From ae6a056743b365cc611a6a5a5b4031cfeb281407 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Jude Brown Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2009 20:09:52 +1000 Subject: 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. --- crawl-ref/source/spl-data.h | 123 ++------------------------------------------ 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 119 deletions(-) (limited to 'crawl-ref/source/spl-data.h') 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 -- cgit v1.2.3-54-g00ecf