Stars of Shareware: Programmierung

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Stars of Shareware: Programmierung / SOURCE.mdf / programm / msdos / pascal / rehack / text / design.txt < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1991-04-16 | 49.7 KB | 1,025 lines

REHACK proposals, by Charles Miles. 4/16/91. Please note that these are all only suggestions. If you have additions, suggestions, objections, ideas of your own, etc, send them to me. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. STORY PROPOSAL II. INTERFACE SUGGESTIONS III. STATS OUTLINE IV. LEVEL THEMES V. SUGGESTED ITEMS AND MONSTERS I. STORY PROPOSAL. The following text would be displayed (with illustrations?) at the introduction of the game: [NOTE: UBG= Ultimate Bad Guy -- I haven't figured out his name yet!] "A flagon of ale, Rolf, and put it on my tab." "You know perfectly well you've got no credit left. Cash only." You place your last groat on the bar with a sigh. Only a month ago you had entered the city a properous merchant, with twelve full carts of goods ready to sell at the annual market fair and a bright future ahead of you. Then the night before the fair was to open your assistant disappeared, along with all of the goods and most of the money. The other merchants at the fair claimed not to have seen him or the goods leave the city. You were left with little cash and no connections. Last week you were evicted from your lodgings for not paying the rent, and today the money for food had run out. Now it was only a question of whether you would die at the hand of an assasin hired by your many unpaid creditors or of starvation. Of course, there is always the river. It would end all of your problems.... You put the thought out of your mind and empty the flagon in one long gulp. A short, plump man elbows his way to the bar. "Ahh, the Victory Inn. Haven't visited this fine establishment in many a long year. Bartender, a bottle of your best wine." The man pours a glass and drinks it with gusto. He turns to you. "Would you like to know why this place is called the Victory Inn? It's a most fascinating historical incident." You can tell from his tone of voice that he is going to tell you whether you want him to or not. "Buy me another flagon of ale, old man, and I'll listen to you for as long as you want." "Very well then. Bartender, some more ale for this rude young person! The story, you see, begins long, long ago, back when peasants used unicorns to pull their dung carts and everyone lived to see a hundred and one summers. The Council of Wizards, that most remarkable and august body, decided to focus their collective magical powers to create the most powerful magic item in the world, an item that could be used to mold time and space as if they were clay. After many years spent in research and countless more spent in experimentation, the Council succeeded. They forged the item in the form of an amulet, and the one who wore the Amulet of Yendor -- they named it after Yendor, the clever Wizard who suggested the project in the first place -- had almost unlimited power over Reality itself. "The Amulet had one drawback, however. It drained life essence from the one who used it. If used frequently enough it could kill...could kill even Wizards, whose years are as many as the stars in the sky. For this reason it was thought that no Wizard would ever dare to misuse the Amulet. Although extensive use of the Amulet might bring fleeting glory it would also bring a most permanent death. For that reason the Amulet was passed from Wizard to Wizard, and used sparingly, and only for good ends. "Yet one Wizard dared to keep the Amulet for his own purposes. When UBG obtained the Amulet, he used it to raise armies and conquer kingdoms. With the Aumulet he created many creatures which still haunt us today. He made the bothersome kobold, the greedy orc, the fearless hobgoblin, and the cunning troll. He brought forth legions of horrible undead souls, bound to him by the power of the Amulet. With his horde of monsters he swept over the globe, conquering, looting, pillaging, and so on. "Naturally, the Council of Wizards could not allow such insubordination. The Council called on the kings and heros of all the lands, and raised a mighty army with which to challenge UBG. The war began. The bards still sing of the mighty deeds, the foul deceptions, the great battles, and the sly intruiges of that great conflict. The final battle was fought on this very spot, when this mighty city was no more than a collection of cottages. The armies fought for four days and three nights. After much bloodshed, the Council's forces won the day. UBG was defeated by the magic of the Wizards and the swords of their armies. "The Amulet was taken from UBG, and at the surrender ceremony UBG was forced to swear an solemn oath to all the Gods of Light and Darkness that he would never again seek power in any land on the face of the world. As UBG was led away, he broke free of his captors and made a desparate lunge for the Amulet. As he grabbed the mystic token he shouted, 'If I cannot be the ruler of everything upon this world, let me rule beneath it!' There was a sudden flash of light. When the bedazzled spectators regained the use of their eyes they found that UBG, his army, and the Amulet had all vanished entirely. "There was much celebration, of course, and a gigantic victory feast was