Finished discussion of things to come. [Thanks!]

[Cartread]

Future gameplay ideas are presented (and hopefully discussed) here!

All right.  This is my current idea for the direction of H&B:

Back to "1 player," with no incompetant misfits following you around; instead, the ability of the player to change between the 4 characters. eh, eh?

Basically, you'll have the items Barbarian, Elf, & Wizard figures (harkening back to the tabletop game) if you are the Thief, and you will use them to transform.  Your stats will change and so will your items.  If you die as the Thief, you can change to the others.

Any problems seen from this on the horizon, tell me please!  Testing will come soon.

Also, then the maps can be as maze-like as I want, without having to worry about AI navigation!

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Wizard will also have new spells more true to the boardgame because, foolishly I did not know you could use -1 and such for raise_troop_ability!  Rock skin, for example, is a temporary effect of increase HP, ironflesh.

[Yoshiboy]

That sounds cool, they did tent to be a little annoying and un-helpful. Damn M&B and it's primitive AI

I can see lots of problems but I don't doubt your ability to work out solutions for them - none seem to be that threatening

[Highlander]

I don't know the game "Hero Quest", but how about making a spell that transmutes the Wizard to a monster for some time. Since troop_set_type works while being in a mission, it would be quite easy.

[Fisheye]

How about just let the player multi-class, it's a lot more intuitive than having multiple personality disorder.

[Cartread]

Nice idea Highlander, I'll use troop_set_type

How about just let the player multi-class, it's a lot more intuitive than having multiple personality disorder.

Do you mean give the player elements from all characters?  Or start as a default and be able to turn barbaric or wizardly?
The good part of MPD is that you would be able to have 4 lives versus 1 mission in the dungeon.

[Fisheye]

Yeah I was thinking to do the skill-renaming thing (e.g. pathmanship -> sorcery, horse archery -> picklock... etc) then give powers based on how high the skills are. So you can be all four classes equally or specialise in any way you like.

For the lives thing you can just give the guy 4 lives before game over.

Oh and it will be a lot easier to implement than MPD.

[Cartread]

I see.  Kind of like Schattenlander, and it would more sensibly fit M&B.  Thanks, I have a broader sphere of ideas now.

[Grocat]

I like the idea of picking one character type at the beginning, going through until you die, and then appearing as the next class...each with one life, and then you'd get kicked out of the dungeon.  I think it would lend a certain amount of strategy to the game, since each class has different specialities.  You might want to start off with a barbarian to clear a swath through most of the baddies, and then spawn as a Wizard to blast the heck out of a Chaos Warrior or some such.  Even cooler would be the ability to switch back and forth without killing the characters, via your item plan.

Would it be possible to set a better chance for the Thief to find treasure/avoid traps and monsters when using the tab function?  Or is that already implemented?

Thanks for this amazing Mod.

-Grocat

[Duuvian]

What if when the monsters spawn, the other three spawn in that room as well and disappear afterwards? That way it's just you running between rooms, and after you bust down a door, they pop up?

[Cartread]

I like the idea of picking one character type at the beginning, going through until you die, and then appearing as the next class...each with one life, and then you'd get kicked out of the dungeon.  I think it would lend a certain amount of strategy to the game, since each class has different specialities.  You might want to start off with a barbarian to clear a swath through most of the baddies, and then spawn as a Wizard to blast the heck out of a Chaos Warrior or some such.  Even cooler would be the ability to switch back and forth without killing the characters, via your item plan.

Would it be possible to set a better chance for the Thief to find treasure/avoid traps and monsters when using the tab function?  Or is that already implemented?

Thanks for this amazing Mod.

-Grocat

Right.  That's what I was thinking because of how you play the boardgame.  A big problem is what will happen to the other 3 characters when you're switching between...I hear what you're saying though and I would like to have it working.
oh, your welcome
oh right.  I keep forgetting about adding that for the thief...and the toolkit.

What if when the monsters spawn, the other three spawn in that room as well and disappear afterwards? That way it's just you running between rooms, and after you bust down a door, they pop up?

Good idea!  That would make the companions useful wouldn't it...hmm...that could be quite crazy though; however, t would be  fitting for the wizard.

[Livonya]

Cartread -
I have spent a long time with your mod now.

It is great.  But as noted the followers don't really follow.  And sometimes they don't even participate in the battles even when they are in the same room.

I tend to just give up on them and go alone.  It is just too frustrating to get them to follow.

At this point it is probably better to do nothing until you see what happens with the next version, as it seems that AI pathfiniding may improve.

Armagan has indicated that  unique keys can be assigned functions.

So perhaps you could provide a button that would telleport the followers to your location.  This would be a fail safe for when they get lost, or seem to be distracted by an interesting wall or corner.

In any event, it would probably be best to wait until the next version before making any fundamental changes.

- Livonya

[Duuvian]

Maybe they could despawn after you search? Then have a dialogue box saying "Your companions have moved to the next door while you were searching for loot." Then they could spawn either outside the next door (which would limit your choice of doors to one, a bad thing) or when you knock down the door a dialogue pops up saying "After the door is destroyed, your companions rush into the room howling and chanting" or such and have them spawn inside? This seems to me the best solution until the next version of MB comes out.

[Cartread]

...
In any event, it would probably be best to wait until the next version before making any fundamental changes.

- Livonya

Glad you enjoy it.  Good advice.  Yes, I will wait for the next version of M&B before making any large dungeons beyond the present two.

Maybe they could despawn after you search? Then have a dialogue box saying "Your companions have moved to the next door while you were searching for loot." Then they could spawn either outside the next door (which would limit your choice of doors to one, a bad thing) or when you knock down the door a dialogue pops up saying "After the door is destroyed, your companions rush into the room howling and chanting" or such and have them spawn inside? This seems to me the best solution until the next version of MB comes out.

Good ideas again.  I hope beyond 808 will have more options.

For now, I'm working on what Fisheye suggested, multi-classing.

[Ron Losey]

I've made this offer to all of the major mods, not because I need more to do, but because the fans ask for it ...

If you want to use the damage numbers from the RCM, just pull a copy of the "RCM for Native" ... it has the source items file.  Not sure how many new items you have, but it should give you the basis of the model to work with.  If you have any questions, contact me by PM ... I do usually check my mail.

I normally only work with the historical/"realistic" mods ... I don't know much about balancing a game where there is magic involved.  However, I'll help if I can.

[Cartread]

Thanks.  I have RCM downloaded and plan to use it's info to help develope weapon balance in H&B, although there is little number of weapons.