StendhalRefactoringRP

We need a rebalance of the RP system so it is playable and fun for both newbiews and high levels. We have to talk about several things here:

Skill system

The whole system will be skill based, so if you use sword, you will get better and better hits with the sword, but if you change to axes you will have to learn to use it again, as you did with swords. At least we have the next set of skills:

• sword
• axe
• club/staff
• range
• shield

We want to avoid the situation of having to add items to monsters for them in order to combat, so we need to find a way of making compatible both systems ( the above one with the actual ATK/DEF one ).

We need to design the system to avoid campers:
http://arianne.sourceforge.net/wiki_images/stendhal_0.39_campers.jpg
Image: Campers training in Stendhal 0.39

There are several valid approach for this problem, and IMHO we should try from less severe to most severe first.

1. Blood solution
   You only improve your skill when you damage/are damaged the creature
2. Don't get XP points nor skill points from weak creatures
3. Kick idle players
   No action in X minutes means that you are logged out

We want to disallow first camping to increase skills, you gain skills by playing not by camping. Later we will fix camping by not respawing monsters if player is waiting for the monster. The whole point is to have player create value: fun.

Leveling up

To level up you need to gain XP by killing monsters and/or solving quests.
On level up you gain HP.

Combat

Melee Combat

Combat right now works as follows:

1. We compute the risk to hit the target, using their ATK and DEF attributes-
2. If risk>0 then we compute if the target blocks the attack, or how much damage the target recieved.

The formula looks like:

  risk_to_hit = 2 * source[ATK] - target[DEF]+ roll[1D20] - 10

  if risk_to_hit > 0:
    attacker_part = 0.8 * (roll[1D100] / 100) * source[ATK]^2 + 4 * source[ATK] * weapon
    maxdamage = 0.8 * source[ATK]^2 + 4 * weapon
    defender_part = 0.6 * (roll[1D100] / 100) * target[DEF]^2 + 4 * target[DEF] * shield + 2 * target[DEF] *
                   armor + target[DEF]* helmet + target[DEF] * legs + target[DEF] * boots

    damage = ((attacker_part - defender_part) / maxdamage) * (maxdamage / source[ATK])

See that it is very important the ATK and DEF value, but that you can also get big improvements using weapons, armors, shields, etc... The beneficts you get from weapons and armors are directly proportional to your level.

The formula is nicer than previous one because it gives a good range of damages and it adds lineal damage increase for using weapons and lineal damage absortion for using armors. Now the point is to give values to monsters that will always lack of equipment ( to simplify everything ).

Range Combat

Should be based on the above formula but:

• We have a maximun range
• Weapon is only effective on middle-long range
• Damage also depends of the arrow

So a nice formula would be:

  range_damage = damage * ( actual_distance / max range of weapon )

  if actual_distance < min_range: 
     range_damage = damage / 20
  if actual_distance > max_range:
     range_damage = 0

Here is some improved formulas for ranged combat, they also use arrow damage.

  attacker_part = 0.8 * (roll[1D100] / 100) * source[ATK]^2 + 4 * source[ATK] * (weapon + arrow)
  maxdamage = 0.8 * source[ATK]^2 + 4 * (weapon + arrow)

  range_damage = damage * ( 1 - (actual_distance / max_range) ) + ( damage - damage * ( 1 - (min_range / max_range) ) ) *
                ( 1 - (actual_distance / max_range) )

Magic

Magic will be mana based, with each spell costing mana. Also you can have written spells that don't cost mana, but that vanish after they have been used.

We will mainly have 6 elements in Stendhal, maybe 8 later, and those are Fire, Water/Ice, Earth, Wind, Holy and Dark. The 2 that might be added later is Physical and Mental magic, that focuses on protecting against and strenghtening charm and poison attacks. For now poison will just be treated as a normal attack, and not be affected by any magic resistances.

For the Element there will be some properties:

• Fire strong vs Water
• Water strong vs Earth
• Earth strong vs Wind
• Wind strong vs Fire

• Dark strong vs Holy
• Holy strong vs Dark

The Holy and Dark elements will also be used in healings, depending on if the target is a good or an evil creature the dark and holy elements will heal or damage the target.

Here is some speculative formulas for how magic might be working

risk_to_hit = 2 * source[INT] - target[INT] + target[DEF]/2 + roll[1D20] -10

  if risk_to_hit > 0:
    attacker part = 0,8 * ((roll[1D100]/100) * source[MATK]^2) * (ELEMENT * 0,2) + 4 * source[MATK] * (ELEMENT*0,2)
    maxdamage = source[MATK]^2 + 4 * (ELEMENT)
    defender_part = 0.6 * (roll[1D100] / 100) * target[DEF]^2 + 2 * target[DEF] * shield + target[DEF] *
                   armor + 0,5 * target[DEF]* helmet + 0,5* target[DEF] * legs + 0,5 * target[DEF] * boots

damage = ( ( ((attacker_part - defender_part) / maxdamage) * (maxdamage / source[MATK]) ) * 
           (1 + (target[WEAK] * 0,01)) ) * (1 - target[STRONG] * 0,01)


ELEMENT = The elemental power of the skill that is used (Equivelant to the ATK the equipped weapon has, but for magic).
WEAK = The element that is weak to the skill that is used. (beeing strong in one element makes you weak to another)
STRONG = Is the target strong against the element casted upon him?

