Re: CF: Crossfire playbalance

[sfink@digital-integrity.com]

Mark Wedel wrote:
> 
>  Go from a 29 to 30 is a 30 point bonus, and even 28 to 29 is a 20 point bonus.
>    Going from 19 to 20 is a 1 point bonus.  So as it is right now, maxing out
> some of the stats makes for a major bonus - if they are evened out, then it is
> more a tradeoff (I can increase my grace of maxsp by a minor amount - no I can
> improve my maxsp a major amount by my grace a minor amount).  That change would
> reduce the idea of maximizing stats from (and if it was pretty much linear,
> then the tables could be replaced and use a simple formula).

Of course, one of the most fun aspects of crossfire is getting into
those rarefied regions of megastats, where each increase has a really
noticeable effect. The bathwater is clear; the baby is pink. I'd be more
in favor of making it harder to increase stats (and making it easier to
decrease them). Removing stat booster potions from shops is a great
idea, IMO.

> 1) Exp reduction for using good items could be done, but unless the reduction
> is pretty high, probably wouldn't make a big difference.  I could certainly see
> characters softening up tough monsters with the really good items, and going in
> for the kill with the crappy stuff.  Since most of the higher levels tend to
> involve fewer but tougher monsters, such a tactic would work pretty well.

The counter to that would be to keep track of how much damage was done
while each weapon is equipped, and then penalize accordingly. Probably
much too complicated to do for this purpose, though. It'd only make
sense if you were already allocating exp according to damage dealt, as
some have proposed for parties.

> 2) In reality, most of the really great artifacts should probably be
> counterbalance with something bad - most fiction tends to do that.  I believe
> most of the newer custom artifacts on the maps only gives postives with no
> negatives, so they are items you use all the time.

This sounds like the best way to go to me. Especially since it
encourages class differentiation -- wizards will run around with +5 Int,
-5 Str things.

> 3) Having a database tracking item/artifact creation and limiting creation of
> new ones probably won't help the problem.  Now, the good characters on the
> server get the good artifacts, and don't leave anything else for other people.
>  Limiting artifacts only really comes into play if you have several people at
> roughly the same level trying to hunt down the artifacts.  But as it is now,
> most of the best artifacts are in known locations anyway.

Another random idea, again probably too complicated to be practical:
give artifacts unique IDs and timers. A player can only possess (equip?)
a given artifact for a certain amount of time, then it teleports back
home (or gets sucked into the Void, if random). I'm sure there's a
pseudological explanation for why this happens. It would increase
turnover. If demanded, you could also expire the timers after a while
(so the player would be able to use it for a week every year, instead of
a week a lifetime.) Prevents the player files from getting overbloated,
too.

General question: what should be the overall goal of all this
playbalance-meddling?

I played crossfire a while ago as a single player on a private server.
More recently, my girlfriend and I have been playing together on a
private server. So from my perspective, most of the "abuses" people have
discussed here are completely a non-problem, because we never figured
most of them out or stumbled across them. Didn't look for them, either,
because we find it much more fun to play while assuming that the play
balance would look after itself, instead of trying to find all the nooks
and crannies that give you a perfect character but destroy the fun in
the process.

So for our situation, top priority is avoiding the bugs and drastic
imbalances that mess up an "honest" player's ability to have fun. Next
on the list would be extending the playability over a greater range of
exp levels. (Or make the game so different for different classes that
people will want to start over repeatedly.)

The situation is very different on a shared server, where experienced
players seem to have an irrepressible urge to let the newbies in on all
of the tricks and secrets. And what newbie can resist? For all they
know, that's the way it's "meant" to be played. And nobody wants to plod
along as the runt who gains levels at a tenth the rate of their friends
who started at the same time.

So one major thing to work on would be to ensure that it's not too easy
for people willing to use some of the cheap tricks. Otherwise, people
will come and play for a little while, then decide it's too easy and
leave. Not much point in competing with your friends when a simple
little "stand here, brace yourself, and tie a rubber band around your
right arrow key" makes you into a demigod in a few hours.

A final mode of play is someone who uses every possible trick, server
bug, or whatever. Here, the primary problem is preventing it from
completely screwing up the game for everyone else. Adjusting the balance
for these people is futile; you'll end up screwing other players to get
at these pests, and the pests will just find another flaw to exploit
anyway. (Unless you can find something that'll make life more difficult
for these people but also improve the game for everyone else. Just know
that you're doing it for revenge.)

I'm sure this message had a point. Oh well.
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