Re: [Adonthell-general] Items/Inventory

[Kai Sterker]

On Mon, 22 Apr 2002 17:32:26 +0200 Nils Fohrbeck wrote:

> When I started making up some items, I realized that we will have to
> define an item format. I think an item should be defined by its
> category (eg. small shield or fire spell),

Hm. Actually I'm thinking about a list of categories. So the "Megabane"
would be "Weapon", "Sword" and "Megabane". A candle might be
"Lightsource" and "Candle". I think this would be very useful for our
scripts. Some activity might work with any weapon or any lightsource,
whereas there might be special cases where a certain weapon, lightsource
or whatever is required.

For example, a weapon-smith would buy anything labelled weapon, while
the guy that sent you to retrieve the magic lamp won't accept a mere
candle. (Still the magic lamp might be used for such a mundane task as
making light.)


> Furthermore an item should hae a descriptive
> text giving background information, 

Yeah. I'd love to have that too, even though it means yet more work for
the writers ;).


> as well as a description of its
> gaming relevant properties (a table maybe?). 

We should be able to read that information directly from the item's
attributes (which are (string, value) pairs.


> Actually a lot of work
> has to be done with the whole inventory ect. I just wanted to give
> some ideas and start the discussion, because all this information is
> needed if I want to start making a list of all the basic items
> available in the game.

I think we'll be very flexible as far as items are concerned. Every item
can have any number of individual attributes (although items of the same
kind should have the same basic attributes). As they won't be
hard-coded, we can easily invent new ones as we go along.

Each item has python scripting abilities that can give an individual
behaviour to it. Again, similar items should be able to make use of the
same scripts to reduce the amount of coding whenever possible.

So I would suggest you just fire away with your item list. Then we can
adapt the item code or tell you if something is not feasible.

Kai