players with a plan for
their attack that needs that good opening shot :)
* Thief skill re-vamp *
Stealing (Agility) Allow user to steal from shops (eg use skill
in the direction of an 'unpaid' item). Failure
results in punishment (like teleported to jail,
guards show up to kill you, the item gets
cursed/poisoned/explodes) all dependent on
the value/magic of the item being stolen.
Lockpicking (Agility) Allow the user to pick the locks of chests.
In fact, as Omega does, DONT let ppl open
chests unless they: 1) bash it open (can
destroy contents), 2) use lockpicking or
3) have a key.
* Scrounging skills -- find/create raw materials based on the
map difficulty and skill level of the user. These skills
don't give much exp for use *
Fishing (Mental) Can extract fish/clams/etc from rivers, lakes
and the ocean (basically, and floor square
w/ is_watery set). This probably only available
as a 'fishing pole' or 'fishing net'.
Woodsman (Mental) Can find/id lumber/sticks/herbs/etc generated
from floor tiles w/ is_wooded flag set. Still
gets the movement bonus, but no longer can id
food. You'll need an axe to harvest lumber.
Mining (Mental) Can find/harvest 'ore'. Of course, only your
best miner will find mithril on the last
level of the balrog's lair :). You'll need a
pick/shovel to extract the ore. Ore is only
generated on is_hilly floor/wall squares.
* New personality skills *
Leadership (Pers) May recruit and command Npc's. Replaces current
oratory skill. We improve the monster parser
to allow a broad range of things such as commands
for NPC's to guard <item|creature>, stay, follow,
and attack <creature|everything but me>. Command
can fail resulting in a hostile follower or AWOL.
Can only be used on 'goblin', 'human', 'faery'
and ?? races.
Peacemaking (Pers) Can use this skill to calm and pacify creatures.
This skill replaces singing.
Interrogation (Pers) For each use, the user gets one randomly selected
message from the NPC's msg buffer. Can only be
used on 'friendly' or 'neutral' or "paralyzed"
hostile creatures. You risk making NPC hostile
with each use. This skill can kill weak hostile
creatures (no exp awarded!).
Insult (Pers) Can cause Npc's to fight with each other. Failure
results in them attacking the player!
Snake Charming (Pers) Versus hostile NPC with race 'reptile' you can
make peaceful. Vrs neutral/friendly you can use
this skill to 'charm' them into 'golem'. (you
can control only one reptile at a time).
Herding (Pers) Each use of this skill results in creatures
of race 'animal' moving 1 square in the
indicated direction. Works only on neutral/
friendly creatures (race 'animal' or 'bird').
Animal training (Pers) As per the leadership skill, but works versus
creatures from the 'animal', 'bird' and
'dragon' race lists.
* Ritual skills, I doubt these will get implemented any time
soon, but I like the idea (from Kundi) alot. *
Ritual Wizardry For this skill we invent a new type of spell
casting: "ritual magic" which allows several
players to contribute to the casting of a spell.
To do this we need a "RITUAL_SPELL" arch that
is created when a player uses this skill and
his 'readied spell' is deposited into the
RITUAL_SPELL (it can look like a swrilling
mana pool next to the player). Mana then begins
to slowly 'drain' from the player into the
RITUAL_SPELL upto and BEYOND the mana cost
normally charged for this spell. The spell is
enhanced in effectiveness for each time the
mana cost is doubled from the normal value.
The spell is then released by player making
a ranged attack in direction they desire. BEFORE
the spell is released another player with
the same spell and the Ritual Wizardry skill
readied may contribute mana to the spell too.
Control can be lost if too much mana is fed
to the spell. Exp for anything killed by the
spell goes to the original caster (or maybe
is split? hmmm.). Only incantations can be
cast with this skill. NOTE: you don't need
to have the normal wizardry skill to use this
one (although it could be a requirement for
learning ritual wizardry). Its an interesting
idea that only talismans and ritual wizardry
could exist in a CF game world...
[ must know spellcasting before you learn this]
Ritual Prayer (wisdom) As per Ritual Wizardry, but for cleric spells
only. Also, all casting priests must share
the same religion (or at least not be enemy
aligned gods!).
[ must know praying skill before you learn this]
* New Wisdom skill *
Sacrifice (wisdom) The priest can use this skill to sacrifice
body parts over their gods altar to gain
experience and/or grace/other benefits.
Body parts must come from enemy aligned races.
[Requires theology skill to learn]
* and some new skills for that 'boring' Monk character! *
Kung Fu (Phys) User gets improved attack (better than karate)
and defense. Thought: user gets to make a
'chi' strike with the special attack. This
attack costs the user mana, but has the
ability to hit magical creatures (we just
at AT_WEAPONMAGIC to that attack).
[This skill should require user know meditation
AND theology before they can learn it.]
Drunken Fighting (Phys) This HTH skill is same as karate, but allows
the user the benefit of better ac. This rare
skill requires user know karate first.
Piercing Punch (Phys) A martial arts attack form that lets the
user make a special IMPALE attack. Normal HTH
attack is slightly worse than Karate.
Slicing Stroke (Phys) A martial arts attack form that lets the
user make a special CUTTING attack. Normal HTH
attack is slightly worse than Karate.
Disarming Hold (Phys) A martial arts attack form that lets the
user make a special DISARM attack. Normal HTH
attack is a bit worse than Karate.
Blinding Touch (Phys) An 'esoteric' martial arts form that lets the
user make a special attack w/ AT_BLINDNESS.
This HTH attack is slightly worse than Karate.
[Must know kung fu skill first]
Breaking Grip (Phys) A martial arts attack form that lets the
user make a special attack to damage the WEAPON
and armour of your opponent. This HTH attack
is a bit worse than Karate.
Quivering Palm (Phys) The most dreaded 'esoteric' martial arts form,
it lets the user make that AT_DEATH special
attack. Compares user phys level vrs opponent
to determine success. Can 'backfire'.
This rare skill should require Kung Fu skill
and a difficult quest! ]
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