These Formulas is based on that all creatures have an elemental resistance to all the elements in the game:

• An elemental resistance below 0 means that you gain extra damage from that element -100 means you recive the double damage.
• An elemental resistance of 0 means that there is no change in damage from that element, or the element that is strong against it.
  
• An elemental resistance of 100 means that the target is immune to that form of damage, but also weak against the element strong against it.
  
• An elemental resistance of 100+ means that you absorbs some of that element (ie you get healed) having 200 means that instead of getting damaged you get healed the entire damage cast upon you, but you are also very weak against the oposing element.

Check over at the class section for spells that might be added Class Basics

Trading system

Based on a idea suggested by Khesus

Player1 offers a trading deal with Player2 by right-clicking on Player2 and choosing Trade:

Player2 is prompted with a window asking for accepting beginning a deal with Player1 or not.

A bag window opens in the middle of the screen. The window is vertically splitted in two parts with a certain number of free slots in each part.

• Each part has the name of each Player on Top:
• The left part corresponds always to each Player, so the window that both players are looking is different because it is horizontally flipped from their view.
• Each part of the window has three buttons at the bottom: that's my offer, deal! and no way!. The deal! button is greyed at first.

GUI suggested by danter

|------------------------------------------------------|
|Myself                    ||Other                     |
|--------------------------||--------------------------|
|ITEM   ITEM   ITEM   ITEM ||ITEM//////////////////////|
|                          ||//////////////////////////|
|ITEM                      ||//////////////////////////|
|                          ||//////////////////////////|
|--------------------------||--------------------------|
|ICON                      ||                      ICON|
|--------------------------||--------------------------|
|This is my offer!|     | Deal! |             | No way!|
|------------------------------------------------------|

Each player can drag items from his respective bag and drop or remove them only in his part of the window.

Each player clicks on the that's my offer button at the bottom once he is satisfied with the items he has offered for the trade in his own part of the window.

Once a player has clicked on that's my offer, the button is greyed and the background of the items he has offered for the deal appears greyed. If he tries to drop more items or remove any item, the that's my offer button is lightened again and the background too.

Once both players have clicked on that's my offer then their respective deal! buttons lighten. They press it if they are satisfied with what the other player has dropped in the other part of window.

• If both players click on deal!: the window is closed and the items are exchanged between them.
• If any of the players clicks on no way! at any time: the window is closed and the items return to their original owners.

(Idea suggested by Zuse) Trading offline: Storing an item somewhere to exchange for a fixed price or item. The interested player can drop the requested item somewhere and receive the offered item.

Shopping system

It would be basically the same as the trading system but in this case one of the traders would be a NPC

Auctioning system

It would be basically the same as the shopping system but in this case there are more than one shopping players competing for buying one item

Party system

A player types:

/party nameofparty

and automatically that party exists and this player is joined to that party.

To find out what parties a user belongs to (maybe this feature isn't desirable to keep privacy):

/parties username

To find out what players belong to a party:

/members nameofparty

A member of the party can invite a player to join the party

/invite player nameofparty

If nameofparty exists, the members of that party (that are online) are asked if they want to accept the new member. The decision with major number of votes wins. To join a party, at least one of the members has to be online.

The xp points obtained by every member of the party are showed like always but in a different color (possibly grey) and aren't added to the player experience. The items dragged to the bag of every member are shown in a different color (possibly grey) and can't be used if they are consumable.

At one point, a player suggests:

/share nameofparty

This command only works if the player belongs to nameofparty. All of the members that have contributed to the loot since last sharing must be online and are asked if they want to share at that moment. The decision with major number of votes wins.

If the share is accepted a bag window opens in the middle of the screen. Every item is assigned a value in points, the total is computed and every player is assigned a fraction of that total.

The sharing can be:

• equal for every player
• proportional to the sum of the given and received damage points by every player since last sharing.

Every player is prompted with a window to choose between equal or proportional sharing. The decision with major number of votes wins.

The xp points gathered by the group of members since last sharing is shared immediately

Each Player chooses the items he wants until:

• the amount of items' value:
  • reaches the player's assigned points.
  • surpasses the player's assigned points for the first time.
• The player clicks on No more button

Then he can't drag any more item.

If a player chooses an stackable item, the quantity is chosen so that it reaches the rest of the player's assigned points. Thus, users should drag stackable items only at the end

When any player can't drag more items from the bag the sharing process begins:

• if two players have chosen the same item:
  • the item is randomly assigned to one of the players.
  • the players that don't get the chosen item receive (if possible) part of the rest of the loot in equal parts (if possible)

If there's a part of the loot that hasn't been assigned to any of the players, it is dropped on the ground (at average distance of the group of players) and the faster player gets it.

When a player wants to abandon a party he simply types:

/quit nameofparty

If all the members of the party (except perhaps the affected player) are online and the number of party members is more than 2, a member can suggest expelling another member:

/expel username nameofparty

Every player (included the affected player) is prompted with a window to choose yes or no. The decision with major number of votes wins.

Note: the same user can belong (at least in theory) to many parties.(Maybe this feature is not possible)

There could be an analogue feature to the buddy list for parties so that every member would be notified any time other member logs in and out.

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