held -- right here, where we sit. And that is why this is called the Victory Inn. It is named after the greatest victory in all history, not that the louts that currently inhabit this city remember a bit of it." "And what happened to UBG?" you ask. "Some thought that in attempting to seize the Amulet again he had angered the Gods and thus earned their punishment. Others thought he had departed to some other plane of existence. But the Council, pondering the meaning of his last words, decided that he had fled underground with the Amulet, to the bowels of the earth. So they ordered that all of the slain heros of the battle be buried deep in the caves found in the area. Then they placed magical blessings on the bodies, instructing them to rise to the world's defence if UBG tried to attack the surface world. "Since then mysterious rumors have been heard about strange shapes haunting the night streets. Some say they are the dead heros patrolling the city to keep it from harm, but others say that UBG has corrupted the souls of the dead, and turned them to his own evil ends. And then there are the rumors of strange things in the sewers, of dwarves who enter the city and never seen to leave, of fabulous treasure hidden underground, and of the fabled Amulet, which gives the wearer power over all things." "Idle stories told to impress the rubes at the market place," you sneer. "I thought so as well, until I read this. It was found by a pickpocket who uses the sewers as hideout." The old man hands you a tattered pamphlet, with the words ATLAS OF THE UNDERGROUND printed upon the cover. [NOTE: ATLAS OF THE UNDERGROUND will be included as part of the game manual. It will be written from the point of view of a dwarf who works in the mithril mine, and will describe the monsters, weapons and armor, etc in the game.] You pick up the pamphlet and begin reading. It seems impossible, and yet -- You look up to ask the man how he came to have the pamphlet, but the man is gone. You make your way to the door, searching the pub crowd for the old man's face. As you reach the bar the bartender shouts, "Hey you! Who's going to pay for these drinks?" You sprint out of the bar, with the pub's bouncer at your heels. You duck into an alleyway. Your talk with the old man had made you forget that you have no money, no home, no hopes for the future. You collapse with dispair. Once more you begin to think of the river, of how easy it would be to slip in and take the water into your lungs. Hideous laughter snaps you out of your daze. It comes from a a group of kobolds at the far end of the alley. You shout and run towards them, sending the cowardly creatures scrabbling back down into the sewers where they live. The sewers...why not? The old man had said there was treasure and an all-powerful amulet down there. And it would be better to die couragously searching for treasure than to die a penniless and despised suicide here in the city. Without another thought you remove the sewer grate and lower yourself into the foul-smelling darkness... [You continue down through the many levels of the UBG's underground kingdom -- see LEVEL SUGGESTIONS -- and at the end manage to get the amulet and win the game. When you get the amulet the following text appears, suitably illustrated.] The Amulet at last! You grab it and immediately feel an idescribable surge of power. You feel the strange and subtle workings of Reality itself, and at the same time realize that you have the power to mold Reality to your will. Then there is an explosion of pain in your head and you slump to the floor. When you awaken you find yourself back in the alley where you adventure began. Above you stands the old man from the bar. He wears the Amulet around his neck. "Sorry about the bash on the head. I didn't have time to cast a spell. Another second or two and you would have been doing the Gods know what with the fabric of Reality. I teleported down as soon as I sensed you had taken the Amulet. Splendid work down there. The Council of Wizards sends its congratulations, to which I add my own heartfelt thank you. I've always been particularly fond of the Amulet myself. "Oh yes, I'm Yendor. The Amulet was my idea, so naturally the Council send me to clean up the, er, rectify the situation. We knew UBG had the Amulet and where he was, of course. We also knew that he couldn't wear the Amulet very often, as it would drain the life right out of him quite quickly. "Still, we couldn't send a Wizard after him. He would have sensed one of us coming the minute we entered the sewers -- magical auras, and all that. So we decided to send agents into his kingdom, in the hope that one of our agents would catch him when he wasn't wearing the amulet. "We tried Heros first, of course, but the smart ones turned the job down flat, and the stupid ones gererally folded at the sight of the first drake or umber hulk. What we needed were truely driven men, people who literally had nothing else to use. Such dedicated souls are hard to find, so the Council set about creating our own. We found that wealthy people who are cast into poverty will do anything, even wrestle an Owlbear naked, to regain their wealth. Of course, most of them weren't up to the rigorous demands of the job, poor devils, but the Council had time. If we sent enough agents down there someone was bound to succeed sooner or later, if only by the laws of probability. And