Slaves to Armok: God of Blood Copyright (c) 2000 - 2005 by Tarn Adams
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The Future: Items

Item Ownership:  Creatures remember that they've owned things, and items may have psychic impressions on them.

Item Size:  I need this for unwieldiness and containers. It's already in, but it doesn't matter yet.

Miscellaneous Worn Objects:  Rings, Earrings, Bracelets, etc.

Have Trouble Spotting Small Objects:  This is just mean. Imagine getting your money pouch damaged during a fight, and not noticing the trail you start leaving.

Trouble Finding Small Objects in Containers:  This is also mean.

Random Items and Item Types:  There need to be cultural elements to this, and we also need to decide how much freedom the player has in constructing items. Right now, an item is defined by a list of restrictions, and the item is randomly realized within that set of restrictions.

Item Joints:  Part of construction. This is how item components are put together.

Furniture:  This isn't strictly necessary, but people like chairs.

Container Capacity:  Once item size is in, we can actually fill up containers.

Composite Containers:  Right now, items with multiple components can't be containers for technical reasons. Easy to fix.

Liquid Containers:  When you pour liquid into a container, how permeable is it? Liquid residue should stay in containers. Liquid should also evaporate.

Edibility:  What nutritional value does the item have for different creatures? Is it poisonous?

Projectiles and Falling Bodies:  Then we can actually get arrows in. Arrows should stick in creatures, and moreover, some magical arrows should grow branches and barbs on impact and pop out of chests and stuff. Yeah.

Flammability:  How flammable are things? This includes fire starting skills.

Item Concealment:  Creatures should be able to conceal items for whatever reason. Under a cloak, in a mouth, etc.

Ordered Takeoff:  If you put on a tight bracelet over a long-sleeved shirt, you will probably need to remove the bracelet before you take off your shirt. So the game will remember the order that items were put on (separately for each body part).

Clothing Connections:  Items like shirts are made up of multiple components. The game needs to figure out how they fit over creatures, and it needs to deal with imperfect fits. There is also the matter of clinging clothing, and things that will just fall off.

Item Components:  Right now, there aren't enough component types to handle most items. Currently there are "simples" (standard geometric shapes), "simple blades" (sword), "advanced blades" (for those bizarre pole arms), "containers", "coverings", and "corpses". This is impoverished! I need to add types to support things like bows, chains, hinges, sails, handles, machines with parts, etc. There is also no support right now for nasty barbs, prongs, and serrated edges.

Ornamentation/Detailing:  Items should be able to have all kinds of gems, tassels, feathers, engraving, etc. This conflicts a bit with the item master list (which restricts swords to two components, etc.), but it shouldn't be too difficult to deal with (every item already records its master list number, so alterations on top won't change that). Items might also store who made them in certain cases. Artistic sense, creativity, and cultural artistic knowledge need to be stored as some kind of skill or attribute.

Fabrics, Cloth:  There should be some mechanism for wrapping cloth around anything at all. This fits into concealment, containers, bandaging, and many other aspects of the game, such as tying a black cape over somebody's head, tying them to a horse and making the horse run.

Coated Weapons:  Blood covered items are already up in The Plan, but other coverings might be valuable - poison, something dark like soot to obscure bright items...

Some Desired Item Types:  (more) Weapons, shields, armor, clothing, arrows, stones, tools, glassware, wands, staves, rings, amulets, bracelets, figurine and statues, plant parts (leave, berries, logs, etc.), corpse pieces, bows, slings, blowguns, clothing material, food stuff, liquids, instruments, containers, books, paper and writing, pots and ceramics, potted plants, candles, rope, towels, blankets, furniture, silverware, belts, paintings and artwork, etc. There should also be scabbards for items requiring them (and it might be difficult to free items in certain circumstances).

Amorphous Objects:  A water mage might have a staff topped with a crystal that kind of flows around the top. It might be possible to attach these items to many things (as sword pommels, walls, etc.). Multiple items attached to another might increase its power (smiths can attach non-amorphous objects, etc.). Some amorphous or other objects might simply be pressed together to form another object (this is particularly true of the objects described in regional character).

Random Thought:  You might have to yank out a creature's teeth and use them to prepare crude skins if you are getting cold.

Attunement:  Right now, creatures have skill with particular items (e.g. Broad Sword #37) to reflect that they have become accustomed to a given item. This mechanism can also be used to "attune" creatures to items. A creature that is very "in tune" with a given object might be able to gain special powers.

Skins:  One should be able to wear animal skins. Ostensibly, one could wear a fresh skin from a corpse of similar dimensions as a jumpsuit, but this requires some work.

Mirrors and other Reflective Surfaces:  These objects can be used to observe oneself and others, reflect beams of light, or force creatures with "gaze attacks" to become subject to their own devices (if they are susceptible).

Distinguishing Materials:  Certain materials and items cannot be distinguished from each other without special knowledge. This is very important in determining the nature of a currency item for instance.

Projectiles:  In certain situations, projectiles can pass through multiple targets.

Corpse Preservation:  There should be various means of preserving corpses (mummification and so on).

Inventory and Falling Over:  There should be all sorts of effects on and from your inventory when you fall over. Inventory should also be affected in numerous ways by weapon strikes, etc.

Player Artists and Standards:  The player should be able to design their own standards and other artwork (possibly importing BMP files).