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Re: CF: some thoughts on skills
> 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').
Perhaps one thing to add is make skill scrolls by default non identified, and
also have cursed skill scrolls out there. You read a cursed one, and you lose
that skill and/or some EXP. Also, perhaps reading a skill scroll in which you
already know the skill gives some slight benefit (ie, the scrolls have been
written by different people, so you do learn something.)
I am meaning to do this with spellbooks right now, as at some point, you just
apply all the spellbooks you find as a cheap way to identify them (or you learn
a new spell). Adding cursed spellbooks which cause you to lose that spell if
you know it would certainly make things a little more interesting.
> 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).
There is always the challenge between having the game set up so you really
must be part of a party to fully explore the game (which I believe most public
server admins want), and having it set up so that those who are solo players
can still enjoy the game. And you also want to do this such that you don't
need to have different sets of maps or radically different sets of skills.
Perhaps an idea would be to have a more general skill settings file (the
skill_params file is very specific to various skills - what I am thinking is a
more general file for a big picture.) Various things in it could be cost
multiplier for skill scrolls, setting a maximum number of skills a character
can know (there should probably be some limit no matter what, but a lower limit
would certainly mean you need to be in a party for all skills to be
represented, a a higher number means you could know most of them in one
character.) I am sure there is other stuff that could be added to better
customize things.
> Riding (Agility) User can 'mount' a neutral/friendly monster
I believe this one will require quite a bit of code changes for it to work
correctly/reliably (ie, if you get into combat, you need to do the right thing.
movement over terrain should be based on the mount, etc.)
> Swimming (Misc) User can move onto floor squares that have
Strength and amount being carried should also factor in (ie, you should not
be able to swim accross a river carrying all the loot you just got from a
dungeon) Perhaps having rules such that you instantly sink to the bottom make
some sense, and take damage for each tick under water.
Also, this would also open up adding a water breathing spell.
>
> Shiphandling (Misc) User can navigate (eg "move") a boat (thats
With the addition of this and swimming, it might be better to just revamp the
water types. For example, there could be shallow water (can swim, but can't
gets ships in it), rough water (big ships OK, small ships and swimming not
possible), impassable water (to protect certain special areas). I could see
this being extended a bit (ie, dangerous water that is full of stuff that
causes damage, but you can swim in it if desired, etc.) It would of course be
interesting to have running water, such that it pushes you in certain
directions (for rivers). I wonder if the player movers could be used for that,
however.
Also, there should probably be some way to buy ships which don't require the
shiphandlign skill (ie, they come with a crew, but cost much more.) In this
way, you don't lock out certain maps from players because they are missing some
skill.
I guess I should say that locking out certain maps may not necessarily be bad
(brian has several skills below that would be used just for some maps.)
However, for this particular area, I see that ships would be used for inter
continent travel, so lacking a ship/skills could cut you off from a very large
number of maps.
> Cold Survival (Misc) User gets some protection to COLD only while
Probaby makes sense when various protection levels are added. A desert
survival skill might also make sense.
> Cartography (Mental) User can make a map of the area your in.
I guess this could be done by just storing the color information in the
message buffer. Note that we would need to be careful on the selling of these
(completeness might better be changed to number of map squares, as many maps
have large areas that are not accessible, so can never really be considered
complete.) Number of squares could also be useful in that a large map is
probably more useful than a small map. AFter all, most people don't need maps
of small areas, because it is pretty easy to keep all of that stuff straight -
maps of large areas are what you need.
However, we need to be careful on the selling - otherwise, someone clears out
some large difficult dungeons and takes in half a dozen scrolls, maps it out,
and sells it for a bunch of money.
> Stealing (Agility) Allow user to steal from shops (eg use skill
If caught, perhaps have the character 'buy' the item for above cost (ie,
shopowner forces you to buy it). In that way, stealing expensive items can be
risky. If you don't have money, you obviously don't get the item, and then
maybe some other punishment (perhaps you loose some of your items to make up
the payment, or maybe in other cases the guards show up.) This makes it a bit
more of a guessing game - if you know that guards just show up, but you know
you can beat the guards, it is not much of a problem. However, if you possibly
loose some of your good stuff, that makes things a little riskier, and you
might not be able to beat the guards with no equipment at all (probably not in
fact, and at the point you can, you probably don' need to steal for much reason
anyways.)
> Woodsman (Mental) Can find/id lumber/sticks/herbs/etc generated
> Mining (Mental) Can find/harvest 'ore'. Of course, only your
For both of these, it might be useful to have random herb and random vein
spaces. The random herb might have a very good chance of generating nothing -
thus, you have a forest with these squares, but maybe only a few actually
generate anything (so you can't go to the same space each time to find
something.) The random ore vein might always generating something (to fill in
the dungeon), but who knows what it will be. You could also have it so that
some of the time it is just soft rock, so it can still be dig through.
--
-- Mark Wedel
mark@pyramid.com
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