Re: CF: Unlisted potions and additions to items

[Mark Wedel <mwedel@scruznet.com>]

Doug wilder wrote:

> What if you need to have the recipe marked as well, How would this affect
> game play? (Explain how marking works as regards to the program not game
> play) The way i see it, this would mean that you would have to go around
> collecting those recipes and keeping them rather than dumping them or
> reselling them. We could give a bonus to having the recipe marked and a
> negative to not having it or just having them create usless junk. It would
> make alchemy more interesting and might eliminate being able you just make
> hoards of cursed stuff for the money.

 Marking (as far as the program is concerned) is just one specific item in a
players inventory that is noted for special purpose.  Any item can be marked. 
It was originally added for situations like the above - you are doing something
with multilple items and you need to note which item you are doing it to
(originally for improve weapon code).  So to answer the suggestion above, you
could mark recipes scrolls  in your inventory and the alchemy code could access
it.

 Probably a better thing would be to extend the formulae code (as well as recipe
scroll code) like:

 formulae:  For each one, add a formulae name (right now it has an arch name
which isn't always friendly).  Also, add a freeform text message that can better
describe the recipe as well as perhaps perhaps other information (so something
like 'the formula for mercury is ..  Mercury is a 
widely used component in many potions dealing with fire'.

 Change the scrolls to use this and have a referance to what formulae it refers
to by name.  This then makes it easy to resolve a formulae scroll to the real
formulae.


> Refinements of the maps are needed desperately. Some dont work and some are
> pointless. What i mean by point less is EXAMPLE: you enter a building in a
> city there are no creatures and no items (not even a chair). Now i
> personally think that its ok to have a few of these as they are great
> meeting places for parties, but they dont add much.
> 

 Agree.  In most cities, I would just like to see most of the empty/closed
buildings disappear - may not make the city look as cool, but makes it a bit
easier to find the interesting stuff.  It also ends the sometimes asked question
'xxx building is closed.  How do I open it'.

 There was talk of going to a unified scale - that is, instead of entering
houses as another map, you the house outline is just part of the city map and
you appears as is.  That was past discussion, but that might make help out a
little - cities will still seem big, but won't have empty buildings.


> 
> Weight in my opinion is a great way of cutting down abuse of power,
> Especially for mage types. But mostly i was thinking of the way weapons are
> setup. you can only put so many enhancements on them per level. Why not the
> same way for armor? That would be a way of controlling how much magic you
> could invest. I wonder if we could also deduct permanent spell points from
> the mages total for investing it into the item. This might be gotten back by
> buying lots of improvement potions (not stat potions) It would make them
> incredibly valuable, especially to mages. Most people over look their value
> anyway.

 At current time, you could reduce a characters permanent hp/sp/grace by taking
off from the randomly generated values, but those will get restored by the first
quaffed improvement potion.  You could do it other ways - add an invisible
object into the players inventory that reduces sp total, and it tracks how many
improvement potions have been quaffed, and after so many, it reduces the penalty
some.


> I agree, but i have looked at alot of these artifact items. Most of them are
> not all that great as far as game play goes. Excalibur and BoneCrusher are
> great items Sting is rather whimpy. How many 8th level
> Warriors go around bragging they have STING? At low levels you still cant
> stand up to a troll and at higher levels you would probably have somthing
> much better. In my opinion the artifacts are still to easy to get.

 Agree on ease of artifacts. There has been past discussion on that also.  There
are still many maps that generated random artifacts - if your lucky, that has a
really good one for you when you go in.

 But some problem is ability of the weapon code.  Sting should probably be
modified to slay all the troll and perhaps goblin types - makes it more useful. 
But one problem with some artifacts is what they slay is of limited power, so
you really don't need the slaying to take it out.


> I like the idea of offical quests with (worthwhile) rewards. Even giving
> money out is a good reward or maybe a potion or 2. The Quest should give out
> a reward appropriate to the quest.
> 
> Quests are not all that hard to design, making the maps might be but a good
> quest hall could make things very interesting. Speaking of this if you
> designed a map how would you get it incorperated into the standard game so
> that everyone could have it. Does anyone go over the maps that are created
> seeing if they work. There might be many good maps in the repository that
> are going to waste simply because no one has looked at them and put them
> into place. However, i would suggest we fix the maps in the game first.

 Generally, let one of the developers (mostly me) know that you have a map that
you want incorporated.  I have gotten away from the habit of incorporating stuff
just sent on the list unless it specically is mentioned that they want it added
- in many cases, people were announcing things on the list as sort of a beta
test.

 I look over the map in a minimal fashion.  Most feedback comes from others, as
to properly playtest a map, you really need a character of the right level &
corresponding equipment, and I don't have that many around.
-
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