Re: CF: Dup'ing items

[Anthony Thyssen <anthony@cit.gu.edu.au>]

"Mark Wedel" on  wrote...
|  Comparing characters however is non trivial or slow (n^2 time where n=number
| of items the character has).
| 
True.

|  If we can get a 'safe map' flag, then we could also get a 'dangerous
|  map flag' or a 'safe at XXX' value in the map.  While having the maps
|  give hints on what to do would be very nice, relying/hoping the maps
|  will so get updated is being really optimistic.
| 
The safe map flag however would only be used on world and town maps
That should make it reasonably quick to add it to the main maps that
would use it.    The other two would be more difficult and very
optimistic.

| > In fact ``Keep it Simple'' is in my view much prefered over the really
| > complex fail safe to protect the player from the network disconnects.
| > It just means that they should save regularly, just as they would in
| > any other computer game.
| 
|  That would work just fine except that crossfire is multi player.  If
|  the game was single player, would could save a 'instance' of the
|  server when the player does a save (copy the temp maps and the
|  temp.maps file into the home directory or something.)  The fact it is
|  multi player and the game world keeps moving along whether or not
|  that player is still playing makes things more difficult.
| 
|  Quick rundown of the various strategies:
| 
|  immediate save when disconnect - pro: no item dups, save is current.  con:
| player can save in good locations (treasure rooms) by waiting 2 hours.
| 
con: could auto-save on disconnect when in a room that was full of
     dragons/trolls/beholders/etc. May not be able to connect
     immeditaely after a disconnect.

|  use last save, only keep items that both the last saved character and
| character when connection was dropped has.  player saved as it was at last
| save.  pro: no item dups, anything else?  con: more complex, player not fully
| up to date, cheats still possible (saves in treasureroom, pick everything up,
| save character, crash, wait for map reset, etc).
| 
I would disable `user' use of save command in this senario. 
That is, they can NOT specify to save `here'. 

|  Actually, I see no advantage to the second over the first at this time - even
| if the ability of the player to save is removed, if they know that the
| character will periodically be saved, they can just wait in the treasureroom 5
| or 10 minutes - if they are willing to wait 2 hours for the map to reset after
| that, that 10 minute wait probably isn't a big deal.
| 
Periodic saves are also not used, instead `auto-save when in `safe'
positions would be used instead.

| > |  I can pretty much guarentee any clever way that is come up with to
| > |  try and prevent cheating will still have a loophole or undesirable
| > |  affect for those that honestly lost the connection.
| > |
| > Not a huge loophole, but a small penaly for disconnect should be
| > prefered to other advantages `cheaters' can achieve.
| 
|  However, to go to a different point, I could see easier disconnects
|  making the game a bit more popular - it is more difficult to play the
|  game knowing that you need to allow time to get back to a bed of
|  reality in order to save the game.  If instead I can just quite and
|  save whenver I want, going to some remote dungeon is now possible (I
|  can work on it 10 minutes at a time and save in the wilderness), and
|  once there, all I need to do is save at some safe place.
| 
Both methods have that capability!

| > What quests you should go on to get what item is a big question :-)
| 
|  Actual, what the real quests are would be more appropriate for beginner
| knowledge (quest is used loosely here - basically meaning map(s) with a
| specific special reward in mind vs map(s) with a bunch of monsters and some
| random treasure at the end.)
| 
| ...
| 
|  Oldcity is vaguely a quest - there is no great reward at the end, but
|  there are a lot of different questions/stuff to get there.  On the
|  other hand, it is pretty low level quest for a lot of it, so a great
|  reward at the end probably would be overkill)
| 
With the minimal reward for killing those trees and beholders in a 
unrestricted enviroment. You have got to be kidding!

I would prefer some better reward than is in the current 0.95.1 maps
(which sits under boulder open to the fighting area!)

Even running in grabbing and running out is too bloody dangerous for the
reward!

The reward for opening the `claw' door with the `claw' key is much
bigger and better than the final goal!  Or even after lots of running
around getting the objects needed to open the temple and geting past
those daemons.


Question:  Who controls the map of santo domino?

Their is a tower (tabas' tower?) there with a trap door and mouse hole
from the floor above. This map have a serious problem.  The mice fall
down the hole and full the room below. When the room is full the mice
continue to pile up all on top of each other, unable to move.

By the time the adventurer finishes the top level of the tower, and
falls down the same hole (generally slowly and cautiously for beginners)
he ends up on top of a pile of 200 or more mice!

Now normally mice are NOTHING to worry about after first level, just a
pain. As mice trapdoor in, they can't be completely wiped out which I
supose is the reason for this.  but 200 mice all on the same square all
biting at once will kill a 7th level adventurer dead in a matter on
moments!

I died re-learning the game this time here and I remember (now that I am
reminded of this) dieing many times, year ago when I previously played.

This is a serious bug in that map!  I don't mind mice and it fits in the
level of the map but this `mouse trap' is just too deadly and I'd like
to see it fixed some time.


  Anthony Thyssen ( System Programmer )    http://www.sct.gu.edu.au/~anthony/
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