www/src/differences.html

Differences

<h2>New stuff and differences to Crossfire</h2>

<p>
A lot of development flew into the server code and the game balancing. 
Here are some of the changes listed. All other changes are annunced at
the <a href="/index.html">front page in the news</a>.
</p>

<h3>Code changes</h3>

<ul>
   <li>
   lots of bugfixes, mainly crashfixes
   </li>
   <li>
   better handling of file saving, allowing more reliable regular backups
   and also a more crash-safe behavoir.
   </li>
   <li>
   a Perl plugin system which is actively used to improve interactivity features,
   like the tradeshop, mana fountain or the prieses in the churches of gorokh and valriel.
   </li>
   <li>
   the server code has been converted to C++ and a few structs are improved with
   C++ features (templates, methods, ...)
   </li>
   <li>
   Perl has been moved further into the core of Deliantra, allowing more stable
   and more interesting plugin extensions to the game.
   </li>
   <li>
   Lots of the loading/saving code for players and maps has been rewritten/changed
   to handle serialized Perl data.
   </li>
   <li>
   The 'shutdown' command has been improved to save maps and players now before
   exiting.
   </li>
   <li>
   Updated the server with a linux-specific improvement to the socket handling,
   The old code sent out 2 TCP packets per command, the new one will bundle them
   into one segment. This will decrease bandwidth requirements a lot, decreases the
   chance of packet loss a lot and greatly reduces chances for lag. As a side effect,
   it decreases latency without the ill side-effects of disabling nagle.
   </li>
   <li>
   Added Linux-specific fast timeout code that kicks players out when the client
   doesn't ack data after 20 seconds. This makes it possible to quickly re-login
   after a "catastrophic" even such as losing your internet conenction. Also
   player-stealing between hostile players is possible.
   </li>
   <li>
   Added a plug-in that asynchronously pre-fetches adjacent maps from disk
   whenever a player enters a map. This make ist highly probable that maps entered by
   the player are already in memory and comes at almost no cost (they are loaded into
   the OS disk cache only). As a net effect, most short freezes due to map loading
   should be gone.
   </li>
   <li>

   </li>
</ul>

<h3>Balancing changes</h3>

<ul>
   <li>reduced draining effects by about a factor of 8</li>
   <li>
   Enabled limited playerkilling again, when both players are
   hostile (there is no luck penalty). If one of the players isn't
   hostile, then you can't attack him/her.
   </li>
   <li>
   Rods are now limited by the use_magic_item skill of the player (+ some extra).
   </li>
   <li>
   The experience table has been adjusted and made a little bit harder.
   The 'nimbus', where you get back the lost experience compensates this a little bit.
   </li>
   <li>
   Some of the treasurelists have been changed, for example nearly all
   occurences of rings in monster loot have been replaced by gems.
   </li>
   <li>
   The IPO and Bank don't use the Python plugins anymore and have been replaced by
   more featureful Perl plugins, eg. live mail notification of the new IPO or the handling
   of the new royalties in the bank.
   </li>
   <li>
   Added 3d models for some houses and monsters, unfortunately there weren't enough
   people who had time for modelling, so the graphics set looks more mixed now, more
   modellers are needed.
   </li>
   <li>
   Furthermore, a setting has been added that allows players to cast town portal
   in their personal maps such as apartments, big chests in guilds etc.
   </li>
   <li>
   A 'suicide' command has been added.
   </li>
   <li>
   Stealing now never yields more exp than the monster has and also reduces monster experience.
   </li>
   <li>
   Greatly reduced availability of skill scrolls and (to a lesser extent) enchantment scrolls,
   to enhance class-based gameplay. Also reduced amount of generators in raffle.
   </li>
   <li>
   Greatly reduced experience for playerkills. Disable friendly fire logic in the arena,
   so you do not have to be hostile anymore just to visit the arena.
   </li>
   <li>
   Put a bargaining scrolls in the Gem shop in scorn for a low price.
   So that players can begin levelling bargaining early.
   </li>
   <li>
   Monsters don't drop rings anymore, only gems and money instead.
   Expanded the magic shops a bit, because monsters don't drop rings or spellbooks anymore.
   </li>
   <li>
   Shops have now a default maximum.
   </li>
   <li>
   the difficulty calculations for maps were adjusted together with the generation
   of scrolls, rods, wands and staffs, which are now more close to the level difficulty.
   </li>
</ul>

<h3>New systems</h3>

<p>
Some sub systems have been rewritten in Perl:
</p>

<ul>
   <li>
   The event objects have been completly removed from the archetypes and have been
   replaced with an 'attach' field, which describes a linking point between extensions and
   objects.<br />
   Look at the <a href="http://cvs.schmorp.de/cf.schmorp.de/maps/perl/">perl extensions in the cvs</a> for
   examples.
   </li>

   <li>
   NPCs have now a greatly increased functionality, they have a map-local states and
   player-states. Look at the 
   <a href="doc/development/NPC_Dialogue.html">NPC Dialogues</a>
   documentation, which explaines the Perl interface.
   The interface allows direct script integration, dialog trees and more.
   </li>

   <li>
   Chat commands, NPC dialogues and lots of other things have been rewritten.
   One new function that has already been implemented is the 'ignore' commmand.
   One can ignore shouts/chats, tells or both from one person for a specified amount of
   hours.
   </li>
</ul>

