From 4u2@dec5102.aarhues.dk
Date: Fri, 1 Sep 1995 10:33:52 +0100 (WET DST)
From: "Erwin S. Andreasen" <4u2@dec5102.aarhues.dk>
To: MERC/Envy Mailing List <merc-l@webnexus.com>
Subject: Corpses!


I think we should move from this (even if important) though boring subject
of license agreements to a a subject with more meat on it... corpsse! :)

In standard MERC a corpse is always 'The corpse of %s is lying here.'. I 
found that pretty boring, after having played SneezyMUD which makes corpses 
more interesting:) : like 'Charred remains of %s are here.'

Therefore: add an extra argument to raw_kill, a description, and let raw_kill
pass it to make_corpse. Then replace the standard corpse description with 
the new description, if the new description is non-NULL:

    if (description == NULL)
        sprintf( buf, corpse->description, name );
    else
        sprintf( buf, description, name );
    free_string( corpse->description );
    buf[0] = UPPER(buf[0]);
    corpse->description = str_dup( buf );


Then, you can have your instant-kill spells produce another corpse. E.g. 
a 'Finger of Death' could produce a 'Blackened remains of %s are lying here.'

It gets even better if you have some way of determining what damage has 
killed the victim. If you use ROM, you can add the spells damage to it. I 
myself implemented a ROM-like damage system, with spells doing e.g. fire 
damage etc.

Then: if a the killing blow dealt to a character did more than 10% of of 
max_hit, an alternate corpse is created in one out of 16 cases. E.g. if 
damage == DAM_FIRE , make_corpse(victim, "The charred remains of %s are 
here.");

IMHO it's a interesting touch :)


To make it even more advanced: multiple-stage corpses! When a corpse 
rots, do not remove it, but change the description to a more rotten 
variant. It might be most practical with PC corpses, to make it easier to 
see when a corpse rots completely - you could go from just a 'Corpse of 
%s is lying here' to 'The rotten corpse of %s is lying here' and finally 
to just some bones :)


-Phunk

---------------
Erwin Andreasen
4u2@aarhues.dk
---------------



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\  |  ____|__   __|  _ \ / ____\ / _ \| \  / |  ____|  / __ \|  _ \ / ____\  \
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\  | |       | |  | |   | |___| | | | | |  | | |____  | |__| | |\ \| |___| | /
/  |_|       |_|  |_|  o \_____/|_| |_|_|  |_|______|o \____/|_| \_|\_____/  \
\                                                                            /
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