Moved historical notes in spl-data.h to their own file.

As noted in the spl-data.h header, a lot of the comments are obsolete. They are still interesting to read and should be kept regardless, so I've moved them to a new folder in docs/: "historical". Other comments could also be moved here in future.

1 files changed, 4 insertions, 119 deletions

diff --git a/crawl-ref/source/spl-data.h b/crawl-ref/source/spl-data.h
index 4bdb65bc7c..4a537980ec 100644
--- a/crawl-ref/source/spl-data.h
+++ b/crawl-ref/source/spl-data.h
@@ -1,123 +1,8 @@
 /*
-   XXX: Some of these notes are obsolete now!
-
-   In case anyone ever wants to add new spells, or just understand my reasons
-   for putting a particular spell into a particular type, read on:
-
-   Guidelines for typing spells
-
-   Conjuration
-   This type has a near monopoly on effective and relatively risk-free combat
-   spells. All other types of combat spells are either indirect (enchantments),
-   risky/detrimental/not versatile (necromancy) or just plain crappy (burn and
-   freeze), although smiting is not too bad.
-   Conjuration spells all involve the magical creation of matter and/or energy
-   (which are the same thing anyway, right?). They are distinguished from
-   summoning spells in that they do not involve the summoning of an entire
-   creature from another place.
-
-   Enchantment
-   These spells mostly cause some kind of durational effect, which lasts only
-   until the magic wears off. Enchantments are distinguished from
-   transmutations in that the latter cause a permanent alteration in something
-   which persists even after the magic has faded, while the effects of the
-   former last only so long as the magic does. Sometimes enchantments may take
-   advantage of the more powerful aspects of transmutation to induce some
-   kind of radical change (eg polymorph).
-   Some enchantments would also fall under the description of 'meta-magic'
-   spells, like Selective Amnesia and Remove Curse (and if I ever implement
-   Dispel Magic, it will be an enchantment).
-   It is possible that some divinations could be retyped as
-   divination/enchantment, as they appear to be primarily concerned with
-   detecting enchantments. Detect Curse and Identify are what I'm thinking
-   of here.
-
-   Fire and Ice
-   These are quite obvious. I'm trying to keep these two balanced with each
-   other, but it can be difficult. I have to weigh up some useful fire spells,
-   like Sticky Flame, Fireball, Ring of Flames and Firestorm, and the fact that
-   Fire wizards have an advantage when summoning fire elementals by either
-   spell or device, with the also quite useful Refrigeration, Ice Armour and
-   Freezing Cloud. Ice wizards don't have a corresponding advantage with
-   water elementals, because water and ice are two different things (ice is not
-   necessarily water ice, for example).
-   Generally, Fire spells tend towards chaos, disorder and entropy, while
-   Ice spells tend towards order and stasis. But these trends are rather
-   underdeveloped at the moment.
-   Note that just about the only reason one would ever choose an ice or fire
-   wizard over a conjurer would be the resistance gained at level 12.
-   Especially because having a fire specialisation basically removes any chance
-   of ever using ice spells effectively, and vice versa.
-
-   Transmutation
-   See enchantments.
-
-   Necromancy
-   This is the fun stuff. Necromancy is a mixed bag of many and various
-   different kinds of spells, with a few common themes:
-   -Differentiation of living, dead and undead. Some necromancy affects only
-   the living (pain, vampiric draining, etc.), some affects only the dead
-   (animate dead, twisted resurrection, etc.), and some affects only undead
-   (dispel and control undead).
-   -Actual or potential harm: eg risk in Death's Door, hp loss with Pain,
-   disease with summon greater undead, etc. Also loss of potential experience
-   gain with bolt of draining and degeneration.
-   -Material components are central to many of the spells.
-   -Some spells duplicate effects of other types, but do so in a different
-   (neither superior or inferior) way. Eg bone shards is a very powerful spell
-   for only 3 magic points, but requires preparation. Also, necromantic
-   healing spells are different and more idiosyncratic than holy healing.
-   Although regeneration is usually less useful than lesser healing and is
-   level 3 instead of 2, it can be cast before combat (when 1 turn spent
-   casting is less important), and is affected by extension.
-   -Generally unholy theme of spells (I mean, Twisted Resurrection?).
-
-   Holy
-   The Holy type is also fairly various, but is rather less interesting than
-   necromancy (after all, priests are better at fighting than necromancers).
-   Holy spells do things like driving off undead and healing. Note that I
-   consider item stickycursing to be more of an issue for enchantments rather
-   than holy magic, which is why remove curse is enchantment.
-
-   Summoning
-   These spells involve bringing a creature from somewhere else (possibly on
-   another plane of existence) to this world to do battle for the caster. Some
-   future summonings could potentially be combination conjuration/summoning
-   spells, eg the ball lightning spell I keep planning to implement.
-   Also, potential exists for some risky high-level spells, maybe demon
-   summoning?
-
-   Divination
-   These spells provide information to the caster. A diviner class would be
-   possible (and having detect curse and identify would be very handy), but
-   would be extremely difficult to play - there is no potential in this type
-   for combat spells.
-
-   Translocation
-   Translocation spells deal with teleportation etc, also interplanar travel
-   (eg Banishment, and the planned Gate spell).
-   It is possible that I may give summoners some special access to trans-
-   locations due to the obvious similarities.
-
-   Poison
-   These spells all involve poison. Most are also conjurations.
-   I don't plan to implement a 'Poisoner' class, as it would become unplayable
-   deep in the dungeon where most monsters are poison resistant.
-
-   Your skill for a spell is effectively the average of all schools used in it.
-*/
-
-/*
- * When adding enchantments, must add them to extension as well!
- *
- * spells to do:
- *   Contingency?
- *   Trigger contingency
- *   Preserve Corpses
- *   Permanency
- *   Explosive rune?
- *   Fennel wands
- *   More summonings!
+ *  File:       spl-data.h
+ *  Summary:    Spell definitions and descriptions. See spell_desc struct in
+ *              spl-util.cc.
+ *  Written by: Linley Henzell
  */
 
 #ifndef SPLDATA_H