The FireStaff (v0.06)

[Gambit37]

Wow, well this has been changed significantly.

First, RTC doesn't allow Fuse or Fluxcage as options until the caster is sufficiently advanced. DM had no such restrictions - a wizard with zero skill levels (2 with the firestaff) can use all options. In RTC it would mean that non-wizards would not be able to finish the game.

RTC warns the user if they don't have enough mana to use Invoke (based on my previous postings), and will not cast the spell. DM allows invoke to be used regardless of how much mana you have, the only difference is that spells do not last, perhaps only half a tile in some cases. I don't know which is better - probably RTC is more realistic. I guess this is why you chose to do it this way. Thoughts?

Fluxcage still casts multiple fluxcages on the same tile. If you do enough, the game becomes unstable and crashes, especially when using transparency. I think DM works by simply increasing the duration of the fluxcage and it doesn't create any new objects on the tile.

Still no sound effect on Fuse.

[beowuuf]

The firestaff has the gem of power, so i would guess that mana and spell level be damned! i agree, it makes the 'non-magic' party a bit screwed...and your magic users tend to be the first to suffer a sneaky chaos attack in dm....

I will play soon to see myself, but i prefer dm in this...the firestaff draws mana to augment it's power only, rather than require it (it would fire low level spells, i think my post on that disappeared to the fixes). And after all, if it is powerful enough to raise every level by 2, it's surely powerful enough to bind lord chaos no matter who uses it....

[George Gilbert]

> RTC doesn't allow Fuse or Fluxcage as options
> until the caster is sufficiently advanced.

Argh. This (and all the other suggestions) is because a previous post suggested that this is the way it worked - make up your minds

It's trivial to change it back but...

[Gambit37]

Errr... what?

Zyx was the only one who said that there shouldn't be all options available for a level 0 mage, but clearly you can never be a level 0 mage if you're holding the thing in the first place - you'll be Novice at the very least. So that was wrong, and I just assumed that nothing would be changed because of it.

I clarified the 0 mana thing in a separate email to you and simply stated that DM allows the player to use Invoke even with 0 mana. This was in no way a negation of anything I had discovered in the other firestaff posting - merely an addition! I guess you just interpreted it differently...

Really, it should be back the way it was in previous version, but should include the mana depletion (4,3, 2 or 1 points depending on skill level), and should NOT include a warning about low mana, and invoke spells cast when mana is 0 should only travel a short distance - this appears to be based on skill level: Novice seems to be half a tile or sometimes one tile, higher wizard levels allow the thing to travel further.

Sorry for any confusion George!

[Zyx]

Sorry for the statement about "a level 0 mage shouldnt be allowed to have the 3 actions of the firestaff+."
The wizard level I was talking about was before the modifications of the firestaff.
For a better clarity let's talk about the novice mage then.
Using the same approach as Drake's, I think the firestaff should better the wizard habilities. For a level 0 mage, however, this is not bettering, but creating! Anyway, all the firestaff powers shouldn't be available for such a low level mage, IMHO.

[cowsmanaut]

It think you are confusing me with someone else ZYX.. I made no suggestions about the firestaff... at least I don't think I did..

However since I've been pulled into it anyway I'll say something.. hmmm uhhmmm welll..

The Firestaff pulls mana from you. it gives you wizard levels. it is in theory more powerfull than Chaos himself.

Two arguments could be made here..

1. that it is like it's own entity that adds itself to you and is therefore capable completing it's functions in even a novice's hand

2. that it is so powerfull that it takes skill to controll it and so requires a more advanced wizard to use it properly.

you see it's really down to your interpetation of it's nature.. is 1.. or 2? From there deciding what it should and shouldn't do is easy.

does that help at all.. hmm probably not much...

[Zyx]

Yes Drake, your thoughts have enlighted me
I guess the Firestaff+ is coherent enough the way it works in DM, so I withdraws my assertments.
BTW, I was talking about your realistic, should-be approach of the bugs when I mentionned you.

[Gambit37]

Ummm... just been checking Fluxcage again, and it works correctly! That is, you don't get multiple copies of the cages and the game doesn't crash.

I think perhaps I had tested an earlier version on that bit, so sorry George for the confusion.

[George Gilbert]

Fair enough. I re-wrote all the firestaff code anyway. It now does something different again and the power of spell emitted is a function of wizard level and available mana. Even with zero experience and mana then something will come out of it (but not much), however it takes a high(ish) level wizard with full to get a top power spell. It's not what DM does, but it kinda makes sense...

[cowsmanaut]

Sounds cool. Probably the best solution.

That strikes up a thought though. How does the process of creating the firestaff work in RTC? From what I remember you had three items the firestaff1 (ie no gem) the power gem and the firestaff2 (with gem)

Is that the way you are doing it in RTC or is it more along the idea of two things create an amalgam.. By that I mean that there are only two things and you can combine them without need of a third item but rather they 'fill in blanks' on eachother?

to make it more clear..

item A:
Fireball
Swing

item B:
Poison cloud

Item A+B:
Fireball
Swing
Poison cloud

just curious..

[beowuuf]

The way dm did it was that the firestaff and firestaff+ were two seperate items, and it was all a wall object con that you needed to use the firestaff on the amalgam graphic to obtain the firestaff+...or is that what you meant?

I think this is simpler than having 'amalgams' of items, athough if that is a possibility, that would be sweet....but i'm guessing that it isn't with this engine...

[cowsmanaut]

Yep that is what I meant.
three items
Firestaff
Powergem
and Firestaff+

I know that the Amalgam would be more complex but ti would allow for some greater ease with combining and Un-combining of objects. You see you would need to create less Items in your items list which would be good if you wanted to create things that were made up of more than two items. Say a sword that got combined with a emerald and the sap from rare tree to create some Powerfull elven sword or something..

Or what if you wanted the Firestaff to be broken into many peices that had to be reassembled..

You would obviously need to create a few extra images if you wanted to change inbetween but it wouldn't be needed if say for the sword it wouldn't change untill everything was together..

it was just a thought..

[George Gilbert]

Firestaff code completely re-written for V0.07. It now does something else, but probably not the same as DM.