it looks like you were the one!" "You mean that the Council --" "We were the ones responsible for your assistant's sudden, er, disappearance. And we took the money as well. Don't worry, I'm sure it was, ah, donated to some worth cause." You make a lunge at the man. With a gesture of his hand he freezes you in place. "Don't bother to thank us. After all, the Council gave you the chance to be the greatest hero of all time. We won't be able to aknowledge your deeds publically, of course. Wouldn't want word of the little mixup with the Amulet to get around. But you have our quiet appreciation. Now it's time for me to leave, I'm afraid. Thanks again!" With that he disappears. The spell that held you in place vanishes, and you fall to the ground. Your broken body has reached the limit of its endurance. You barely have enough energy to lift your head so that you can see the sun rising over the buildings of the city. You are in exactly the same situation as you were last night -- penniless, friendless, doomed. Except now it feels as if every bone in your body is broken. Suddenly you hear a voice in your ear. It is the old man's. "I almost forgot. The Council thought it appropriate to give you a little something in gratitude." A leather pouch appears next to you. You open it with trembling hands. Inside are rubies, sapphires, diamonds, each one worth the price of a kingdom. Suddenly you feel much better. You have enough energy to drag yourself to the Inn for a drink or two. Or perhaps three or four. II. INTERFACE SUGGESTIONS. Mouse Buttons. LEFT CLICK: if in close up window, clicking on a location moves the character towards that location. RIGHT CLICK: executes the command represented by the current cursor. (See BUTTONS.) SHIFT-RIGHT CLICK: cycles forwards through cursors. CNTRL-RIGHT CLICK: cycles backwards through cursors. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Main Display ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | | | | | AUTOMAPPING WINDOW | | CLOSE UP WINDOW: 7 tiles | (each wall tile represented | | by 7 tiles. | by 4x4 block of pixels?) | | | | | Dimensions: 160 pixels wide | Dimensions: approx. 160 wide | | x 160 long | by 120 long. | | | | | Each tile: 22x22 pixels? | | | | | | | + | | | | |---------------------------------------| | | BUTTONS: 2 rows of 8. | | | Each button 17 pixels wide x | | | 20 pixels tall. | | | Dimensions: 160 wide x 40 long | | | + +-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | CHARACTER WINDOW (HP, readied | MESSAGE WINDOW (2 lines, 25 | | weapons, etc.) Dimensions: | chars across.) | | 160 wide by 40 long | Dimensions: 160 wide x 40 long | |-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------- NOTE: Above layout meant to be viewed on screen, not printed out! NOTES: CLOSE UP WINDOW. Proposed window is slightly larger than ULT VI window, and displays 7x7 tiles instead of 9x9. This gives us 60% larger tiles than ULT VI, 22 pixels on a side instead of 17. At this size one tile takes up about 500 bytes. A creature with 3 views (front, back, side) and 4 frames of animation takes up about 6k. (ULT VI, BTW, uses 2-3 frames for animation.) AUTOMAPPING WINDOW. Note I still have the automapping window separate from the close up window. What I have in mind for the automapping window is a simple schematic, with grey blocks for walls, red blocks for monsters you can see or sense, etc. Each block would be about 2 pixels x 2. If we can figure out a way to Zoom easily, we can combine the automap window and the close up window, since you'll presumably be able to do everything you can do in Zoom mode that you could do in Close Up mode. (I.e. you can play the game from the Zoom automap.) For the initial layout, though, I put in the automap in on its own so we know where to put it if we have to include it. Better to have extra space if we don't need it than try to figure out where to put it later. MESSAGE WINDOW. Displays relevant text -- "The orc hits for tremendous damage," "You see a sword," etc. Font size is as in EYE OF THE BEHOLDER. (50 characters across the whole screen: don't know the height.) EYE text is a little grainy, but I would rather have a lot of grainy text than a few word in a fancy font. BUTTONS. Described size is about the same size as buttons in SAVAGE EMPIRE. Like SAVAGE EMPIRE (which has "granite" buttons with the icons "carved" in them), I reccommend that the buttons have only 2 tone coloring (black and white, dark grey on grey, etc.) Colorful buttons can be confusing (e.g. ULTIMA VI) because the color overwhelms the small images. Buttons are activated by left clicking: it doesn't matter what the displayed cursor is. (This is true for all icons and buttons, BTW -- But NOT for items in inventory windows, which must be USEed or MANIPULATEd.) BUTTON LAYOUT +---------------------------------------+ | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | | | | | | | | | | +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | | | | | | | | | | +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ Different button types: (A * indicates that this function can be selected either clicking on the button OR by cycling through cursors by hitting SHIFT + right mouse button.) 