Re: [Slashem-devel] Balance issues

[J. A. H. <al...@av...>]

On Thu, 29 Mar 2001, Michael Clarke wrote:
> "J. Ali Harlow" wrote:
> > 
> > On Tue, 27 Mar 2001, Michael Clarke wrote:
> > > How about having a potion of gain level act like a scroll of enchant
> > > armor/weapon?  The dipped item gains a +1 enchantment (with the normal
> > > rules for it melting into slag if over enchanted).  Cursed potions
> > > would disenchant and curse, blessed would enchant by 1-2 and bless.
> > 
> > As a general philosophy, I'm against what you might call magical effect
> > bleed. It's much better if every magical item has its own effect rather than
> > duplicating them. Firstly this makes the game more interesting, secondly it
> > means you have to think about tactics a little more. Slash'EM already has
> > shopkeeper services, let's not add yet another way to enchant/bless armour
> > and weapons.
> 
> Fair enough.  I consider alternative ways of achieving the same goal
> to be good things as they give the player more choices and options,
> but each to their own.

Giving players more choices is obviously a good thing. At the same time, it's
good to encourage players to make choices that differentiate between characters
rather than allowing so much flexibility that all characters end up the same.

Thus I think that alternative ways of achieving a goal such as killing a
particular monster or getting through a dungeon level are a bonus whereas
alternative ways of getting a particular piece of equipment (especially
equipment that tends to be part of the so called ascension kit) need to be kept
under control.

> > > Tinker should probably be able to repair damaged items (burnt, corroded
> > > or erroded) and, maybe, combine items to make other items:
> > 
> > Now this, on the other hand, is an excellent idea. I've commented on your
> > various examples, but obviously there's quite a bit more to do before it
> > could be described as a proposal...
> 
> > Some ideas of my own:
> > 
> > Robe + =oProtection => Robe of protection
> > Robe + gauntlets of power => Robe of power
> > Cloak + =oInvis => Cloak of invisibility
> > Cloak + gray dragon scales => Cloak of magic resistance
> > Helmet + amulet of esp => helm of telepathy
> > Gloves + amulet of magical breathing => gauntlets of swimming
> > Gloves + ring of gain dexterity => gauntlets of dexterity
> > Boots + ring of levitation => water walking boots
> > Sack + wand of create horde => bag of tricks
> 
> Look good.  Do we need to allow some slack for alternate items (such
> as spell books in place of wands and bags)?

It's a good question. The reason I was trying to avoid this was I am already
concerned that this will allow gnomes to create the standard ascension kit
rather more easilly than other races. I think we can live with that, after all
there's a need for some easier characters as well as some harder ones, but I do
think we need to avoid it becomming _too_ easy.

> > > If chargable items are used, they MUST have charges and the change
> > > of success decreases if they are less than fully charged.
> > 
> > Where "fully charged" still needs defining.
> 
> Base it on a low value for the number of charges the item is normally
> generated with and don't give bonuses for having more charges.

I guess the average value would be easy enough to find and provide a good
base level.

> > > If the skill isn't going to make a change to an item, it should leave it
> > > unmodified.  There should probably also be a skill check, with a chance
> > > of ruining one or both of the items if the check is failed.  Hmmm. We'll
> > > need simpler recipies so they can practice:
> > 
> > Ok. I think we'd want to encourage non-magical improvements anyway so that
> > low-level characters can do something useful with the technique (as
> > currently).
>  
> Ok.
> 
> > > Hmmm. Do we need tools like needles, sheers and hammers?
> > 
> > I'd prefer not. There are enough semi-useless objects floating around anyway
> > and most characters won't have any use for these at all. I think we can just
> > assume that gnomes either always have access to such things or can make do
> > with what's to hand.
> 
> Sounds good to me.

Excellent. We'll kick it about a bit more and then see if we can put together a
proposal.

-- 
Ali Harlow                              Email: al...@av...
Research programmer                     Tel:   (020) 7477 8000 X 4348
Applied Vision Research Centre          Intl: +44 20 7477 8000 X 4348
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