Darkness

[jezz]

Simple. We thought of a strategy to overcome other teams and went with masive darkness and holy words. We used it one time, two and three. Frankly, it's way too easy to cheat npc's with it.

Any idea about how to fix this abuse of code? Maybe adding restrictions to how many darkness one char can stack? But thinking about it... then it would become pretty useless considering a light can be cast in half the time... but still you'd get a initial advantage over your enemies...

No idea, what do you think?

[Delia]

Some logical limit should be imposed on light and darkness levels I think. Imagine a "cold war" situation between light and dark, respective parties pushing to out-do each other. "I must squeeze that light 2000 to get through that darkness!". Plain silly If light/darkness were capped at, let's say 20, giving a range of -20 to 20, two opposing teams with sufficiently prepared magical backup could effectively negate the light issue altogether and just force different tactics from both parties. Small teams with magic would still operate as they do now, but big teams would just out-do each other. Question is, which scenario is more preferable?

Atleast mage darkness/light has changed logically enough, eliminating mega-stacks and placing a cap on how much darkness or light a single mage can make...but then again, if priests are supposed to have this "little perk", I'm all for it as it makes things bit different between mages and clerics, after all, they function differently in the game world and code-wise.

And of course, if Lilithian clergy someday opens to players, I'd expect some heavy darkness activity, leaving Sathonys(and mages) to shame in that area...it would be evil if someone(s) could fling dark major effects with impunity

[Abharsair]

I am a bit dissatisfied with the current way we handle light and darkness. "4 dark vs. 3 light -> darkness wins. 16 dark vs. 18 light -> light wins" seems to be both a silly concept, as well as unrealistic. I also kind of question the sense of stacking ridiculous amounts of both light and dark. Limiting the amount one can stack would be a start, but it still doesn't make the current concept any more elegant.

Hence my question to you all: Do you have an idea how we could still have varying degrees of night/dark vision without the "stacking war" and the possibility to "cheat npcs" like Jezz described it in his original post?

[Vargrahim]

Just from the top of my head:

You can only cast once, but the one which has most strength "wins".


However, one of the problems as I perceive it is that it's either bright or dark, completely. I would have "completely dark" on one end and "completely bright" on one end, and then a couple of levels in between. Let's say there were 4 levels. With level 2 you might be able to see other persons, but not obvious exits. In 3 you can see say, everything but the room description. In level 1, you could only see the ones in your own team (or your own equipment/inventory). 0 is completely dark, 4 is full sight. Naturally different races would see differently well in these 4 levels... could be combined with the idea mentioned above.

2 coppers

[anglachel]

Some times ago i thought about simlar system, but with a range from 0(=total dark) till 100(=suny day at 12 o'clock). In forest is modification from -20 because of the trees. Heavy rain clouds give a modification of -25. A small torch would give bonus from +50.
Darkess or light spells would give +50 or -50.
Some race have bonus, as example elves +100.
Everything get minum level there it can be seen. (1-99)
So all factors would be added, and the result says that the player can see.
But this is very very very work, nearly all output to the players must be rewrite.
So i forget this idea, and wait for one, which are more easy to code.

To solve the problem with the darkness, it would be good idea to limit the light and darkness for each cleric. So severel clerics are need to make a real big darkness.
Taniels -> darkness 2, light 6
Asral -> darkness 4, light 4
Sathonys -> darkness 6, light 2

[ganandorf]

that sounds good, the dark and light doesnt come from how many times its cast, but by how many clerics cast.
dont know quite how it works but trying to fit in

[chara]

Maybe we could make it so that each cleric can only cast once, but the effectiveness of the dark/light spells could be affected by favor, the holiness of the ground, and/or the caster's mana? That would allow very strong clerics on holy ground to have a bigger effect than newbie clerics in enemy territory.