1) *LOOK. Icon/cursor: an EYE. Describes any item/location/creature on the close up screen or in the inventory. (E.g. "You see a brick wall," "You see a ring of protection," etc.) 2) *MANIPULATE. Icon/cursor: a pointing hand. When using this cursor if you click on an item in inventory or adjacent to the character on the close up screen, the item becomes "cursorized." The item can then be put in inventory (by dragging it into the correct inventory window), dropped (by clicking on a location adjacent to the character), or thrown (by clicking on a location not adjacent to the character: the item is thrown towards that location.) The one exception to these rules is picking locks. When the character is standing adjacent to a door or chest and the "cursorized" item is a lockpick or key, the character attempts to pick the door lock with the cursorized item when the door is clicked on. 3) *USE. Icon/cursor: a grabbing hand. Uses an item in an inventory window or adjacent to the character window. USE does the "obvious" thing with each item -- drinks potions, eats food, zaps wands, reads potion, opens unlocked doors or chests, pulls levers, etc. 4) *ATTACK. Icon/cursor: crosshairs. Attacks the location selected in the close up window with the weapon currently in the Hand. Is range sensitive (i.e. if you're armed with a sword and click on a monster 2 squares away you get a "You can't attack that!" message, but if you're armed with a bow you fire an arrow at the monster.) Doors, chests, and perhaps some walls can be attacked can be attacked to break down the door/bust open the chest/destroy the wall. If the item in the hand is a wand, using ATTACK zaps the wand. 5) SEARCH. Icon: a magnifying glass. Puts you in SEARCH mode: increases your chance of finding secret doors and traps, but slows your movement. Clicking on the SEARCH button again takes you out of SEARCH mode. (Doing a LOOK at any location is the same as SEARCHing it: the advantage of SEARCH is that it searches all 8 adjacent locations at once.) 6) SNEAK. Icon: dunno. A cloak and dagger? <g> Puts you in SNEAK mode: allows you to walk right past monsters with low intelligence and/or perception, but slows you down and slightly drains mental endurance. Attacking a monster while in SNEAK mode gives you extra damage on your first attack, but also takes you out of SNEAK mode. Clicking on the button again takes you out of SNEAK mode. 7) REST. Icon: The letters "Zzz" or a saw cutting a log. <g> Puts you to sleep, where you heal faster and consume food slower than in regular movement mode. You wake up automatically if a monster moves adjacent to you. Clicking on REST again wakes you up. 8) OPTIONS. Icon: a 3.5" diskette. Brings up the game options menu, which allows you to save/restore games, set game difficulty, turn sound on/off, etc. 9) POTIONS. Icon: a potion. Brings up the potion inventory window. Clicking the USE icon on a potion drinks it. GENERIC INVENTORY WINDOW INFORMATION. Inventory windows pop up over the automap window. All inventory windows are 4 regular tiles by 4 tiles. Thus an inventory window displays 16 items at a time. Each inventory window has a windows-like scroll bar to scroll through the inventory if you have more than 16 of 1 type of item (this will be unlikely, however.) Since the inventory window tiles are the same size as the close-up window tiles, we use the same bitmaps for items in the inventory window as in the close up window. Items in the inventory windows can be look at, manipulated and used. If USEing an item would logically use up an item -- food is eaten, potions drunk, scrolls vanish in smoke -- the item vanishes from inventory. For shields, rings, armor, and weapons, though, USE means "wear." When the USE icon is clicked on a weapon, say, the weapon appears in the Hand box in the character window and the background of the weapon in the Inventory Window changes from blue to yellow to show it's been readied. (If a weapon has already been readied and you attempt to ready another you get a message like, "You're already holding a weapon.") BTW, there would be no body outline with inventory slots as there is in EYE or ULT VI (so that to ready a sword, for example, you put a sword in the slot near the hand.) The main reason for this is to allow different combinations of armor. Thus you can wear plate mail over your leather armor (you'll barely be able to move, but you can if you want.) More realistically, you'll be able to wear an elven cloak over your armor, or wear a helmet without having a specific helmet slot, etc. 10) WANDS. Icon: a wand. Clicking on this icon brings up the wand inventory window. Clicking on a wand in the inventory window with the USE icon zaps the wand. HOWEVER, since the assumption is that you're using the Secondary Hand to target the wand with this method, you miss about 25-35% of the time this way. If the wand is readied in the hand, though, you hit more like 90% of the time. (This feature would be hinted at in the manual, but not explicitly explained: it would be up to the sharp-eyed player to figure out.) 11) SCROLLS. Icon: a scroll. Clicking on this icon brings up the scroll inventory window: clicking the USE cursor on the scroll invokes it. 12) RINGS. Icon: a ring. Clicking on this icon brings up the ring display window. Clicking the USE cursor on a ring readies it. You can wear up to 4 rings. (we could also put other pieces of jewelry ... amulets, broaches, etc... under this catagory.) 