Looking for opinions on an item forge

[Chewbacca]

Howdy folks,

I have been busily working on an items forge for my Character Maker utility module that will allow player customization of items they are wearing, but I have run into some issue that warrant a wider net of opinions than my own.

The basic issue is finding the balance between providing freedom to customize characters and items -vs- the problem of easily allowing the creation of super-uber cheat-o-matic type items/characters that can really ruin the fun of a local vault server, like EFU for example.

Should I place limits on how many enchancments can go on a particluar item? If so, what should the limit be? 4, 6, 10, ect?

Should I cap the maximum enhancment bonus, or should I go ahead and allow for modification all the way to +20? Should some categories be capped ( like ability score bonuses) and some not capped ?

Finally, has anyone else checked out the Forge of Wonders at the the NW Vault? What do think of this type of system where you put the item in a chest to have it modified as opposed to one that is totally conversation based and a character only need to have the item(s) equiped?

Any other insights, opinions or feedback along these lines will be helpful. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 02-01-2004, 02:53 PM: Message edited by: Chewbacca ]

[philip]

A limit on weapon enhancements would be good. As you said anti cheat weapons. I think it might sometimes save some cpu time as well.

Perhaps you could make it levelbased, cause I found the +8 enhancement in HotU too few for the high level characters you can get. This is only if the ILR aren't changed with enhancing it otherwise you might be doing it double, or the ILRs allow too low level characters wielding powerful weapons.

[Micah Foehammer]

Originally posted by Chewbacca: Howdy folks, I have been busily working on an items forge for my Character Maker utility module that will allow player customization of items they are wearing, but I have run into some issue that warrant a wider net of opinions than my own. The basic issue is finding the balance between providing freedom to customize characters and items -vs- the problem of easily allowing the creation of super-uber cheat-o-matic type items/characters that can really ruin the fun of a local vault server, like EFU for example. Should I place limits on how many enchancments can go on a particluar item? If so, what should the limit be? 4, 6, 10, ect?

If you are excluding the basic weapon enhancement itself, I would say 6 is a good limit. One for elemental pluses not exceeding +2d6, one for a stat enhancement, one for an On-Hit property and 3 for miscellaneous properties like haste, true seeing, darkvision, keen, regen, mighty, etc.

The weapon smith in HotU is a good guide - you got a +10 max, an elemental bonus, the option to add keen, haste, true seeing, regen and if you used the altar in Vix's temple you could add an on-Hit property as well.

You could consider giving the player more flexibility so that they could add two elemental bonuses but the combination can't exceed 2d6.

Should I cap the maximum enhancment bonus, or should I go ahead and allow for modification all the way to +20? Should some categories be capped ( like ability score bonuses) and some not capped ? [/QUOTE]

I wouldn't allow the enhancement bonus to exceed +12, but that's just me. I would either set the other properties or have them available from a fixed list.
That implies that ALL abilities would be capped.


Finally, has anyone else checked out the Forge of Wonders at the the NW Vault? What do think of this type of system where you put the item in a chest to have it modified as opposed to one that is totally conversation based and a character only need to have the item(s) equiped? [/QUOTE]

Haven't checked it out, but will do so. I kind of like the conversation base conversion, but I also like think a Forge could be really cool if it comes with some sort of recipe / cookbook and requires certain components to make the weapon. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Chewbacca]

Thanks for some food for thought guys!

At this point, my scripting skills require close to the simplest path to take in most cases. Which means currently that any restrictions on the number of modifications on an item will just a total sum of all modifications.

I really like Micah's the idea of limiting the number of modifications by type, ie. One for basic attack/damage, one for stat boosting, one for elemental/special damage, and then three slots for other enhancments like haste or regen or on-hit. But this may be out of my league.I will have to go and dabble and ask around for help to pull this off me thinks, but I like it! [img]smile.gif[/img]

Aslo I am leaning towards capping the enhancment bonuses at +12, maybe only +10 and restricting ability stat bonuses to +6 but this is still something I am considering. I have given myself two weeks to finish up so the rush isn't on ...yet. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Any more opinions?

