Feature Specification: Death

[Fionn]

So, do we allow a follower of Kelemvor to come back? ;)

[indio]

Kelemvorites would choose to stay and help out in the City of Jedgement, act as Kel's entertainment, do some cooking and cleaning, clear out the rogue tanari that decides to hang about.

A full blown system isn't necessary, but it's got to be more than a morgue. nHappy to work on a concept draft; simple, but better than a morgue.

[Overfilled Cup]

aye could be a few RP choices in the Morgue..Then the cannon raise specs. I would like to see the -1 con hit if it is still cannon in 3.5.

[Creslyn]

The Con penalty only applies to a level 1 pc being raised, in both 3e and 3.5.

[ç i p h é r]

1) Morgue or Baator? Why would either of these be considered IC? Newly deadly in Faerun go to the fugue plane, and precious few from there would end up in Baator.
2) Until we know more about the game, why including an inventory token in the specs? It might be easier to get rid of than some sort of stored server variable.
3) Why have all corpses weigh 50lbs? I had started coding a system whereby corpse weight was dependant on the the PC's race, gender, phenotype and gear carried. IMO this should be what we shoot for, and its not really a lot of code.

1) I think that's a game play issue mostly, but I have very little opinion aside from that.

2) The black rock is something we use today and I have it up there merely as a starting point. I don't see a functional purpose for it that a central database couldn't replace, which is why I asked the question if anyone liked it or wanted it to remain.

I'm still unclear if there is a general desire to leave this in or not.

3) Same as #2. It's the starting point. I haven't voiced my thoughts on this yet but since you've raised the subject, I agree with you. I also want to see a more accurate corpse weight applied. The 50lb corpse was probably the simplest of implementations to pursue so there's much room to improve here.

Typically, a PnP character is given a weight at character creation time, but that's lacking in NWN1. This would ideally serve as the basis for corpse weight. Using a web based character creator or some means for newly created characters to select their weight one time (like a listener players can activate in the starting area), we'll have obtained that basis and don't have to formulate weight on generic factors like race and phenotype (though those are the best alternatives in lieu of an actual base character weight). Base weight can then either be stored on the PC's hide or in a central database, which I expect to have as part of the base mod. If NWN2 introduces a weight field, we can easily substitute that for any workarounds we use (like listeners).

Having access to SetWeight will also mean that we can add to the base weight of a corpse object to include any gear a character may be carrying, as you've indicated. We'll have to make sure that the corpose object is a container which holds all the gear so it's only lootable as long as it remains in the characters corpse. Take items out and it gets lighter. Put items in and it gets heavier.

Does anyone have anything to add to this subject?

[Fionn]

I like the realistic corpses, but I'm concerned with both development and computer resources for it.

As for an in game Char Creator - I've seen them menu based and didn't like them. If you are only talking about setting extra variables, that's doable, but I see no reason not to use race/phenotype/(gender)/(CON)/(STR)... as constants. A wide-body Dwarf isn't going weigh 50#. We an randomize it by 10% if you *really* want to be realistic.

[ç i p h é r]

Deity restrictions on returning from the afterlife are resurrection issues, so discuss those in the resurrection thread. I'll go ahead and note the con penalty and faithless restriction in the requirements.

As an FYI on the web based interface, data formats appear to be changing with NWN2. Here's the relevant blurb from a WarCry interview (http://nwn2.warcry.com/scripts/news/vie ... 1&id=51786):

We've changed the way data is structured in the game from the original. We don't have .BIF files anymore or other proprietary formats. Our data containers are basically ZIP files now. If you know how to use ZIP files, you can change things easily.

DM is a producer on the NWN2 team and co-owner of Obsidian.

[ç i p h é r]

Updated to include the things we've been discussing.

As for an in game Char Creator - I've seen them menu based and didn't like them. If you are only talking about setting extra variables, that's doable, but I see no reason not to use race/phenotype/(gender)/(CON)/(STR)... as constants. A wide-body Dwarf isn't going weigh 50#. We an randomize it by 10% if you *really* want to be realistic.

Actually, I meant a completely external web based character creator. Essentially, we'd offer the player an interface off the ALFA site to record all the character information we require (including character weight), then output that information in the format required by the game (it's presumably well documented so it shouldn't be difficult to do) and maybe create the character record in a central database to be used in-game. As long as the vault file system is accessible by the web server, we can create the character file in this fashion.

Alternatively, we can simply setup a listener device which can be activated through conversation in the starting area where the player simply speaks their weight value and it gets recorded. There's less of a coolness factor in doing it that way but it's simpler and the end result is the same; We have an actual base weight for that character.