Another brief idea or two for all...

From: Danhiel Baker (dbaker@dcs.uga.edu)
Date: 04/02/94


	Ok, so 'another brief' in the title in contradictory - as yet, most
of my "ideas" and suggestions have been quite verbose; this one shall (with
luck, and fewer interjections) by short...

New Item flags:
	ITEM_BULKY
	ITEM_VERY_BULKY
I came up with this after glancing through my AD&D DMG, under the armor
weight table (pg27);  different types of armor are easier or harder to
carry and move about in.  It should follow that other items are harder/
easier to carry.  These flags would simulate this by having BULKY items
count as two items, and VERY_BULKY items count as 3 items when figuring
up how many items a player is carrying.  This could also be applied to
containers - a container with no bulky flag is not large enough to
hold BULKY or VERY_BULKY items (or could just limit it to _one_ BULKY
item); a container with a BULKY flag can hold both non-bulky and BULKY
items, but no VERY_BULKY items (or just one...), and so on.  When counting
items under this system it may be advisable to also add one if the item is
a container and has anything in it.  For example -

	container and flags               counts as:
	-------------------               ----------
	empty, non-bulky                    1 item
	used, non-bulky                     2 items
	empty, BULKY                        2 items
	used, BULKY                         3 items
	empty, VERY BULKY                   3 items
	used, VERY BULKY                    4 items

As far as BULKY and VERY BULKY armor and worn items go, a penalty to dex
could be given if over a certain 'value' in items is used - this would
simulate encumberance, imo, and could vary according to strength and perhaps
also according to class.  Thus, with 15 (?) possible equipment 'slots', a
player of average strength can have a 'bulk' of 15 - roughly 15 non-bulky 
items.  A very strong warrior could perhaps have an equipment 'bulk' of 35
before they suffered any dexterity penalty.  Over-encumbering oneself by
up to 5 would be -1 Dex; up to 10, -1 dex, -1 toHit; up to 15, -2 dex, 
-1 toHit; etc, are my suggestions, though playtesting would certainly provide
better break-points and penalties.

I'm not really sure if 'bulkiness' should affect weapons being wielded, as
there is already a strength-min system in place.  Any comments/ideas on this?

Such an encumberance system would add another aspect of items for players
to pay heed to - should they use the flexible and light elfin chain, or
the weightier magic chain that provides more mobility?  Should a thief wear
BULKY armor and suffer penalties when trying to sneak, or backstab (as a
sidenote, IMO, thieves should be successfully SNEAKing before they can
backstab effectively; at least a penalty should be leveled against those
NOT sneaking when trying to BACKSTAB, or their SNEAK percentage should
figure into their chance of success. Also, SNEAK flags should be removed
from players as soon as they are in POSIT_FIGHTING), or even if they are
trying to pick locks in VERY BULKY (maybe limit penalties to picking locks
to times when the thief is wearing other than non-bulky hand and arm armor).
Likewise, mages and clerics should find it harder to cast their spells when
wearing BULKY or VERY BULKY armor (see note on just checking arm and hands,
as a 'nice' alternative).  Using this system to affect class-related equip
restrictions would be more "realisitic" than imp'ing 'NO_THIEF' and such
flags, as well as cutting down on the amount of work for designers - if
an item is BULKY, so be it - the games will handle which classes will be
affected when.  (Granted, this doesn't cover a system that limits illiterate
players - warriors - from using scrolls, but the answer to that should be
elementary to figure out and implement).

That's it!  In under 100 lines, in fact!  Amazing....
Maybe this'll make it in v3.x?  Whatcha say Jeremy :)

Danny the Idea Guy...

(gonna have to learn C, damnit!)

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| dbaker@dcs.uga.edu                       ( o o )    into the
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