Topics created by pollution

Nib is right; it got commented out for an unknown reason. I re-enabled and tested it for the next release.

The majority of those are now fixed. A while back, in lieu of using v#s for spells on objects, which had some inherent flaws, I replaced them with a spell pointer so that (a) as many spells as necesarry could be added, (b) a random repop percentage could be assigned, and © objects would be saved with skill name instead of number, making goof-ups from manipulating the skill table less likely (we might want to rearrange it later for example to group similar skills together, and this would throw off index numbers and cause great pains when loading areas). However, I forgot to convert the v#s to their respective spell pointers on the magical use items (scrolls, potions, etc.). With a few new functions the areas are now in their correct form, and any person who logs in with old items that are missing spells will have them assigned. There are a few items, mainly wands it looks like, that didn't have spells assigned to them to begin with (e.g. the wand of silence). These can be fixed manually. There is still an unused "v0: Level" field remaining on all of these objects that I will remove at my convenience - it is redundant since adding spells using "addspell" lets you specifiy a level and assign different spells with different levels. v1-v2 will still be used to assign charges on wands and staves.

To tell you the truth, nothing that I can think of that can't be handled by the expanding version in the same manner. Frankly, scripts should have 100% visibility on all $-codes. That's why there is the visibility ifcheck. ;)

Fixed.

I'm wondering if this is just a visibility issue. If the mob tried to remember you and couldn't SEE you, $q would expand to "someone".

Excuse my continued and well-lamented frustration at the limitations of rom. I didn't mean to suggest that that was what you were advocating. It's just you pretty much laid the smack down on an idea before we had time to discuss it further. Of course you're entitled to your opinion. I'll take the resize aspect of the transmogrify idea to another thread. Scott.

I agree with this idea, and I'll definitely be there. Having the players tell US what they would like to see implemented is a great way of keeping interest in the game going.

So it wasn't quite right. The af.modifier should be 0 instead of -1.

To be honest, I'm not really sure how you could explain away experience boosts… Sure, damage boosts == endowed powers... pneuma boosts == the gods (or just your god) favors you... quest boosts == dude the king rock man! he like totally rocks!! One way for the boosts in general to exist outside of say, your spells or the global boosts, is have anchors to what triggers them. If/when deities are added, it could be a parameter of said deity that has a chance and boost factor that can give individual/group boosts, much like aligned churches have. Could require things like high favor with your god(dess) to gain such boosts. QP boosts are rather simple for backstory... you please the particular questmaster, so you could get boosts from that QM for a period of time, from generocity and appreciation of service. Damage boosts, I'd say make THAT what reckonings give, not experience boosts. I mean, c'mon, the reckoning makes you want to KILL!KILL!KILL! Surely all that rage and aggression causes more damage... In the long run, double damage oft results in double experience given that you kill mob twice as fast. The only one left is the XP boost. Mayhaps have a state of enlightenment that opens your mind (be it through drugs or an actual journey of the mind) and alters it in such a manner that you gain experience at a faster rate. Those are my two cents.

I made a small quest designed for players level 10 - 60 to fill a bit of the hole left by the absence of those haste items. There is an apprentice mage named Emath, the sensitive type, who has spent a lot of time lately searching for the perfect familiar. He loves every animal so much though that he can't make up his mind and pick one, so he brings five of them back to Olaria. Upon arriving he promptly dumps over the cart carrying the animal cages and they all escape. The quest, predictably, is to track them down and bring them back. Violence is discouraged throughout the quest, attacking any of the familiars or Emath will earn you the cold shoulder. Right now the quest is about 95% done, just a few odds and ends to tie up and a bugfix or two to make. The reward for each of the 5 familiars is object 6900, a level 10 potion with level 30 haste and a 25% chance of spawning with level 30 sanctuary also. I intend to make the reward for successfully returning all 5 familiars a potion of double experience, still in development. The quest can be completed once per reboot per player, but the double exp potion can only be acquired once during the lifetime of the character. I'll probably restrict the double exp potion to players of at least level 20, maybe level 30, to keep it from being farmed. Check out mobs 6900 - 6905, tokens 6900 - 6902, and mprogs 6900 - 6907 to look it over. Suggestions welcome.