13) FOOD. Icon: fork. Clicking on this icon brings up the food inventory window; clicking the USE cursor on a food item eats it. 14) ARMOR. Icon: a shield. Brings up the armor inventory window. Clicking the USE cursor on a piece of armor readies it. Generally only 1 piece of body armor may be worn, with the following exceptions: 1) cloth leather may be worn under any armor type except leather, 2) leather armor may be worn under plate, 3) cloaks may be worn over any form of armor. There are also shields, helmets, and maybe boots. You can only wear 1 helmet and 1 shield (and 1 pair of boots) at a time. If we want, we can get real fancy and have greaves, bracers, etc., but I don't think it's worth the effort. 15) WEAPONS. Icon: a crossed sword and spear. Brings up the weapons inventory. Clicking the USE icon on a weapon readies it in the Primary Hand (if the Hand is empty.) Some weapons, such as 2-handed swords, will require both the primary and the secondary hand. In such cases it is NOT necessary to unready the shield in the secondary hand. Instead, the shield in the secondary hand is "greyed out" a la EYE OF THE BEHOLDER, and loses all effectiveness. (Why give the user heartburn by making him put away his shield.) 16) BELT. Icon: a belt. The BELT inventory window is special. Any type of item can be in it -- weapons, scrolls, wands, etc. It works as follows: clicking on the NEXT icon by the Hand box in the Character window puts the item currently in the Hand at the bottom of the Belt inventory and puts the item at the top of the Belt inventory into the Hand. (Blank inventory slots are skipped.) This action takes game time, during which the Primary Hand is greyed out. This icon would be used to bring up new throwing knives, or switch between a sword and a wand, etc. See CHARACTER WINDOW: HAND BOX. CHARACTER WINDOW: From left to right the character window contains: 1) CHARACTER PORTRAIT. Aproximately 22 pixels by 22. Either the regular full-body graphic displayed is the close up window or (preferably) a head protrait chosen during character generation a la EYE. Clicking on the Character portrait takes you to Character Stats Window #1. 2) HAND BOX. 22 pixels x 22. Displays the item in the primary hand, if there is one. If not, shows an empty hand. A small bar reading NEXT appears over or under box. Items appear in the primary hand in one of three ways: 1) they are dragged there with the MANIPULATE cursor, 2) they are weapons readied from the Weapons inventory window, or 3) they were placed there by clicking on the NEXT box, which brings the next item up from the Belt inventory. (see Buttons: BELT.) If an attack was made with an item in the primary hand, the primary hand box is greyed out for a time, indicating that no new attack can be made. (The secondary hand box, BTW, has been scrapped. Shields are now readied in the armor inventory window.) 3) VITAL STATS. Displays Mental Endurance, Physical Endurance, and Food, either as bar graphs or numerically (e.g. ME:78 of 100) depending on options specified by the user in the Game Options menu. Probably the 3 graphs should be stacked horizontally. 4) CONDITIONS. This is displayed anyplace in the character window Mike can find a place for it. :> 2 words, 10 letters each, describing the character's condition (e.g. "HUNGRY," "PARALYZED," "POISONED," "SEARCHING," "SNEAKING," etc.) If the character has more than 2 conditions the 2 most important are displayed (e.g. if a character is sneaking, paralyzed, and poisoned, only paralyzed and poisoned are listed. If we want to get fancy the conditions could be in different colors (e.g. yellow for "Hungry," red for "Starving," green for "Poisoned.") ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Secondary Displays ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHARACTER STATS WINDOW #1 Dimensions: 160 pixels wide by 160 long. Appears over the Automapping window and Buttons section. +--------------------------------------+ |char | Char Name | |portrait| Race | (reached by clicking on the |--------+ Rank | character portrait on the main | Physical Stamina: xxxx of xxxx | screen. Clicking on the portrait | Mental Stamina: xxxx of xxxx | from the character stats window | Food: xxxx | takes you back to the main window.) | | | Constitution: | | Dexterity: | | Intellegence: | | Intuition: | | Strength: | | | | Condition turn | | Poisoned, blind, etc page | | +---- | | |icon | +--------------------------------------+ Clicking on the TURN PAGE ICON takes you to CHARACTE STATS SHEET #2. CHARACTER STATS SHEET #2. Dimensions and location same as stats sheet #1. Displays skills instead of attributes and conditions. Reached from char stats sheet #1. +---------------------------------------+ Clickin on character portrait takes |char | Char name | you back to main screen. Clicking |portrait| Race | on turn page icon brings up |--------+ Rank | Char stat sheet 1. | | | Edged Weapons: 234 | | Crushing weapons: 123 | | etc | | | | | | | | | | | | | | turn | | +-----| | |page | | |icon | +---------------------------------------+ II. STATS OUTLINE. ATTRIBUTES Attributes are the fundamental characteristics of a creature in REHACK. They measure features that are genetic or learned at an early age. Attributes change little, if at all, during the course of the game. Attributes range from 1 to 100. The main role of Attributes is to make particular skills easier to learn. A player with high Dexterity, for example, learns the Devices skill faster: a player with high Intelligence learns the Magic skill faster. 