Managing items?

StoryNexus
1

Sorry if this is a little bit misleading, but I’m wondering about something.

So in Orchestra I’ve run into a little issue. I would like to allow gear to be modified using a number of other items. Is there any way to do this, or is it only possible by creating an item with the appropriate qualities.

Basically, what I’m going to do is implement a “combine” function into the game, so that players can take an item (a gun, for instance) and attach something to it (a foregrip to increase accuracy). However, I can’t think of a way to do this that fulfills two simple requirements:

  • Is specific to an individual item.[/li][li]Does not require additional qualities/storylets other than those related to the individual items.[/li][li]Be able to replace specific qualities (Armed: Firearm would be replaced by Armed: Silenced Firearm, but Armed: Firearm and Armed: Firearm must be separate qualities)

Ultimately, only the first of these is absolutely going to put an end to this. Since it also appears to be impossible to create items that give a slot quality (or slots, as would actually be needed) when equipped, the second is probably going to be violated. As far as I’m aware, there’s no way to do the third, either, other than to say, set a Quality Description for values of Armed: Firearm that aren’t plausible (i.e. there’ll probably be at most three guns on a person, one concealed in their melee weapon, one in their gun, and a cyberweapon) and call it “Armed: Silenced Firearm” but then I have to set everything to test Armed Firearm 1-3 for normal and Armed Firearm 4+ for silenced and if someone has a single silenced gun they all count as silenced, meaning they lose their ability to be loud if they want.

Does anyone have any ideas?

The system I’m sorta thinking of is basically creating an item for each combination state and a storylet for each of those items where it’s possible to add/remove attachments and then modify the inventory, but that’s really prone to glitches on my end and winds up consuming storylets like they were candy (not necessarily a bad thing). I’m not so opposed to the action cost of it as the fact that it really bloats up my list of things (basically I’d make a tag category for each firearm, and since each could have 5-10 storylets they’d still be relatively large categories).

2

That sounds complicated. You’re wanting combinable items, that not only combine two things A and B, but item B can combine with items C D and E in different ways?

It sounds like you’re edging toward combinatorial explosion, but it sounds like that’s the point of your game - very detailed load outs.

Here’s what I would do:

In short - don’t use “equip” for the weapons. Use equip for the add ons.

Say there are three potential upgrades on all guns. Sight, Grip, Silencer. Each of these is a slot quality.

A gun is a usable quality: GunA: 0-unheld 1-in inventory 2-equipped. The gun is equipped by using it inventory - which presents a storylet to equip and unequip it. When you do equip the weapon, it gives you the correct upgrade slots.

So I buy GunA, which sets GunAInv to 1 to show I’m carrying it. GunA can have a silencer only.

When I want to equip GunA I click on it in inventory which triggers the GunAEquip storylet. This gives me the option to equip it, setting GunAInv to 2, and also setting a generic “you are holding a gun” quality to 1, and setting my ranged quality to the base of the gun. It also gives a silencer slot, in which I can equip any silencer I own, which contributes to my ranged quality.

Later I buy GunB which can have a sight and a silencer. GunBInv goes to 1. When I use it in inventory, the “you are holding a gun” quality forces me to unequip GunA (via its use button) before doing anything else. This unsets “you are holding a gun” and removes all of the gun slot qualities and decreases the ranged quality the amount that the gun grants. Using GunB now allows me to equip it and sets GunBInv to 2, “you are holding a gun” to 1, sets the ranged base quality for that gun, and sets the sight slot quality and the silencer slot qualities each to 1, opening those slots for any silencer I have and any sight I have, contributing to my “stealthy” and “accuracy” qualities.

This may or may not work for you, but hopes it gives you some ideas!
edited by HanonO on 12/3/2012

3

The problem is that I also want players to be required to certify to use certain items, meaning that they can’t just use a gun without first seeking training, so the gun has to have a slot requirement before use, which means that it has to wind up being equipped to verify the slot.

Unless I’m understanding this wrong.
edited by Kyle Willey on 12/3/2012

4

Could you just use qualities for that too? GunA 0-unheld 1-carried 2-EquipNonCert 3-carriedCert 4-EquipCert 5-unheldCert ?

Then your GunAEquip Storylet which changes funnels the quality to the correct place. When the quality is at 2 it only gives them 1 of the ranged quality or whatever so they can train. When their ranged quality hits 5 or whatever while GunA is at 2 moves them to GunA 3, which tells the GunAEquip storylet that when they equip it they start with the gun adjusting the ranged quality to 7 or whatever you want it to start at. After they’re certified if you need to remove the weapon you’d send the quality to 5 instead of 0. (Calling it “You are certified in GunA but do not possess this weapon”.

Remember - the GunA quality is not slotted. You’re just changing qualities to show it’s status, and using the equip storylet (triggered by using it in inventory) to add or subtract the Basic Ability that actually counts when shooting, and the appropriate slots for that weapon which allow you to equip items that enhance ranged or other qualities such as “stealthy” or “accurate”.
edited by HanonO on 12/3/2012
edited by HanonO on 12/3/2012

5

Does that system support multiple copies of the same gun without going into arraying values?

6

So long as the weapons aren’t identically named, you could. SN I don’t think will let you have two identical qualities names. You could have New revolver, Old revolver, Defective revolver, The Dead Informant’s revolver… All with different stats.

I’m not sure why you’d want two exact copies though.

7

There are multiple ways to get most gear, and a working trade system, meaning that people are likely to both encounter the same item multiple times and want to sell it.

For instance, my test character has most every weapon in the game a couple times over, and I also want people to be able to configure the same gun different ways and just swap out (i.e. CQB silenced assault rifle versus shock ‘n’ awe assault rifle with gas vents.
edited by Kyle Willey on 12/4/2012

8

I think having identical guns equipped differently to ‘save time’ when swapping is a real world thing that might be more trouble than its worth in a game situation where there is no real time clock. It’s sort of like in if text games where someone goes through the trouble to implement stages of GRAB DOORKNOB, TWIST DOORKNOB, PUSH DOOR, WALK THROUGH, when all you need is OPEN DOOR. I’m not saying you can’t make this compelling, but balance the amount of work something takes versus how much fun it will be for a player.

I look forward to seeing what you come up with!