Heh… I actually forgot about this post. Hell, not sure if I have everything in this or not, but here goes... Ranged Affects: Currently the affects in the system have single values on them: how much they modify, their level to their %chance of being applied. Well, I propose a change to the structure placed on object indices to allow for RANGES. This would add variability to what is applied, such as having a random chance on the affect or a random modifier. Also, there should be a way to target WHAT the affect applies toward. To start it off, let's just dive into the new commands for OLC. Information I give will not only deal with the commands, but the affects in general. Some things will not be available to the commands (stated), but usable by the server itself. ```` addmodifier [ ] addmodifier lock [ ] addflag '' [ ][ ````

Actually, I've got the source for the Mersenne Twister random number generator… which has a disgustingly long period for the random numbers, something about 2^19937-1\. I think that is enough. I'll slap that puppy into the code. For your reading pleasure or if you are really interesting in this generator: http://www.math.sci.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/~m-mat/MT/emt.html

~~@Pollution:~~ > I'm not really clear on what our collective take is on keeping things > > 1) in character, game related, immersive > > or > > 2) out of character > > as an overall game philosophy. > > On one hand we have separate channels and rules to enforce their use. But the separation really seems to stop there. Real world and virtual world lines overlap in just about every other area. A few examples: > * Ability to see actual numerical damage of hits. > > * No in game explanation at all for some events, such as boosts. Boost announcements are clearly ooc. > > * Quests from the Mayor and the King are obviously senseless busy work to earn rewards. I just recently saw a quest that required me to kill the King Scarab, then rescue him twice. Interesting question. My overall answer lies in between complete role-play and a mishmash of real world/in game, slightly more to the roleplay side. To explain a bit further, I believe that each character should have for themselves at least a short character history and some set of values (or lack thereof) that they uphold at least most of the time. This is because in playing previous RPGs, I liked to give my char some sort of motivation. I definitely think some RP is good, but the thing is, you can't really force people to RP; the best you can do is encourage it by giving players some tools to define who they are as a character (titles, descriptions are a start - restrings can also be good although they can also definitely work against you in keeping in-char stuff in-char). As to the list you provided, remember that numerical damage can only be turned on by immortals and by players on the test port for testing purposes only (non-imms on the main port can't see them). Boost messages are OOC, maybe they really do detract from the in-char aspect of things. The quests are obviously lame (what do you expect, the code was derived from Vassago's snippet 8)) but I definitely hope to, as soon as I have the chance, replace them with both tokenized quests and automatically assigned, but more logical quests created by immortals or even players. Obviously this would take a lot of work, but it would make questing a lot more interesting and a more rewarding experience than just doing some busywork. > There's a disconnect somewhere. Since the background story is being developed, I assume there is at least some desire to create immersion. I think some major game dynamics work strongly against it though, as things stand. You are right in that regard, and I'm willing to work to make changes to give playing the game (not being an imm, there is a difference) a more immersive effect. Questing and levelling obviously need to be improved, as do other things. I believe once the storyline is finished we will at least have some sort of starting place. > I'm pretty impartial as to the direction the mud ultimately takes, the things that draw me to muds are gameplay and social aspects, not roleplay, so for players like me there is less need for story or immersion. Obviously there are a lot of people on the other side though. The important thing is consistency, so a little clarity in the mud's philosophy about in game/out of game issues could guide the hands of future coding and building. I agree with you to some extent, many people enjoy RP whereas others don't care too much about it. I'm not too extreme into RP, I don't think we all have to be walking around speaking Olde English to have a feel of a seperate virtual world, but we should have seperate areas to discuss OOC stuff as well as more in-game explanations for events like you mentioned. The main reason I would like to develop immersion is to prevent this game from developing into a battle.net-like environment full of teenagers calling each other Ch34p j00s. In the future, with tokens, better scripting, better engines for things like leveling and questing and most importantly an overall storyline I believe we can go a long way to making sentience a real "world of our own".

Very interesting reading here. I've given it only a glance through since I have to go out for dinner, but I am going to come back and read more thoroughly later, since the class/skill tree debate has been going on in my head for quite some time.