1) CONSTITUTION. Measures how hardy and healthy the character is, and how resistant the character is to physical shocks. Characters get a saving throw for Poison attacks based on Consitution. 2) INTELLIGENCE. Measures mental dexterity. Characters get a saving throw against mental magic based on Intelligence. (Mental magic would include Sleep and Confuse spells, for example, but not Fireball.) 3) STRENGTH. Muscular ability. 4) DEXTERITY. Physical coordination. 5) INTUITION. The individual's ability to assimilate sensory information. 6) SPEED. How fast you move. SKILLS Skills are just that: abilities the character has learned and can improve in. Skill improvement is the main way characters develop in REHACK. Skills improve when they are used. They improve fastest when you use the skill correctly, but the skill also improves slightly if you try and fail. (e.g. successfully unlocking a chest improves your Devices skill faster than trying and failing.) What the ranges are for Skills, I don't know, but the better you get at a skill the harder it is too improve it. Thus if you have a fabulous edged weapons skill you will still be able to imrove it...but you'll have to kill a *lot* of orcs.... (Note: a TRAINING MODIFIER is an attribute which help you learn a skill quicker. A character with high Dexterity, for example, learns the the Devices skill faster than a character with low Dexterity.) 1) EDGED WEAPONS. The ability to fight and maneuver with edged weapons -- swords and knives. TRAINING MODIFIERS: DEXTERITY and STRENGTH. ACTIONS WHICH IMPROVE THE SKILL: attacking an attackable object (NPCs, doors, chests, and perhaps walls) with an edged weapon in the primary hand. 2) CRUSHING WEAPONS. The ability to fight and maneuver with crushing weapons -- maces, flails, clubs, etc. All 2 handed weapons -- 2 handed swords, halberds, etc. -- count as crushing weapons. TRAINING MODIFIER: STRENGTH. How hard you hit the target is the most important factor with this skill. Attacks with a crushing weapon also get a bonus based on strength. ACTIONS WHICH IMPROVE THE SKILL: same as with Edged Weapons. 3) BOWS. The ability to aim and deliver missile weapons. Applies to bows and other missile weapons such as thrown knives and spears. TRAINING MODIFIERS: DEXTERITY and PERCEPTION ACTIONS WHICH IMPROVE THE SKILL. Firing missile weapons. Not sure whether using the skill when there is no "legitimate" target improves it or not. 4) DODGE. The ability to duck out of the way of an attack. TRAINING MODIFIER: SPEED. ACTIONS WHICH IMPROVE THE SKILL. Dodge is automatic: the game figures your chance of dodging when you are attacked. 5) BLOCK. The ability to use a shield to block an attack. If successful, the shield acts absorbs some of the attack damage; the rest of the damage is passed along to the armor as in a regular attack. TRAINING MODIFIERS: SPEED and STRENGTH. ACTIONS WHICH IMPROVE THE SKILL. Block is automatic, though you must have a shield readied for it to work. If you have a shield readied the program figures your chances of a successful Dodge, then a successful Block. 6) DEVICES. The ability to pick locks and disarm traps. TRAINING MODIFIERS: DEXTERITY, INTELLIGENCE, and INTUITION. ACTIONS WHICH IMPROVE THE SKILL. Clicking a lockpick cursor on a locked chest, door, or trap. 7) PERCEPTION. The ability to detect secret doors and traps without searching and detect monsters at a distance. Characters with good perception have a chance of hearing monsters at a distance (e.g., "You hear noises to the east.") TRAINING MODIFIERS: INTUITION. ACTIONS WHICH IMPROVE THE SKILL. Successfully detecting a secret door or trap, or hearing a monster in the distance. NOTE: LOOKing at a wall or floor space will always reveal secret doors and traps. The LOOK also improves your Perception skill if a secret door or trap is there. Thus finding a lot of secret doors and traps with LOOK early on will enable a character to build up his Perception and locate these items without LOOKing later. 8) SNEAK. The ability to move unseen. Monster get chance of seeing sneaking character: chances better if they have high intelligence, or good noses. A character in Sneak mode does extra damage when he attacks (assuming the monster doesn't see/smell him): as soon as he attacks, however, he leaves sneak mode. TRAINING MODIFIERS: DEXTERITY. ACTIONS WHICH IMPROVE THE SKILL: Being in sneak mode and not being seen by a monster (only get credit for 1st time monster enters field of vision?). Attacking from sneak mode. 9) MAGIC. The ability to use magic objects. A character with a high Magic skill has a better chance of correctly using the item. The item also drains less M.E. per use from those with high Magic skill. TRAINING MODIFIERS: INTELLIGENCE ACTIONS WHICH IMPROVE THE SKILL: Using magic items. LIFE STATISTICS: The 3 stats that determine how healthy your character is at the moment are: MENTAL ENDURANCE. Maximum M.E. determined by Constitution and Intelligence. Measures how alert you are. If M.E. falls to 0 you pass out. If it falls below 0 you are (brain) dead. Using magic items reduces M.E.: attacking, defending, searching, disarming traps, unlocking doors, and sneaking all use up small amounts of M.E. as well. Magic attacks can also drain M.E. M.E. "heals" with time. PHYSICAL ENDURANCE. Maximum P.E. determined by Constitution and Strength. Measures how much punishment you can take. If P.E. falls to 0 you pass out; if it falls below 0 you are dead. P.E. is lowered by physical attacks: making attacks and defending also uses up a small amount of P.E. P.E. heals with time. FOOD. Whether you're starving or not. If FOOD falls below 0 you're starving, and M.E. and P.E. both fall. IV. LEVEL THEMES: Terms: Maze type: layout of maze & algorithem used to generated it. Level changing puzzle: a puzzle at the end of a particular level which must be solved to get to the next level. Platoons: Platoons are combinations of intelligent monsters (orcs, hobgoblins, and trolls) that act as a unit. If the platoon leader dies, each unit member reverts to acting as an individual. Levels 1-4: SEWERS. MONSTERS. 