Re: CF: Player balance.

[Brian Thomas <thomas@xplorer.gsfc.nasa.gov>]

> From: "Mark Wedel" writes:
>
> > Brian writes [about experience adjustments]:
> >
> > 	My ideas on adjusting the playbalance:
> >
> > 	o Probably, the skills of disarm traps/skill ident stuff needs some
> > 	  better tuning. Less overall exp awarded for these. I am looking
> > 	  at some of the other skills too. Probably only the fighting/magic
> > 	  skills dont need adjustment!
> >
> 
>  All skills other than fighting/magic become difficult to tune.  Simply because
> of their limited usage.  How much exp can you get from disarming traps?  You
> are limited by how many traps are about.  For monsters, this is not a problem -
> there are a lot out there.
> 
	Well, potentially there are quite a few traps too. Remember every 
	door has the possiblity for having a trap. As for identifying
	objects, this is limited by the occurance of the item you can ident.
	Players with smithing will find thier mental exp advance much
	faster than those with WOODSMAN. Btw, is there any reason that food
	should always be identified?

> > 	o Literacy skill requirement should perhaps be relaxed a little.
> > 	  Allow players to read books, but with out literacy skill they
> > 	  always get a 'failure' to read that results in ~ 1/2 the text
> > 	  being scrambled. No successfull spellbook reading /scroll
> > 	  reading w/o literacy (or perhaps make success very rare).
> >
> 
>  I actually have made it so all characters start with literacy.  I did this
> after my barbarian got a cursed item.  Quick summary is:  he needs literacy to
> read a scroll of remove curse.  Literacy costs a lot of money (180 platinum or
> so.)  But even at that, there is a chance he can't learn literacy (and in fact,
> that is what happened.)
>  [snip]
>
>  I think the change that needs to be made is to add more generic spell casting
> objects for money (like the identify tables.)  That way, he can perhaps drop 10
> gp for a detect magic, and maybe 25 gp for a detect curse or something.  I also
> think that this is justs a nice idea in general - having altars in churches
> where you drop a bunch of gold to get a remove curse or something.
> 
	Hmm. I will try to make time to get altars to remove curses/damnation
	and bestow blessings. Right now Im tied up w/ work, and putting the 
	finally touches on an alchemy code patch.

> > 	o Relax no exp for magic item use (wands/rods/horns). Allow
> > 	  players to gain 5-10% of experience for kills with these items.
> > 	  Awarded exp can go to the "magic" exp category. This isnt a
> > 	  problem since no clerical killing spells occur in magic items.
> 
>  I think getting exp from objects is totally reasonable.  After all, it is
> killing things that get the exp, so on that basis, knowing when to use the
> spells should be worth something.  Just casting a spell doesn't get exp, only
> when someone casts the spell that kills something.  Thus, when using an item,
> your are doing half of the work, you are not casting, but you are killing
> something.
> 
	I agree, but using a wand/device has got to be easier than spellcasting
	(esp if you use CASTING time option). Thats why I would suggest only a
	fraction of the exp be awarded. Otherwise, you go back to having everyone
	killing the tough stuff w/ just devices. Yech. This way, (I think), its
	more of a challange (and fun).

						-b.t.
> >
> > 	Thoughts?
> >
> > 						-b.t.
> >
> >-- End of excerpt from Brian Thomas
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
>  --Mark
>