Re: CIRCLE 3.0 ABRIDGED WORLD BUILDER'S GUIDE - PRELIM

From: Danhiel Baker (dbaker@dcs.uga.edu)
Date: 04/03/94


| > Note that MOB_NOBLIND and MOB_NOBASH should be added as, I presume, 17
| > and 18 respectively.  These were late add-ins at my request, and fairly
| > self explanatory - you can't "bash" a tree, or a dragon...  You can't
| > Blind something with no eyes, or something with other targeting senses
| > (just as Vamp also mentioned).
| 
|I think we're getting pretty picky here... should there be NO_POISON, NO_STEAL,
| NO_BACKSTAB, NO_FIREBALL (we wouldn't want fire giants taking fire damage),
| etc, etc....???  I think all these flags are going overboard.... and if
| we're going to go overboard, we might as well create a new field for every
| single skill in the list... I can see some skills being MOB_ flags... but
| I think we're going beyond that.
| 
| -Jeff
| 

*chuckle* Uh...yeah...add those too!

I think you are missing the general use of bashing and blinding by players -
it is (or should be) used to keep a MOB from casting spells at you and your
party during combat.  As such, you run into exceptions - things that don't
have 'eyes', or which can't really be 'knocked down' by a human-sized
opponent.  As MOB spellcasting needs to be "regulated" in some manner - MOBs
don't worry about mana, and in most code can do things that the 'help' says
they shouldn't - it needs also to have loopholes to just keep up the
'realism' or the genre.  Sure, these flags could be left out, but most
flags can be called extraneous on one ground or another.  Hell, the NICE_THIEF
flag might as well just be yanked - it's NEVER had a legitimate "justifiable"
use IMO.  As far as I know, in the base code ONLY the Queen Spider in the dark
forest had this flag...and I don't even see the logic behind her having it.
[oh boy, now I'm off on a tangent!]  Stealing objects from a mobs inventory
is easy enough as is - a 'machinegun' approach, as is often used with PICK,
will get you whatever you want from a NICE_THIEF mob; if you are willing to
flee a little, then with only a prac or two in your STEAL skill you can
get whatever you want that isn't equiped, no matter what the mob.  One
note on STEAL (a bug, actually) - if a mob/pc cannot see invisible objects,
but has such an object in their inventory, then a thief that CAN see invis,
and that does see the object in the 'victims' inventory, can _NOT_ steal
that invis object; they are told that the victim does not have that item.
[tangent ends]

I believe (no, I don't KNOW :) what I'm trying to get across here is that
certain flags have more of a technical bearing on game play than others;
simply because something should be immune to 13th level clerical spells 
according to this or that source doesn't mean it needs a flag.  However,
when something has a wider bearing, as I feel NO_BASH and NO_BLIND do
for spell casting mobs (which I didn't notice a MOB_MAGE or MOB_CLERIC
flag for... are those procs still gonna be in v3.0, or am I mis-remembering
something that was for 'later versions'?);  it also emphasises the fact
that BASH and BLIND should now work to keep a mob from casting (at least
from casting targeted spells), which I think Jeremy said he could do [so
many last minute requests/bugs, so much mail...].


Danny

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| Danhiel Baker // Derkhil CatSpawn         /) /)     Fade away
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