Real Time Ascend Maling List Archive
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Re: CF: 0.95.3 bugs (OR CHEATS)



On Mon, 3 May 1999, Christian Stieber wrote:
> The problem with that is that crossfire doesn't have classes. "Mages",
> "Barbarians", "Wizards" etc. differ slightly in the way they get started,
> but everybody (everybody that I know...) starts doing the same things
> and getting the same items _really_ soon (starting at level 7 or so).

Well, IMO, there still remains a bias away from heavy armour and weapons
for mages due to magic regeneration and spell failure problems, but the
essence is a playbalance question. Both maps and the powerbalance needs to
be adjusted to allow a more differentiated playing for different classes.
 
> Challenge classes (Monks, Quetzalcoatls, Fireborns, Wraiths(?? --- hm,
> seems I never looked at them)) are slightly different, as well as
> challenge gods (those with deadly restrictions or large (== useless)
> avatars), but since a challenge class can't be really good they don't
> really count. Same with some challenge gods.
> 
> Many good artifacts have downsides, but they are just minor. The
> dragonbane is heavy and can't be improved: white dragon scale mail
> slows down quite a bit (but speed 2,07/2,27 (without/with dragonbane)
> isn't too slow).  Things like that; these don't really count.

Actually, one way this could be improved would be with good artifacts
bestowing the same kinds of problems that the challange classes have, like
no armour or no weapons. This would increase the relative power of the
challange classes since they wont be seriously affected by the downsides,
while allowing a certain balance on artifacts. Denied spellpaths would
probably be another good way to balance artifacts

> One thing I don't like with "downsides" is that crossfire only allows
> trivial pro/cons --- "stat +/-", "dam +/-" etc. Nobody cares about
> hunger. Take a look at nethack: Stormbringer tends to attack on it's
> own; Vorpal Blade has a slight chance of beheading monsters (only
> monsters that _do_ have a head, of course), but the damage isn't that
> great, so people sometimes prefer other weapons with more
> damage). There are also two-handed weapons, which means you can't wear
> a shield.

These are also good downsides. 
 
> Ever looked at the Demonspawn shield (all types; the best shield in
> the standard item set is the DS Shield RS/RM)? "An evil spirit is in
> the shield trying to control you" (or something similar); that's just
> a message which has absolutely no effect. The greyshield has a similar
> "problem" --- it's the best shield I have ever seen, and the story
> about it tells about it's great power and dark magic etc. Who cares;
> even a level 1 character can control either shield. I have equipped
> secondary characters with all the best items (things tend to pile
> up) with no problems at all --- another property of "fantasy items"
> is that they tend to have a mind of their own, and are hard to control.

Well, things somewhat like that could be added. Random hp/sp/grace drains,
bestowing of fear, confusion, paralysis, etc (especially if they bypassed
immunity/protection) would make such items much more... exciting(?). 

Best regards,
David

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