Crossfire Archive
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Re: CF: hello


> Different monsters don't make a difference, since you still know the map
> (puzzles and items). It might be an incentive to do the map again, hoping
> for exp-giving monsters, but that's about it. IMHO there is no easy way
> to get around the "I know all the maps"-"problem", since randomization
> would have to invent new puzzles, invent new items & monsters etc.
> Heavy AI :-)

 Thats true.  nethack has very few puzzles - it is basically to get to the
bottom level, kill the demon or whatever, and then get back up to the top.

 The only real useful thing I could see with random maps would be more
interesting filler levels.  For example, maybe there is a 5 level dungeon, with
puzzles on the first and last level.  Random maps in between could be more
interesting than the static maps.


> Of course, things become very simple when the player builds the character
> before letting the automated player use it :-) With the current map set
> there are <10 monsters that can kill a properly equipped character,
> plus a couple of dangerous walls. The "run though the monsters" tactics
> would work great for the automated player.

 It could be said there is a problem in playbalance where there are <10
monsters left that are threatening to the player.  On the other hand, at what
level would the character need to be to become so properly equipped?


> >
> >  On the other hand, if passwords are unique for each player, then they at
least
> > need to visit the spot once to get the password, so they could not really
skip
> > over the quests.
>
> That's why I was suggesting creating passwords from player names and a
> string supplied by the server (and possible the player password, but
> I don'T think that'S required).

 This still requires some changes on the map (the maps would have to be somehow
noted that use/generate password XXX here).   This doesn't work for all maps -
for example, the temple of demonology gets the final password by combining 4
smaller words that you find.

 Also, in order to actually have the password make some sense (vs random
characters) you probably need to have a file someplace of words to choose from
(something like a hash based on player name, server unique value and value
specified in map and choose a word from that).

 If we are going to go to that extent, I think it would just be easier to come
up with some method of automatically substituting passwords in (for example,
have a passwords file, and in it the passwords and value.).  So for example,
for
the town gate, it could be something like:

town_gate=chain

 And in the map files, do something like @town_gate@ so it knows to substitute
that password.

 Either the server admin or a script could then randomly change the passwords.
 I think this would make more sense than to use player names (After all, if you
are working on a quest with a few friends, you could try to divide it up - hey
joe, you get the first password, and frank, get teh second, etc, but if player
unique, such a method would not work very well).

 Random substitution would not be hard to do.  You could easily write a perl
script that random takes words some from file and substitutes them for
passwords.

 The disadvantage of this method is how often you change them.  If you change
them each night, then the problem happens that you need to do the entire quest
each night.  If once a week, perhaps sufficient, but if caught on the day they
are changed, could be a pain.

 On the other hand, some passwords probably should be changed randomly, like
that at the gatehouse.  Strikes me as totally reasonable that if away from town
for a while that you don't know the password to get in.


> It's a _bad_ cheat. The best example for this is pupland: the quest
> for the cloak of magic resistance _is_ difficult. I'd rate it the most
> difficult quest in the game (official map set). However, with crossedit
> the quest becomes extremely easy, since you can just skip most of it
> and go (more or less) straight to the cloak. This is true for all of
> the pupland quests --- they are difficult to solve, and they give you
> a good reward for solving it. IMHO players should _not_ have these items
> unless they _solved_ the quest.

 But how do you force that?  With maps being publically available, you can not
prevent them from looking at them.  So the only thing you can really try and do
is make it so that the maps must be fully navigated/solved.  But that can be
hard or just tiring.  If the problem is the passwords, the above method would
fix that, since the players could not know the passwords.


> Indeed. Skills rule. And the rod of knowledge, of course :-)

 Yeah - I think there is some problem in playbalance in skills and spells.

 If, as it seems the case, that going to level 30 or level 50 is standard part
of the game, skills and spells should probably be stretched out to take that
into consideration.

 Right now, I believe you get most every spell by level 20, and are certainly
an expert in most skills by that level 20, if not level 10.  If we expect game
play to go to level 50, skills and spells should probably be adjusted
accordingly (this may make a tougher game, but I don't see that as much of a
problem).

 Right now, at level 5 skills that identify stuff, you probably can identify
about 80% of the stuff with skills - only a small portion ends up not
identified.  That should probably be changed, along with other areas.  This
would also slow down skill advancement some.

 I think one of the big challenged in crossfire will be better playbalance.  IT
seems that the maximum expected level has continued to climb, but the other
stuff has not followed.


-- 

-- Mark Wedel
mark@pyramid.com
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