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Re: CF: map exit with multiple destinations



Hwei Sheng TEOH wrote:
> 
> Hi! I'm thinking of implementing an extension to the map exit code... I want
> to be able to specify multiple destination maps for an exit, and the server
> will randomly pick one when the player enters the exit.
> 
> The idea is, I could have, say, a ship, that could either get the player to
> the destination immediately (usual behaviour) or get the player to an
> intermediate map, where, for example, the ship may be under attack by pirates
> or something, and the player has to help save the ship. After the pirates are
> defeated, there will be another exit on the intermediate map that gets the
> player to the destination. For variety, I could have several different
> intermediate maps, each with different scenarios.

 I have several concerns with this, and a few other notes.  First my concerns:

 1) The exit code on this gets tricky.  For example, if 4 people are adventuring
together and go on a boat, either they should all get the encounter or none of
them should (this presuming they all board the boat near the same time frame,
and hence the same logical boat journey.)  Having a couple people end up in a
fight or blown off course or any of those other random events with the other
couple at their destination, despite having boarded what would seem to be the
same boat journey would be a bit strange.

 This could be done by perhaps setting the exit when the map is loaded, and only
change the exit if a player hasn't hit the exit for quite a while (so for
example, the exit could store the last time someone used it - if it has been a
long time, possibly change the destination, and re-update that time).  This
would at least mean the adventuring party would end up in the same place.  The
problem here is that if the exit changes infrequently enough, I could see people
avoiding the exit once they know it doesn't go to the right place and use other
means of transportation.

 2) I have a fear that either the random adventures/monsters run into could
either be too dangerous for low level people, or just annoying for high level
people.  There is the option for random maps in the server - aside from the
problem of them too often showing up in dungeons, the other problem was they
just proved annoying if you are going cross country.

 3) In any case, I wouldn't really like to see such a feature until the 0.96.x
rewrite is done, since adding the above feature needs additional fields in the
exit structure, and I certainly would rather wait for the object structure to be
cleaned up to better allow it.

 That said, I think transportation objects are definately something that will be
added at some point post 0.96.0.  Now, exactly how they will work has yet to be
determined, but probably something of the nature that the player will be an
object within the container, but his movement requests actually move the
container (transport) to the new space.  Movement properties are determined from
the transport object (ie, fly, over water, can go through jungle, etc), as well
as speed (ie, you could get a horse transport that allows faster movement over
many types of terrain, but not over others, and can't even pass through some
(ie, could not handle stairs, pits, or wells, so would not be useful in a
dungeon, or perhaps would get trapped there).

 In my vision at least, that is how most all transportation will be done - there
won't be instant teleporters/ships/dragon transports to take you from town to
town - you'll have to get on a ship or whatever and navigate yourself there.

 Now some transports, notably those that fly like perhaps dragon tranports of
magic carpets, might greatly reduce travelling time compared to going by land. 
There should probably be some disadvantage (ie, dragon transports are pay to
board once (ie, bribe the dragon), and after you land, it disappears/flys back
home, so you could use it to get yourself someplace, but not get back),  

 Whether or not multiple players can share a transport or each would need their
own is something that would have to be determined (both are possible, but the
former would mean one player is in control and the others are along for the
ride).



 On to the future notes:

 The hope is that sometime in the future, there will be transportation objects
that the players somehow
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