1-2: Giant bats, kobolds, giant rats, floating eyes, slime. 3&4: Pixies, giant rats, pickpockets, slime, giant bats. MAZE TYPE: Standard HACK-type maze (rooms connected by passages.) Small rooms, narrow corridors. SPECIAL FEATURES: brick walls. Streams of water? (wading in water reduces both offensive and defensive capability.) LEVEL CHANGING PUZZLE on 4: ??? Levels 5-8: TOMBS. MONSTERS. 5&6: skeletons, zombies, ghosts, mummys (rare), floating eyes. 7: Zombies, ghosts, mummys, mimics, plus 1 wraith guarding the stairs down. MAZE TYPE: "Building" type layout (intersecting hallways with rooms off of them.) Medium rooms. SPECIAL FEATURES: Stone walls with strange inscriptions. Coffins, tombs? Treasure rooms, locked with special keys with treasure and tougher monsters within. LEVEL CHANGING PUZZLE on 8:??? Levels 9-11: ORC VILLAGE. MONSTERS: 9&10: Orcs, Orc spies, pixies, 11: Orc platoons (3 orcs + Orc Sergant), orc spies, mimics, floating eyes. MAZE TYPE: HACK type. Medium size rooms, wide corridors. SPECIAL FEATURES: Standard dungeon bricks. Store selling arms and light armor. LEVEL ENDING PUZZLE ON 11. Need password: password on Orc Sergant. Have to kill Orc Sergant to get password? Levels 12-15: MITHRIL MINES. MONSTERS: Dwarves, Umber Hulks (rare), pixies, wyrms, rust monsters. MAZE TYPE: HACK type. Large rooms, narrow corridors. SPECIAL FEATURES: Store selling expensive mithril mail. Treasure rooms, one on each level, with nice loot. Dwarves not hostile UNLESS you attack one of them (in which case they yell and alert all other dwarves) OR you break into treasure rooms (alarm goes off.) If attack Umber Hulk w/friendly dwarf on screen, dwarf attacks Hulk too. If you come across Hulk attacking Dwarf and help kill Hulk, dwarves become friendly if undfriendly, if friendly give you reward when Hulk dies. LEVEL CHANGING PUZZLE ON 15:??? Levels 16-18: HOBGOBLIN VILLAGE MONSTERS: 16&17: Hobgoblins, Hobgoblin assasins, Hobgoblin Captains, vampires (rare,) floating eyes. 18: Hobgoblin Platoons (3 Hobgoblins + Hobgoblin Catptain), Hobgoblin assasins, phantoms, trolls (rare.) Maze type: Building. Med. rooms, narrow corridors. SPECIAL FEATURES: Magic Items shops. Levels 19&20: FORTRESS. MONSTERS: Trolls, Troll shamans, wraiths, hobgoblins, minotaurs (rare.) Maze type: Building. Med. rooms, wide corridors. SPECIAL FEATURES: ? Level changing puzzle on 20:??? Levels 21-22: LABRYNITHS MONSTERS: Minotaurs (of course), giant ants, phantoms, vampires (rare), rust monsters. MAZE TYPE: True labryniths, with only 1 passage through, only T-intersections, etc. SPECIAL FEATURES: ? Level changing puzzle on 22:?? Levels 22-24: ZOO MONSTERS. 22&23: Griffons, Owlbears, Drakes, Giant Ants, Rust Monsters. 24: Griffons, Owlbears, Giant Ants, demons (rare), plus 1 dragon, guarding the stairs down. Maze Type: Landscape scenery (grass, trees, water, etc.) Large open space. Special features: ?? Level changing puzzle on 24: ??? Level 25: UBG'S HIDEOUT. MONSTERS. Golems, demons, wraith lords, Troll platoons (3 trolls + Troll shaman) plus the UBG himself. Maze types: Building style + special room w/UBG in it. SPECIAL FEATURES: 2 entrances to UBG's room. The front door is guarded by big dumb Golems. If you open it, UBG sees you, grabs amulet, squashes you like bug. Back door is secret door near the amulet: you must sneak by nasty wraith lords (or kill them), find door, and pick lock, so you can get to Amulet first. When enter room, have to bear UBG to amulet. Once get amulet, get ending message. (OR: you get amulet, but don't know how to control it. UBG attacks; you must defeat him, THEN get ending message.) Should be hint somewhere letting you know there is a back door. V. SUGGESTED ITEMS AND MONSTERS. Memory and time considerations will probably prevent us from implementing a list of monsters and items as long as that found in the original HACK. With that in mind I've made up a list of 25 items and 35 monsters that might be included in REHACK. Keep in mind that this is highly preliminary. The final game will doubtless will have a very different set of items and effects. Suggestions for magic items and monsters welcome. 1) ITEMS (NOTE: some monsters can use an item effect as attack or spell. E.g. Giant Rats can Poison you; Hobgoblin Captains can cast Magic Missile.) POTIONS: Blindness (blinds you temporarily.) Confusion (makes you unable to control movement temporarily) Healing (restores some Mental and Physical Endurance points. M.E.