cremo

Hi all, and cheers for TobEX getting another release!

I've got a new wish I would like to express: the creation of a "stamina pool" (that, hopefully, will lead to an overhaul of the whole resting system).

It was something I was discussing a few time ago on the g3 forum, only to find out that it wouldn't have worked easily within the vanilla engine; that, even if I tried to shape my thoughts in order to exploit the intoxication mechanism already in the game.

Basically, I would like to create a new engine mechanic that would allow the making of limited-usage-abilities that still don't rely on the traditional vancian-system but, instead, on a threshold of fatigue that regenerates with in-game time.

In vanilla BG a character can drink as much alcohol at inns & taverns as its constitution allows him to before becoming drunk (or, technically, "intoxicated"). This status gives him fighting penalties/bonusses (to Thac0 and save against fear, IIRC) and only wears out with time (it's not necessary to sleep though I guess, since even travel time worked).

The intuition is that it should be possible to use a similar system in order to make some abilities that can be used only at a certain rate (since, let’s say, they “intoxicate you”) before a character becomes "exhausted", getting heavy combat malusses to his statistics and being prevented to use special abilities further until this state ends.

This “fatigue” will thus wear out with time without the need of resting, yet putting you at risk of going into this state while in combat.

I think that such a system would suit for a lot of abilities that could be virtually repeated many times in a day.. the limit being that if someone repeats them without any rest, it would eventually become “exhausted” for some time (you can run at high speed for some seconds in a while.. yet there’s virtually no limit to the number of times you can do that in a day, provided you take some rest from a dash to another).

E.G.

Clodgar has a Constitution of 17, which gives him 68 stamina points (4 stamina points per Con point).
Every time Clodgar uses a special ability he adds some fatigue points to his stamina pool (precise amount depending on the ability).

If “total fatigue points” > “total stamina points” -> then, “exhausted”

Note that “fatigue points” wear out with time (let’s say, for instance, at a rate of 4 points for round) and, thus, only an excessively intense usage of abilities would actually induce someone to become exhausted.

Note that exhaustion has “short time effects” (which go away in a matter of rounds) and “medium time effects” (which require a character to sleep to go away).

Short time effects:

• Can’t use ability which require fatigue points until exhausted has ended (after x turns?)
  
• Heavy malusses to statistics

Medium time effects:

• When “exhausted” state ends the stamina pool isn’t completely reset, but, instead, has some fatigue points on it that won’t go away until the char takes a sleep.

This medium time effects stack with each other if a character becomes exhausted consecutive times before taking a sleep, progressively reducing the effective dimension of his stamina pool (and thus his ability to “spam” special abilities into few rounds without becoming exhausted) and eventually forcing him into a perma-exhausted state until he takes some rest (since fatigue points will eventually > stamina points even when exausted state is reset).

This could be integrated with the general resting-system, equating x hours without sleeping with a certain amount of medium-time fatigue points.

This would mean that character with high constitution could – without going into exaustion state due to excessive usage of special powers – stay asleep effectively more time than a low con one.. adding tactical value to constitution.
So, what do you say, could TobEx do such a thing?

traps have names

Didn't know.. cool!

Would it be possible to add a % chance to appear on trap placed on the map? In this way there would be more randomness..

I think a standard mod can achieve this by % chance disabling the traps on area load.

I don't understand one thing tough: could a mod like this have a chance to individually disable EACH trap on a map (meaning some could be disabled and others not) or, instead, it could only disable or not disable ALL of them?

The latter option would be quite limitant.. since if I don't find a trap where I remembered it to, I would know that there are no traps at all around.



Also, another thing came to my mind for dialogue.

would it be possible to implement a chance for dialogue options to have success/fail based on a true "saving throw" a la d&d 3e?

Currently, a modder can decide wether a dialogue option requires a certain amount of a certain stat..

Someone could even - i think - give an "identical looking" option for PC with a lower stat, in truth having this dialogue option a "negative" response..

However, i don't think (am I right?) that, currently, is possible to add some real randomness: it would be a lot more interesting if, even with a 18 charisma char, i knew that trying to ask for a discount could end up to affect negatively the merchant's disposition toward myself.

What i would like to have, as I said, would be the chance for modder to fix "difficulty class" to a certain dialogue option.. it could even be far simpler than the way it works in d&d 3e.. it could be like a "saving throw against your stat", roll 1d20 (or a 1d25?), if the number is lower or equal to your stat, success, otherwise failure.. in this way, even with a 18 cha/int whatever, i would know that just because i see a dialogue option it's not automatic for it to be succesfull.

Another thing that cam to my mind reasoning on adding more "replay value" to the game.

Would it be possible to add a % chance to appear on trap placed on the map? In this way there would be more randomness..

Also i would love if "detect traps" wouldn't broke "hide in shadows".. since I find this to be very annoying, up to the point that you simply go around with your rogue in stealth mode without detecting them and actually simply reloading the game when you find one (knowing that your didn't check for them just because it would take too much time to scout an area doing detect traps than hide in shadows than detect traps continuosly)..

i like this idea of a tweak to unidentified magic items.

Albeith the "find magic" mechanism described would be surely nicer, I guess that a big improvement would be possible with just a simple tweak that would make unidentified items have not only - like in vanilla bg - a different description from their identified version, but also a different icon. It's in fact the peculiar icon of different magic items that makse them easily recognizable by those who have already played the game once, without the need of any "identify" spell.

No problem with the weapon animation and weapon capabilities instead imho.. since, without peculiar icons, anyone trying to discover the properties of a unidentified weapon would risk to find a cursed weapon (maybe the biggest issue would be to make the unidentified version of a weapon not posseed the activable powers of its identified counterpart when those require activation procedures and such).