Abandoned Codex

Norik · Avatar 2 Joined: 01 May 2004 Posts: 58

wedge, something like that is possible, but it would require some back-end coding from G (maybe add another attribute/flag/setting in the pfile)

Seph · Posted: Sat Nov 06, 2004 4:09 am Post subject: My thoughts

This is a long post, but READ IT!

Ok, firstly I rather enjoy the idea of class specific equipment, however that leads to the problem of what happens to all the equipment that we all currently have?

I'd hate to log on one day to find myself with 4 pieces of equipment on and the rest insta-zapped. (an extreme example, I know, but an example none the less)

I, however, have another solution which WORKS! The same thing happened on the mud I played on for years and worked my way up to co-imping. The coder was a genious by the nick of Haveesh, and he too was getting fed up of farming of equipment and super powerful quest items.

He made a few changes, and it worked way for the better.
Change 1: A character may only have 1 (count it, one) quest item.
Change 2: Although he left in several of the powerful items in the game (Visions/Damn/Bene, items from Seth's fortress, Lillith, a few other custom player built areas), there were only around 6 powerful items sprawled out throughout. The way he worked this was everyone did lose all their equipment save their one chosen piece of quest eq, but every avatar was allowed to keep any of these 6 or so pieces of eq from these areas that they had. They were also administered a bag of shabby av eq, but the stats on that equipment were enough to keep everyone going.

And the BIG CHANGE:
He coded RANDOM EQUIPMENT GENERATORS!
Basicly if the softlevel of an area was 15-25, then items would pop as low as 12 and as high as 27, and pretty much all of them would be completely random, based on the level of the area and the mobile popping it.
The random items had random prefixes and suffexes, similar to the origional Diablo.

Say you fought a level 20 mobile.
If a pop actually happens, you could get any piece of eq between 17 - 23ish with stats that pretty much fit into that level range. Most pops were shit, some were good, and 1/1000 times you'd get a really really good pop for your level.

The direct result of this was incredable.
Yes, people did have the same 6 pieces of eq on, but the rest of their eq was completely different from everyone elses! No longer was EVERYONE getting (example) 90hr, 83 dr, 535hps, -460ac from their equipment. Everyone was wearing unique sets of equipment, and it made things REALLY fun and unique!

That's all for now.
-Seph
_________________
"Sleep well, sweet child... the lord holds thee now."

Gareth · Admin 2 Joined: 26 Mar 2003 Posts: 525

The idea I'd always been toying with for Third Age (which may or may not ever happen, depending on whether I can find any suitable co-conspiritors to help) was somewhere between random equipment and the current system; where basically you'd describe your item as normal and just give it a level, and the mud would figure out what stats to give it based on that.
You'd still have the ability to establish a preferred type of stat; for example if you were making a Magical Ring, you could say "+5d2 mana" for a random pop at between 5 and 10 mana.

Actually, there's not much stopping me doing that last one here... hmm...

Palermo · Joined: 07 Jun 2003 Posts: 87 Location: Conway, AR

How about an 'Armor Proficiency' skill for all classes. Everyone can practice it once, but you have to actually go to certain practice mobs throughout the game to raise the %... like you do with learning. Now, if you have a low % in the armor proficiency you would be restrticted to only wearing leather armors.... if you have a high % you could wear chain mails/plate mails... the major thing would be making the certain armortype flags for the eq and setting all the eq in the game.. A warrior would prolly have the highest % possible and a mage with the lowest %....

Gareth · Admin 2 Joined: 26 Mar 2003 Posts: 525

Not a terrible idea, that, especially given how broken the armour system is (if you consider how easy it is for mid-levels to max out on AC).
I imagine a more logical smaug-type way to do it would be to just have abilities called 'light armour use', 'medium armour use', and 'heavy armor use'.
Although having armour type flagged on each item would be nice, I don't think I'm going to be able to find anyone willing to go through every item on the mud putting them on, so it'd probably just be done like, you need medium armour use to be able to get more than 10 AC out of an item, for example.

On reflection, it's probably too far removed from the items on Abandoned Codex for it to be happening in the short to medium term.

Nightblade · Posted: Sun Nov 07, 2004 9:02 pm Post subject:

I'd do it!

I like punishing myself with boring tasks.
_________________
"Eye level for a kender is door-lock height for the same reason a chipmunk has extra cheek space."

"A kender will take anything that's not nailed down, and a kender with a good claw hammer will get those things too"

Palermo · Joined: 07 Jun 2003 Posts: 87 Location: Conway, AR

I'd help with whatever needed to be done...

Gareth · Admin 2 Joined: 26 Mar 2003 Posts: 525

I think maybe there's more items on the mud than maybe you think. Smile

Palermo · Joined: 07 Jun 2003 Posts: 87 Location: Conway, AR

I said I'd help... not how long it would take hehe Twisted Evil

Nightblade · Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2004 6:55 pm Post subject:

I was planning on adding up precisely how many object vnums there were....but then I realized how incredibly messy half the areas are when it comes to what vnums they use. Skipping around constantly, jumping from 20 to 70...really quite annoying.
Anyway... the point i wanted to make was that not ALL items would need to be changed. Just the ones that would utilize the new flags. Namely body armour.
_________________
"Eye level for a kender is door-lock height for the same reason a chipmunk has extra cheek space."

"A kender will take anything that's not nailed down, and a kender with a good claw hammer will get those things too"

Palermo · Joined: 07 Jun 2003 Posts: 87 Location: Conway, AR

Body armor should probably be done first if G uses the idea, but eventually everything from boots to gloves/gauntlets should be done as well... problem is some things aren't described whether they are leather or metal or scale mail... so that makes it a bit harder as well...

Seph · Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 7:43 am Post subject: Helping with stuff

I'd help!
I'd be alot faster than you think
Every area is a .are file
I'd be OODLES! easier to zap them over to harddrive and orb them than to attempt to edit them all online. That'd just be mind-boggling.
Although then you'd need to change every moblie that wears armor and make them proficient in that type of armor as well...
Or you could just make every mob proficient in all types unless builder-specified.

But yeah...
I'd help!
-Seph
_________________
"Sleep well, sweet child... the lord holds thee now."

Gareth · Admin 2 Joined: 26 Mar 2003 Posts: 525

Really, the "correct" way to do it would be if builders didn't keep using "Affects armor class by..." instead of setting v0, v1 for proper armour class. Cause the way v0 armour class works is with nice multipliers according to location (like a armor class 4 pair of sleeves has half the amount of effective AC as a class 4 breastplate) - so if builders all regarded armor class 3 as 'light', 6 as 'medium', and 10 as 'heavy' then we'd be able to base it off that.