= Mental Endurance, P.E. = Physical Endurance.) Extra Strength (adds some Strength points temporarily) Poison (takes 1/4 of P.E., then prevents you from healing naturally for random length of time) RINGS: Dexterity (ups Dex when worn) Protection (improves your armor, either through absorbing more points or reducing its encumberance.) Regeneration (speeds up natural healing of P.E. and M.E.) Degeneration (saps P.E. and M.E.) Teleportation (teleports you to another part of the level) WANDS: Haste Monster (speeds up the target) Magic Missile Fireball Polymorph (transforms a monster randomly into a different type of monster) Slow Monster (slows down the target) SCROLLS: Dispel Undead (destroys Undead w/in certain radius. Undead get saving throw based on constitution.) Create Monster (summons a random monster) Enchant Weapon (gives you a combat bonus w/that weapon. Weapon must be in hand) Hold Monsters (paralyzes monsters w/in certain radius: they get saving throw based on intellegence.) Identify (identify an object) Magic Mapping (fills in the automap screen.) Monster Confusion (Causes monsters to run away and/or attack nearest creature. Monsters get saving throw based on intellegence.) Remove Curse (allows you to remove a cursed item) Sleep (puts you to sleep) Speed (speeds you up) 2) MONSTERS Numbers in pararenthesis indicate roughly how tough the monster is. Monsters unintelligent and man-sized unless noted. Giant Bat (I) Very fast, but weak. 1/3 man sized. Kobold (I) Intelligent (barely), but very weak. Very cowardly. 1/2 man sized. Giant Rat (I) Has poison bite. 1/2 man sized. Floating Eye (I) Can put player to sleep, or confuse him. Saps a M.E. point or two from player each "round" the player stands by it. About the size of a head. Skeleton (I) Undead, not intelligent. Weak but fast. Slime (I) Very weak, but has chance of dividing. Seldom hits, but when does has small chance of corroding armor. Small. Zombie (II) Undead, not intelligent. Strong but slow. (different levels?) Ghost (II) Undead, itelligent. Can walk through walls, hard to hit. Pixie (II) Extremely fast. Does not attack, but instead attempts to steal items/gold from player. If it succeeds, may cast Confuse, Sleep, Teleportation, or Speed spell on the player before disappearing. Intelligent. Tiny. Pickpocket (II) Fast, intelligent human, but weak and with bad armor. Has chance of stealing gold and running. Can Sneak up on player and ambush him. Wraith (III) Undead, not intelligent. Fairly weak. If hits, has chance of draining a constitution point from player. Rust Monster (III) Does little damage, but if hits has chance of weakening your armor. Orc (III) Fairly intelligent, pretty cowardly, extremely greedy. About human size, strength, and speed. Perhaps orcs of varying toughness with same graphic? ("Greater Orcs" and "Lesser Orcs?") Mummy (III) Intelligent (but barely) undead. Like a zombie, but smarter. Mimic (III) Looks like a treasure chest, but bites and spits blinding liquid when you try to open it. Chest-sized. Orc Sergant (IV) Braver, faster, and stronger than your average orc, with better equipment. Smart as a Hobgoblin. Knows Slow spell. Hobgoblin (IV) Intelligent, slightly stronger and larger than average human. (Also "Greater Hobgoblins" and "Lesser Hobgoblins?") Not as cowardly as orcs. Dwarf (IV) Not normally hostile, but if an unwary adventurer should happen to steal something that belongs to them, they go berserk. Located in Mithril mine? Intelligent, strong, accurate, but slow. 1/2 man-sized. Phantom (IV) Intelligent, invisible undead. Hobgoblin Captain. (V) Braver, faster, and stronger than average Hobgoblin. Knows Magic Missile spell. Giant Ant (V) Has poison bite. Giant. Vampire (V) Intelligent undead. If hits, reduces both P.E. and M.E. Perhaps hypnotizes player with Sleep spell? Relatively fast. Can Sneak. Wyrm (V) Springs up out of floor without warning. Fast, accurate. (differnent strengths of wyrm with different colors?) Man-sized (at least, the part that sticks up out of the floor is.) Minotaur (VI) Giant, bull-headed. Intelligence somewhere between kobold and orc, but very strong and very good natural armor. Troll (VI) Not as quite as strong as Minotaur, but smarter. Much braver, stronger, and more intelligent than hobgoblins and orcs. Giant. Owlbear (VI) Not as strong as Minotaurs, but faster. Giant. Troll Shaman (VII) Faster, stronger, etc. than average Troll. Knows Slow and Fireball spells. Giant. Griffon (VII) As intelligent as orc in terms of combat tactics, but cannot open doors, use items, etc. Very fast. Giant. Drake (VII) Sort of a baby dragon. Good natural armor, breathes Magic Missiles. Man-sized, not intelligent. Umber Hulk (VIII) Huge, rock eating creatures. Will not seek out prey but will attack if prey gets close. Once it attacks it follows prey with determination. Can carve out new passageways. Giant. Golem (IX) Giant human figure made of stone. Extremly strong, great armor, immune to all but physical shock attacks (e.g. magic missile works against a golem but fireball doesn't) But D-U-M-B! Demon. (IX) Extremly intelligent, fast, good armor. Knows Confusion, Summon Monster, Magic Missile, and Slow spells. Almost immune to magic. Can sneak. Dragon. (X) Giant, strong, fast, intelligent (but can't open doors or manipulate objects.) Breathes souped-up fireballs. Wraith Lord. (X) Highly intelligent undead. Immune to all magic but Magic Missile and Fireball. If hits, has chance of draining constitution, strength, and/or intelligence points from the player. Suggestions for new monsters, different attack types, new or different magic items, etc., welcome.