[Adonthell-general] Inventory/Items

[nilsfohrbeck]

I finally did a rough draft of the item system. I hope it fits in with the 
existing coding. Anyways, just send me your comments, ideas for improvements 
ect. If you like the system I will come up with more example Items.

Nils
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Items and Inventory:

Item Name: This is the identifier for items. Each name is unique and clearly 
marks the item!

Icon: Each item has an icon (a picture of the item). Icons have the same size 
for all items, no matter if it is a healing potion or an armour.

Category: Each item is assigned to a certain category. By assigning an item to 
a category, you also define how the item can be used and how it interacts with 
the character/environment/spells ect.

EQUIPABLE:      amulet
                ring
                belt
                gloves
                cloak
                boots
                bracers
                earings
                tatoo
                ...

All of the above can be equiped and have no effect on their own, if they do not 
hold any enchantments (we can add to/substract from  this list as we see fit). 
In fact I think we should really limit the list because that means the player 
will have to make more strategic decisions. We could even make certain items 
race or gender specific, saying for example that only males can have tatoos 
while only females can have earrings. 

I think a character can only have one item from each of these categories 
equiped (ring is an exception, you can wear 2 of them). 

The following are the combat relevant items. Whenever they are equiped they 
modify one of your stats. Of course you can only equip one armour at a time. 
Because it makes programming easier and leaves the player with more strategic 
choices I would allow the player to equip one ranged weapon, one shield and one 
melee weapon at the same time. 


armour: gives you a bonus to your (who would have guessed) armour value

shield: gives you a bonus to your parry percentage

melee weapon : gives a bonus to your damage value

ranged weapon: gives a bonus to your damage value / as well as your attack range

ATTACK ITEMS:

I would suggest that we do not use a fixed button for attacks and one for 
spells  (for example) . Instead we should use a more or less variable approch: 
A character has 2 (or maybe 3, though we should keep the number of buttons low, 
so adonthell can be played with a game pad) attack buttons, which are in fact 
just slots where items can be equiped. These attack items are the fighting 
feats, as well as spells, songs and the likes. A character starts the game with 
the two fighting feats ranged attack and melee attack. Both have no 
prequesites. As he progresses throughout the game, he can learn spells, songs 
and further fighting skills, which he can equip. 

USABLE ITEMS: some items can acctually be used on their own, however they are 
used up (or lose a charge) in the process. These include potions, torches, 
scrolls, charged wands ect. I would suggest that the player can use them (since 
they can not be equipped they can use the same button as the equip button for 
other items), and then their effect takes place over a shorter or longer time 
period (interally the engine could treat them the same way as spells). For 
example, whenever a character uses a torch one charge could be depleted, giving 
the character some extra light for 5 minutes. When the character has used up 
all the charges, the item becomes useless and disappears. Some very powerful 
items (such as a powerful wand) could even be recharged after they are "empty". 
  

BACKPACK ITEMS : these include books, keys, gems, herbs and all kinds of other 
icons that can not be equiped or 'used'. These items are stored in the 
backback, they are not assigned to any one of the characters. Of course all the 
other items can also be put in the backpack (which is in fact the party 
inventory) but then no character profits from them.   

Description: This is a short note giving backgrond info, as well as game 
relevant information (and the text of a book). 

Prequisites: Whenever you want to equip or use am item the engine checks 
whether you meet the prequisites or not. If you do not meet them you can not 
equip/use the item. The prequistites can be any combination of minimum level, 
ranks in an ability, ranks in a skill, a specific alignment or a certain value 
in one of the attributes. 

Special Properties: Only equipable items can have special properties. As long 
as the item is equiped the special properties apply. These include 
enchantments, blessings, curses and all other kinds of special properties. 

Price: This is the unmodified price, the amount of money the item should fetch. 
Of course traders will offer slightly less when they by the item and charge 
slightly more when they sell it. The price is modified by demand, your barter 
skill and how well the person you are trading with likes you. 

Specific Situations/ Game Implementation: There are a lot of items that can 
only be used in certain situations. One example are keys. Instead of giving the 
player the option to use them, whenever the certain situation occurs (in this 
case the character tries to open a locked door), the game checks whether the 
required icon is in the backpack (in this case it could be 'rusted key' or 
'key34'). The same works for reagents. They are not an item category on their 
own. Instead when your character uses an anvil a dialogue window opens (so 
internally an anvil is just a verrrrrry dull person), and checks whether you 
have ore in your backpack or not. Depending on this check the dialogue window 
could either read: 'I do not what I could be doing here'. Or a choice of 'I use 
my ore to forge a magic hammer' and 'I use my ore to improve my armour'. Of 
course the same applies for enchanting items.  

Further notes: When I designed these item rules I tried to take their handling 
as well as the final gui into consideration. In fact that is impossible though. 
Therefore I would like to hear your suggestions concerning the final button 
layout and how the inventary is to be navigated. I believe we should make the 
game playable with 4 buttons and a D-Pad, so it is playable withjoypads, on 
organizers (some day hopefully) and the likes. Of course the the game would 
allow for many more buttons, I would just suggest that it should be possible to 
play it with 4 buttons.  

4-Button Game Pad Gamepad layout:

D-Pad: Used to give directions and navigate the menu(s)

Button 1 
Button 2
Button 3
Button 4

Example Items:

 
Rune of Sharpness:
useable/ Requires: weapon improvement 2 ranks/Desc.: your weapon carries the 
rune of sharpness. It can be activated once, then it diminishes. When activated 
the your melee damage increases by an extra 8 points./ Value: 0 gold

Heavy Waraxe:
melee weapon/ Requires: melee weapons 2 ranks/Desc.: A very large and effective 
weapon that originates from the common lumberjack's axe. Melee Damage + 2d6 
(2-12) / Value: 65 gold

Fireball:
Attack Item/ Req.: fire magic 2 ranks/ Desc.: A huge ball of fire blasts from 
your hands to burn everything in its way. Uses 5 power when cast, has a hit 
chance of 75%, deals 2d6 points of fire damage. / Value: 100 gold

Recipe for medium poison:
backpack/ req.:alcheny 2 ranks, 2 bitter leafs (activates when you talk to an 
anvil) / Desc. Use the knownledge written down in this recipe to create poison. 
Uses 5 power when brewed, consumes the 2 bitter leafs. Creates a potion of 
medium poison. / Value: 45 gold

Medium poison:
usable/ req.: alignment =< 2 (how do you do an equal to/smaller as symbol?) / A 
vicious poison that severly harms the opponent, and would only be used by the 
most evil of characters. When used one charge is depleted (starts with 10 
charges), and your weapon is coated with poison (+2 to damage for the next 
hit). 5% chance that your alignment value is reduced by 1. / Value: 30 gold