[Scrymud] Changes to Scry

[Justin Piper]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ben Greear" <greearb at candelatech.com>
To: <scrymud at scry.WANfear.com>
Sent: Sunday, August 04, 2002 8:20 PM
Subject: Re: [Scrymud] Changes to Scry


> These sound like good ideas to me.  A word of caution though.  It is true
> that classes are there for restrictions.  I did not want a person to have
the
> most powerful skills of all classes combined into a single character.
However,
> if practices are effectively limited, then a classless game will be
possible.

Not that the builders tend to obey this now, of course. ^_^;;

> I also do not want a cleric to be able to wield the "Sword of Whup-ass",
so
> we need a way to have !CLERIC flags etc.  Perhaps by learning certain
spells,
> your character takes an 'oath' or whatever never to touch certain weapons.
> The end effect will be similar to a classed mud, but the implementation
> will be different.

An easy in-game way to achive this would be to put the libraries of clerical
spells in places accessable only to those who have taken whatever oath the
cleric's order requires, then mset !edged or whatever on people as they take
the oath.  If the cleric-ish spells you can find lying around the world
depend on you knowing the basics, then you'll effectively keep people from
using edged weapons as a cleric.  That would prevent players from coming up
with their own paladin class, but builders could always set up a paladin's
guild if there were demand for such a thing.

> If you are serious about implementing this, I would advise branching the
> ScryMUD code in CVS.  That way, the experimental changes will not screw
> up the stable branch.
>
> I no longer have time to devote to Scry, though I will offer advice if
> requested.  I will be happy to turn the reigns over to whoever wants the
> task.  Shamu & Lanfear have first dibs of course.
>
> I look forward to seeing what comes of this!
>
> Ben
>
> gingon at wanfear.com wrote:
> > Hello all.
> >    A few of us have be talking about major changes to Scry over aim the
last
> > few weeks. I'm gonna try to explain them here and hopefully get some
useful
> > feedback on the ideas from you guys.
> >
> >    First thing, We've been considering removing classess. The reasons
are
> > pretty simple, classess are an outdated concept. Classess are generally
used to
> > enforce limitations. But here they are largely not needed. The players
should
> > be able to choose what they want to be simply by which skills they
choose to
> > use.
> >
> >    Learning skills is primary limited by the number of practices a
player
> > recieves. This itself is a good limiting factor. Take the thief class
for
> > example, when they hit lvl 30, they will rarely have every possible
skill a
> > thief can learn. This means that, without a class system, if someone
wants to
> > be a thief, they'd have to spend a large amount on only thief skills,
limiting
> > the use of non-thief skills heavily.
> >
> >    It also allows for peope to play a type of character that isn't
explicitely
> > allowed by the code.
> >
> >    Of course, an obvious side effect to having no classes is that you
can't
> > class remort.
> > ---
> >    Second thing, We've also been talking about remove the lvl system as
well.
> > Basically, a player would have free xp and total xp. The player can use
the
> > free xp to directly improve skills, the total xp is mainly for book
keeping and
> > tracking who can remort.
> >
> > This would make hunting at a high lvl far less boring, instead of
hunting for
> > days to raise a skill by a large amount, you can achieve a more natural,
> > gradual increase in skills by being able to use xp imediatly.
> >
> > Death would be handled differantly also, the player would lose all of
their
> > free xp in addition the the usual death results.
> >
> >    The cost to raise skills would increase as the % learned in that
skill
> > increases. This would tend to create people who specialize in a small
number of
> > skill, causing an increase in the diversity of the player population.
> > ---
> >    Third change: 2 new magic systems: Runic and Pattern.
> >
> >    Generally, runic is only used for enhancing equipment. To use it you
figure
> > out the runes you want to use, and inscribe them on the item. The
combination
> > of runes determines the exact result.
> >
> >    Pattern magic on the other hand is somewhat differant. Using pattern
magic
> > you can recreate any of the existing spells, but also create totally
dynamic
> > new ones. Pattern magic works by combining a series of patterns into a
complete
> > spell, which is then stored in a spell book. Each pattern controls a
single
> > aspect of the spell, and each pattern has an associated cost in mana.
> >
> >    Learning to use either system well will require the user to do some
research
> > and figure out how each component comnbines with other ones. They would
also be
> > able to buy some spells and find other in arcane libraries scattered
about the
> > would.
> >
> >    There are some interesting possible benefits to this system that
aren't
> > directly related to the casting system. A spell formula trade economy
could
> > develope. A wizard would more fit what I feel a wizard should be in
scry, he'd
> > be a possesser of unknown power, a master of the arcane arts.
> > ---
> >
> > These are all large changes, requiring a large amount of change to the
existing
> > code. But I feel that these changes would greatly improve Scry.
> >
> > that's all for now.
> >    --Gingon
> > _______________________________________________
> > Scrymud mailing list  -  Scrymud at scry.WANfear.com
> > http://www.WANfear.com/mailman/listinfo/scrymud
> >
>
>
> --
> Ben Greear <greearb at candelatech.com>       <Ben_Greear AT excite.com>
> President of Candela Technologies Inc      http://www.candelatech.com
> ScryMUD:  http://scry.wanfear.com     http://scry.wanfear.com/~greear
>
>
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