WTFAQ - Adding more levels

Files needed: 

 structs.h -- defining LVL_IMMORT, etc
 class.c -- balancing spells, titles
 fight.c -- thaco
 /lib/etc/players -- to pwipe, if necessary (see editor's note on bottom)
 /lib/plrobjs/A[..]ZZZ -- to pwipe, if necessary (see editor's note on bottom)
 act.wizard.c -- to put in do_cheat (see editor's note on bottom)
 interpreter.c -- to put in do_cheat (see editor's note on bottom)
STEP ONE:
Congrats! You have about half the information you need to add levels. The parts that you need to consider now are:
  • how many additional mortal levels
  • how many additional immortal levels
  • how many additional god levels
  • how many additional mob levels (for balancing your Mobs -vs- PCs later on)
  • descriptions for all of the above [ not necessaraly required ]
  • all the above multiplied by the total number of classes in your mud (stock Circle has four classes)

STEP TWO:
What the heck is THAC0... ? (from building.doc): 

THAC0
"To Hit Armor Class 0" -- a measure of the ability of the monster to
penetrate armor and cause damage, ranging from 0 to 20.  Lower numbers mean
the monster is more likely to penetrate armor.  The formal definition of
THAC0 is the minimum roll required on a 20-sided die required to hit an
opponent of equivalent Armor Class 0.

Armor Class
The ability of the monster to avoid damage.  Range is from -10 to 10,
with lower values indicating better armor.  Roughly, the scale is:
     AC  10    Naked person
     AC   0    Very heavily armored person (full plate mail)
     AC -10    Armored Battle Tank (hopefully impossible for players)
Note on THAC0 and Armor Class (AC): When an attacker is trying to hit a victim, the attacker's THAC0 and the victim's AC, plus a random roll of the dice, determines whether or not the attacker can hit the victim. (If a hit occurs, a different formula determines how much damage is done.) An attacker with a low THAC0 is theoretically just as likely to hit a victim with a low AC as an attacker with a high THAC0 is to hit a victim with a high AC. Lower attacker THAC0's and higher victim AC's favor the attacker; higher attacker THAC0's and lower victim AC's favor the victim.

STEP THREE:
Modify the THAC0 array which has the following specification: 

const int thaco[NUM_CLASSES][LVL_IMPL + 1] = {
                               {100, 20,.......... 1}, /* <class 1> */
                                 |    |            |
                           level 0    1  LVL_IMPL +1

                               {100, 20,...1},         /* <class 2> */
                               {100, 20,...1}};        /* <class n> */
The below code segment is based on Circle 3.0 bpl11 class.c: 
/* LEVEL 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 */
/* LEVEL 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 */
/* LEVEL 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, [LVL_IMPL + 1] */

const int thaco[NUM_CLASSES][LVL_IMPL + 1] = {
       {100, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 09, 08, 07,
         06, 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 01, 01, 01, 01, 01, 01, 01, 01, 01,
         01, 01, 01, 01, 01, 01}};
Stock circle comes with 34 levels. In the above example the thaco array values represent a generic distribution. Note that level 0 has a value of 100. This is because level zero is the initialization level and all characters get promoted to level 1 upon entry into the game. Level 0 doesn't hit or get hit.

To add 6 more levels to this generic THAC0 the array delaration would be: 

/* LEVEL 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 */
/* LEVEL 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 */
/* LEVEL 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, [LVL_IMPL + 1] */

const int thaco[NUM_CLASSES][LVL_IMPL + 1] = {
       {100, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 09, 08, 07,
         06, 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 01, 01, 01, 01, 01, 01, 01, 01, 01,
         01, 01, 01, 01, 01, 01, 01, 01, 01, 01, 01, 01}};
You will not have any problems by continuing with the same THAC0 number for level 34 (THAC0 value 01) through to level n. Then later on you can adjust them as appropriate:

For example - in stock Circle (class.c) - you would use the THAC0 value
of 1 for additional levels in the Cleric class.

STEP FOUR:
In class.c around line 452 you'll start to see SPELLS and SKILLS.

Before you changed your mud from 34 levels to n-levels there was a pretty good balance between what spells and skills were available per level. Now, with your n-levels you'll have to do a whole load of things in this area and in a few others. These specifics are beyond the scope of this document and will be covered in other forthcoming documents.

STEP FIVE:
Just like the THACO array there is a corresponding data structure TITLES which holds the male and female gender names and experience points for each level and class. If you change your THAC0 array by adding or deleting levels you must do the very same thing to the TITLES array.

TITLES has the following specification: 

const struct title_type titles[NUM_CLASSES][LVL_IMPL + 1] = {
/* levels 0-LVL_IMPL+1 */
    {{"male gender name", "female gender name", experience points}};
}

STEP SIX:
Modify file structs.h around line 415. There you must identify what level the gods are going to be and even possibly add a few god levels in the process. Keep in mind if you perform the latter then you will possibly need to modify more of struct.h as needed. Changing anything other than the implementor and existing god levels is all that is needed.


STEP SEVEN:
You have two choices here, either you can delete the file "players" from <circle path>/lib/etc then delete all *.objs from <circle path>/lib/plrobjs/A-[.Z] & ZZZ directories, or you can choose to create some sort of command specially for when you upgrade that allows you to advance your imp character up to the maximum level. Once you do this, you should advance all of your immortal characters once again to attain the same situation as before you added more levels. You should also note that balancing the mob files and obj files will probably be necessary at this point to ensure that everything is balanced, as before.

STEP EIGHT:
Compile your mud and voila.

Good luck, if it works pass it on.

mrunix@ic.net (Mike Levine)

Editor's Note

Not included in Mike's tutorial on adding levels was the code for a command to bring the Implementor up to the max level.. add the following code to act.wizard.c, whereever you want : 

ACMD(do_cheat)
{
  if (GET_IDNUM(ch) != 1) {
    send_to_char("You think IMP positions are that easy to come by?  Go Figure...\r\n", ch);
  } else {
    GET_LEVEL(ch) = LVL_IMPL;
    send_to_char("Advanced.\r\n", ch);
  }
}
Then, in interpreter.c, near ACMD(do_commands) , add 
ACMD(do_cheat);
Then, finally, near { "commands" , POS_DEAD , do_commands , 0, SCMD_COMMANDS } , add: 
{ "cheat", POS_DEAD, do_cheat, 0, 0 },
That's it..recompile (again, if you already did), and reboot your MUD. Type cheat to raise yourself to the max level (which will only work if you were the first person in the game originally).

-- B. Brown (bbrown@uasoft.com)
WebMaster, WTFaq