Re: [Adonthell-general] Items & Inventory

[cirrus]

Nils Fohrbeck wrote:
> 
> address@hidden schrieb am 14.05.02:
> > On Mon, 13 May 2002 15:07:43 +0200 Nils Fohrbeck wrote:
> >
> > > Hi everybody!
> > >
> > > could you tell me how far you are with the Item system (apart from the
> > > notes on the web site), because I would really like to work on /help
> > > with the item system.
> >
> > Do you mean the coding or design? As far as coding goes, lowlevel item
> > and inventory classes are there. Actual items have to be defined as
> > python scripts. There is of coure much to do yet, but a lot of the work
> > depends on the needs our actual items will have.
> >
> > As for the design; if you refer to the item proposition doc on the ws,
> > nobody was really interested in that. So far, the item implementation is
> > as generic as possible, to work with any underlying rule-set. (As those
> > rules would be integrated in the python scripts or the user interface).
> >
> > So if you want to do any designwork, please feel free. :)
> >
> > Kai
> 
> Alright! I will start to thik of something. Expect to see some proposals soon 
> (hopefully). Nils


I had some thoughts on this once upon a time. Just thought I'd mention
some of it to give you food for thought:

I guess there will be 'container' items which allow you to carry things
you couldn't carry before and/or let you carry more stuff than before. A
rucksack might increase the capacity of what your party can carry and
you won't be able to take a potion with you unless you have a bottle.

There ought to be items that only do something when you use them and
ones which have a constant effect. A hammer must be explicitly used to
have an effect whereas a talisman will be doing something as long as you
have it on you. There might also be items which need to be activated and
then continue to work until deactivated - a torch for example.

Of these items you will be able to use some as often and/or for as long
as you want (the hammer for example) whereas other might only be usable
a fixed amount of times or only for a certain time. If you have 20
arrows for your bow you only get 20 shots, but a torch might last for a
fixed amount of time (or if like in Zelda it's a magic fuelled torch it
might only last while you have mana left).

I guess a few special items might only be usable together with specific
items / mapobjects / spells. Most keys probably only work with certain
doors. Some items might also only work at a certain time. A werewolf
amulet will only work when there is a full moon for example.

Ok, so there's some ideas for kinds of items we might have. I guess a
sensible thing would be to think of more or discard ones you don't like
and then try to get them all into groups or some kind of hierachy. As a
gfx guy I've always got the graphical representation and user interface
in the back of my mind. Therefore the more we can group things the
better as far as I'm concerned. If we adopt the interface I proposed
once (or something like that)  we could for example have little numbers
or bars beneath the item icons to indicate ones that will get used up
and how much/many of them is left. However I'd like to avoid a situation
where there are so many kinds of different indicators and kinds of items
that it becomes confusing to the player.

        -James


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