[philip]

Originally posted by Chewbacca: Thanks for some food for thought guys! At this point, my scripting skills require close to the simplest path to take in most cases. Which means currently that any restrictions on the number of modifications on an item will just a total sum of all modifications. I really like Micah's the idea of limiting the number of modifications by type, ie. One for basic attack/damage, one for stat boosting, one for elemental/special damage, and then three slots for other enhancments like haste or regen or on-hit. But this may be out of my league.I will have to go and dabble and ask around for help to pull this off me thinks, but I like it! [img]smile.gif[/img] Aslo I am leaning towards capping the enhancment bonuses at +12, maybe only +10 and restricting ability stat bonuses to +6 but this is still something I am considering. I have given myself two weeks to finish up so the rush isn't on ...yet. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I think the scripting part is not really hard to do. You have to order the properties in groups you want, then check which it is and in which group they are and then count them up. Basically I'd write the script something like this (I have limited time now so I can't write out the whole code, sorry):

int nProperty = first item property int nStatbonus =0; int nAttackBonus=0; while nProperty = valid { if nProperty == ITEM_PROPERTY_***&&... { nStatbonus++ } if nProperty == ITEM_PROPERTY_***&&.... { nAttackBonus++ } nProperty = GetNExtProperty int startingconditional nStatBonus <= 3 return TRUE return FALSE

edit: first could be in the onconversation event or the first words of the NPC/object to set the integers. Second could be in a later reply to check the value of them


It looks really ugly so I'll write it out later if you need [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 02-02-2004, 04:33 PM: Message edited by: philip ]

[Chewbacca]

Cool philip! I see where you are going with that I think.

This is what (I think) should happen:

When the player selects which inventory slot the item they want modified is in from the conversation, the script is fired from the ActionsTaken handler and
first checks for the presence of each allowable type of item property on the item and sets an integer that determines it's status. If there is already an itemproperty type present of the one being checked for then no more itemproperties like that can be added (like elemental damage bonuses) but the current one can be changed or modified. It also counts how many "special" item properties like haste, ect. there are and does the same thing when the limit has been reached

a TextAppearsWhen script on the next conversation node where you select how to modify the item can then check the variable and show which properties (if any) can be added and which can be modified.

Hmmm seems simple enough in theory, but math, particularly scripting math, is my weak suite. I welcome any help here.

I have a conversation template mostly finished for modifying a right-hand weapon and would love to test a script like this with it so if you have the free time to write this out more philip, please do!

I will probably give it a shot myself as well, but I still scratch my head more often than not with complex scripting. I just today completed my first very own switch/case script that gives gold based on level!!! Thats where I am at with learning scripting. I get the concepts easily but when it comes to executing actually making the scripts I need some hand-holding still. I can send you the conversation template like I described above of you would like. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[philip]

I'll look into that. The converstaion would be handy, so if you could send it. I think it'll be quite a large script. BTW this could be done with switch/case.

[Chewbacca]

Philip, I sent you an email with the convo. [img]smile.gif[/img]

BTW if the code is quite large, you can post it at the bioware guild with code tags to keep the formatting intact. You can also post it here with formating intact as well using [ code]put code here[/ code] minus the spaces in the brackets of course.

Like this:

code:

---

#include "x2_inc_itemprop"



void main()

{





itemproperty ip = ItemPropertyHaste();

object oItem = GetItemInSlot(INVENTORY_SLOT_RIGHTHAND, GetPCSpeaker());



IPSafeAddItemProperty(oItem, ip);



}

[/QUOTE]Though I think the bioware format would be better for large scripts.

Let me know if you have any questions about the email. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Chewbacca]

Fiddling with the code you posted before, philip and I get this error when I try to compile this snippet:

2/4/04 3:05:22 AM: Error. 'testing' did not compile.
testing.nss(11): ERROR: "while" CONDITION CANNOT BE FOLLOWED BY A NULL STATEMENT.

Here is the code...what am I missing to make it work? Im new to this 'while' thing and quite the newbie concerning 'is/elses'.

code:

---

void main()

{



object oPC = GetPCSpeaker();

object oRhandweapon = GetItemInSlot(INVENTORY_SLOT_RIGHTHAND,oPC);



int ipProperty = GetFirstItemProperty(oRhandweapon);

int nEnhanceBonus=0;



while (GetIsItemPropertyValid(ipProperty));

{

if ipProperty == GetItemPropertyType(ITEM_PROPERTY_ENHANCEMENT_BONU  S());

{

nEnhanceBonus++

  }



  }

}

[/QUOTE]If I can get this bit to work, I can replicate it for the other properties in the rest of the script!

[Chewbacca]

Wait a second.... Do I need to set the local interger somewhere after the 'if' or something like that? Is that what the null statment is all about? Or do I need to add more to make the if work? I was looking to make a small test script to see if I could apply the concept and then expand.

Just what is a null statement anyway?