<p></p>
Revision:	1.6
Committed:	Mon Oct 15 12:54:34 2007 UTC (19 years ago) by elmex
Content type:	text/html
Branch:	MAIN
CVS Tags:	HEAD
Changes since 1.5:	+0 -0 lines
State:	*FILE REMOVED*
Log Message:	* empty log message *
#	Content
1	Differences
2
3	<h2>New stuff and differences to Crossfire</h2>
4
5	<p>
6	A lot of development flew into the server code and the game balancing.
7	Here are some of the changes listed. All other changes are annunced at
8	the <a href="/index.html">front page in the news</a>.
9	</p>
10
11	<h3>Code changes</h3>
12
13	<ul>
14	<li>
15	lots of bugfixes, mainly crashfixes
16	</li>
17	<li>
18	better handling of file saving, allowing more reliable regular backups
19	and also a more crash-safe behavoir.
20	</li>
21	<li>
22	a Perl plugin system which is actively used to improve interactivity features,
23	like the tradeshop, mana fountain or the prieses in the churches of gorokh and valriel.
24	</li>
25	<li>
26	the server code has been converted to C++ and a few structs are improved with
27	C++ features (templates, methods, ...)
28	</li>
29	<li>
30	Perl has been moved further into the core of Deliantra, allowing more stable
31	and more interesting plugin extensions to the game.
32	</li>
33	<li>
34	Lots of the loading/saving code for players and maps has been rewritten/changed
35	to handle serialized Perl data.
36	</li>
37	<li>
38	The 'shutdown' command has been improved to save maps and players now before
39	exiting.
40	</li>
41	<li>
42	Updated the server with a linux-specific improvement to the socket handling,
43	The old code sent out 2 TCP packets per command, the new one will bundle them
44	into one segment. This will decrease bandwidth requirements a lot, decreases the
45	chance of packet loss a lot and greatly reduces chances for lag. As a side effect,
46	it decreases latency without the ill side-effects of disabling nagle.
47	</li>
48	<li>
49	Added Linux-specific fast timeout code that kicks players out when the client
50	doesn't ack data after 20 seconds. This makes it possible to quickly re-login
51	after a "catastrophic" even such as losing your internet conenction. Also
52	player-stealing between hostile players is possible.
53	</li>
54	<li>
55	Added a plug-in that asynchronously pre-fetches adjacent maps from disk
56	whenever a player enters a map. This make ist highly probable that maps entered by
57	the player are already in memory and comes at almost no cost (they are loaded into
58	the OS disk cache only). As a net effect, most short freezes due to map loading
59	should be gone.
60	</li>
61	<li>
62
63	</li>
64	</ul>
65
66	<h3>Balancing changes</h3>
67
68	<ul>
69	<li>reduced draining effects by about a factor of 8</li>
70	<li>
71	Enabled limited playerkilling again, when both players are
72	hostile (there is no luck penalty). If one of the players isn't
73	hostile, then you can't attack him/her.
74	</li>
75	<li>
76	Rods are now limited by the use_magic_item skill of the player (+ some extra).
77	</li>
78	<li>
79	The experience table has been adjusted and made a little bit harder.
80	The 'nimbus', where you get back the lost experience compensates this a little bit.
81	</li>
82	<li>
83	Some of the treasurelists have been changed, for example nearly all
84	occurences of rings in monster loot have been replaced by gems.
85	</li>
86	<li>
87	The IPO and Bank don't use the Python plugins anymore and have been replaced by
88	more featureful Perl plugins, eg. live mail notification of the new IPO or the handling
89	of the new royalties in the bank.
90	</li>
91	<li>
92	Added 3d models for some houses and monsters, unfortunately there weren't enough
93	people who had time for modelling, so the graphics set looks more mixed now, more
94	modellers are needed.
95	</li>
96	<li>
97	Furthermore, a setting has been added that allows players to cast town portal
98	in their personal maps such as apartments, big chests in guilds etc.
99	</li>
100	<li>
101	A 'suicide' command has been added.
102	</li>
103	<li>
104	Stealing now never yields more exp than the monster has and also reduces monster experience.
105	</li>
106	<li>
107	Greatly reduced availability of skill scrolls and (to a lesser extent) enchantment scrolls,
108	to enhance class-based gameplay. Also reduced amount of generators in raffle.
109	</li>
110	<li>
111	Greatly reduced experience for playerkills. Disable friendly fire logic in the arena,
112	so you do not have to be hostile anymore just to visit the arena.
113	</li>
114	<li>
115	Put a bargaining scrolls in the Gem shop in scorn for a low price.
116	So that players can begin levelling bargaining early.
117	</li>
118	<li>
119	Monsters don't drop rings anymore, only gems and money instead.
120	Expanded the magic shops a bit, because monsters don't drop rings or spellbooks anymore.
121	</li>
122	<li>
123	Shops have now a default maximum.
124	</li>
125	<li>
126	the difficulty calculations for maps were adjusted together with the generation
127	of scrolls, rods, wands and staffs, which are now more close to the level difficulty.
128	</li>
129	</ul>
130
131	<h3>New systems</h3>
132
133	<p>
134	Some sub systems have been rewritten in Perl:
135	</p>
136
137	<ul>
138	<li>
139	The event objects have been completly removed from the archetypes and have been
140	replaced with an 'attach' field, which describes a linking point between extensions and
141	objects.<br />
142	Look at the <a href="http://cvs.schmorp.de/cf.schmorp.de/maps/perl/">perl extensions in the cvs</a> for
143	examples.
144	</li>
145
146	<li>
147	NPCs have now a greatly increased functionality, they have a map-local states and
148	player-states. Look at the
149	<a href="doc/development/NPC_Dialogue.html">NPC Dialogues</a>
150	documentation, which explaines the Perl interface.
151	The interface allows direct script integration, dialog trees and more.
152	</li>
153
154	<li>
155	Chat commands, NPC dialogues and lots of other things have been rewritten.
156	One new function that has already been implemented is the 'ignore' commmand.
157	One can ignore shouts/chats, tells or both from one person for a specified amount of
158	hours.
159	</li>
160	</ul>
161
162	<p></p>