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Re: CF: Stupid: strange ring

> 
> >  > So how about removing the stupid strange ring from the list of random
> >  > artifacts? After all, it's on top of the most useless artifacts list...
> 
>  Just because it is useless hardly means it should be removed.  Should we
> remove dragon armor from the list of random artifacts because there is now
> power dragon armor?  What about most of the artifact weapons?  There are
> certainly a few which are useful, and many which are curiousities.

No. There _are_ people using some of the random artifact weapons
(after all, the dragonbane, demonslayer or 60 dragon scales are not
particulary easy to get for a newbie).  However, all the newbies I
have seen had a ring of Life before they got their first strange ring,
so _I_ have never seen anyone using a strange ring. I _do_ know people
using dragon mails, eyeshields (I use them myself when building a
character from scratch), some of the random artifact weapons, and even
bonecrushers.

So maybe you don't to remove the strange ring --- how about just
exchanging the two, or making the ring of life less common? Maybe it's
just our local "crossfire user group" --- nobody understands why the
strange ring is an artifact, whereas the ring of life is a common random
item, since everbody _around_here_ believes that random artifacts should
be better than the usual random items.
> 
> > 	- fix it so that the maximum experience you can receive from
> > 	  ANY monster is 15,000 experience, or whatever is needed to
> > 	  take you to the next level, whichever is less at the time
> > 	  you kill the monster.

I don't think this will change much. As things work now, you can get
at most 50% of the difference between the current and the next level,
so you need to kill at least two "high exp" monsters to advance a level.

The only exception to this is draining --- however, it seems that there
are only a few monsters (such as the great wyrm of chaos) that can actually
give you several levels via draining. Nothing a newbie can get to.

Don't get me wrong --- I don't mind if it is implemented, since it
doesn't change anything.

> > 	- make more of the artifacts (strange ring, ring of life,
> > 	  bonecrusher and so on) unique.
> 
>  I am not sure if that really fixes anything - it seems to me, that the first
> person on the server to get those various things is in good shape, and everyone
> else is left to scramble for the various leftovers.

Yep. That's the point --- crossfire is multiuser, so if you can't get
useful items because the two or three persons you happened to be the
first to get them already have them, people just won't play on another
server but their own. Crossfire is not a MUD, it's an action game.

> > 	- lose the "trade 50 scales for this shield"-type artifacts.
> 
>  I think some of those have been fixed.  There are still the anvils where you
> can get armor/shield by bringing in scales, but still need to pay for it.  Are
> those considered unbalanced?

Don't think so. For one thing, a newbie doesn't know where they are, unless
they are told by other players. For experienced players building a new
character from scratch, they usually know where to find such things
(e.g. the dragon shield is a random artifact, the fire shield is in the
fire temple, the power dragon mail is in the fire temple, too, etc...).
> 
> > 	* the progression up to 30th level should take a very
> > 	  experienced player at least 2 months of round-the-clock play.
> > 	  For inexperienced players it should seem to be an almost
> > 	  unattainable ideal.
> 
>  Certainly, there are problems in progession - if I start a new character, I
> can get to 3'rd level in about 15 minutes - after that, it starts to slow down.

Slow down? Not really. Recently I started a new character on another
server, so I had to start from scratch. It was fun, since one actually had
to think about trees and beholders, and how to get some decent equipment.
However, I think cf is very good in the lowlevel area, as you can
advance easily by finding new challenges (ogres... trees... beholders...
wyverns... dragons...).

>  I actually tend to start really slowing down around level 10-15 - can kill a

Yep. But then, get your wisdom up, and try to learn summon avatar. The use
it to kill dreads...

> lot of stuff, but most things are not available in the huge numbers.

Wizard tower (if you have word of recall). 10 armies.

> if we change the exp award so that for any level, you need to kill at least 100
> monsters, that might slow down progression.

Yep.

> 2) As people play and get all these artifact, new map designers come up with
> even tougher maps that contain even better artifacts.  Repeat this step a few
> times, and some very powerful artifacts are created.

:-)

>  On a seperate point - is high levels as much a problem?  Does the skill system
> make high levels better or worse compared to the old system?  Do people think
> some maximum level should perhaps be applied (let score (exp) rise as high as
> you want, but limit level advancement?)

The problem with high level characters is that there is _no_ challenge.
It's easy to get high levels, and then the game becomes _very_ simple.
IMHO cf is play-balanced for low levels, but boring for high level
characters.

Christian


-- 
Christian (Icho/Gandhi/Ribald @sunbroy53.informatik.tu-muenchen.de, 13326)
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