merc/doc/skill.txt

Merc Release 2.1
Sunday 01 August 1993

Furey	mec@shell.portal.com
Hatchet	hatchet@uclink.berkeley.edu
Kahn	michael@uclink.berkeley.edu



=== Skills and Spells

The central organizing table for skills and spells is skill_table, an array
of type 'struct skill_type' (merc.h), and is defined in const.c.  Skills
include spells as a special case.  Indexes into this table are 'skill numbers'
or 'spell numbers', abbreviated 'sn'.  An 'sn' is a purely internal value, and
can vary over time as skills and spells are added.  This way, the skill table
can be expanded conveniently.

The 'practice' command and player saving/loading are completely table-driven
from skill_table.  Skills and spells may be freely added or deleted without
changing these functions.

The fields of skill_table are:

    char *	name;

	The name is used for practising the skill or spell and by the 'cast'
	command.  Mobiles which cast spells also often invoke the spell by
	name.  Save files contain this name.

    sh_int	skill_level[MAX_CLASS];

	This array is indexed by character class, GET_CLASS(ch).  It contains
	the minimum level which each class needs in order to practice the skill
	or spell.  If a given class cannot use this skill or spell, the level
	is set to 37, so that all immortals can use all skills and spells.
	Mobiles ignore this table; generally their skill percentages are a
	simple function of level.

    SPELL_FUN *	spell_fun;

	This is the function which implements the spell.  Spell functions
	take four arguments: an 'sn', a level, a caster, and a pointer to a
	target victim or object.  This field is unused for skills.

    sh_int	target;

	This identifies the targets of the spell.  The legal values are:

	    TAR_IGNORE			Spell chooses its own targets.
	    TAR_CHAR_OFFENSIVE		Spell is offensive (starts combat).
	    TAR_CHAR_DEFENSIVE		Spell is defensive (any char is legal).
	    TAR_CHAR_SELF		Spell is personal-effect only.
	    TAR_OBJ_INV			Spell is used on an object.

	PC's may not cast TAR_CHAR_OFFENSIVE spells on other PC's.  These
	spells also cause the victim to attack the caster.

	This field is unused for skills.

    sh_int	minimum_position;

	This is the minimum position needed to cast the spell.  It is always
	either POSITION_FIGHTING or POSITION_STANDING.  This field is unused
	for skills.

    sh_int	slot;

	This is the slot number, which indexes the spell from magical objects
	in #OBJECTS sections of area files (but not save files, which use the
	ascii name).  Once assigned, a slot number can never be changed.
	Skills do not have slot numbers.

    sh_int	min_mana;

	This is the minimum mana required to cast this spell by a sufficiently
	high level spell caster.  A lower level spell caster will need more
	mana than the minimum; see 'do_cast' in 'magic.c' for the algorithm.
	This field is unused for skills.

    sh_int	beats;

	This is the delay time, in pulses, imposed on the user of a spell or
	caster of a spell.  One pulse is 0.25 second (this is derived from
	PULSE_PER_SECOND in merc.h).

    sh_int *	pgsn;

	This is the address of a gsn (global skill/spell number) associated
	with this skill or spell.  Almost all skills have gsn's; a few spells
	do.

    char *	noun_damage;

	This is a noun or noun phrase containing the damage message for skills
	or spells that perform damage.

    char *	msg_off;

	This is the message sent to the character when the skill or spell wears
	off.



=== Examples

    {
	"fireball",		{ 15, 37, 37, 37 },
	spell_fireball,		TAR_CHAR_OFFENSIVE,	POS_FIGHTING,
	NULL,			SLOT(26),	15,	12,
	"fireball",		"!Fireball!"
    },

	This is a fifteenth level magic-user spell.  The slot number is 26.  It
	costs 15 mana, and imposes 12 pulses (3 seconds) of delay time on the
	caster.  It's an offensive spell, and can be used either fighting or
	standing.  There is no gsn.  The damage message will say 'fireball',
	and the wear-off message has a strange form to indicate errors because
	this spell is instantaneous.

    {
	"armor",		{  5,  1, 37, 37 },
	spell_armor,		TAR_CHAR_DEFENSIVE,	POS_STANDING,
	NULL,			SLOT( 1),	 5,	12,
	"",			"You feel less protected."
    },

	This is a fifth level magic-user or first level cleric spell.  It can
	be cast on any char without starting a fight.  It has no damage message
	but does have a wear-off message.

    {
	"gas breath",		{ 35, 37, 37, 37 },
	spell_gas_breath,	TAR_IGNORE,		POS_FIGHTING,
	NULL,			SLOT(203),	 0,	 4,
	"blast of gas",		"!Gas Breath!"
    },

	This is one of the dragon-breath spells.  It is accessible only to
	35th level magic users.  The spell selects its own targets (TAR_IGNORE)
	rather than using the common spell-driver target selection code.

    {
	"pick lock",		{ 37, 37,  1, 37 },
	spell_null,		TAR_IGNORE,		POS_STANDING,
	&gsn_pick_lock,		SLOT( 0),	 0,	12,
	"",			"!Pick!"
    },

	This is a first-level thief skill.  Many of the fields are unused.
	This skill has a gsn, so that do_pick_lock does not have to call
	'skill_lookup' to find the sn.



=== Indexing skill_table

'skill_table' is indexed by an 'sn' or 'gsn'.  The function 'skill_lookup'
takes a string and returns the appropriate sn, or -1 if the name is not found.

Some skills, such as 'second attack', are referenced very frequently.  For
these skills, a global variable such as 'gsn_second_attack' is initialized to
the sn of this skill.  Most of the fighter and thief skills have gsn's; only a
few spells need gsn's.

Gsn's are initialized at boot time in boot_db, which follows the 'pgsn' field
in skill_table.   This takes slightly more time and space than using '#define'
to define them as constants, but is much more error-proof.

Magic items (potions, scrolls, pills, wands, and staves) have charges of
magical spells.  These spells are referenced by 'slot number' in area files.
(Slot numbers are also used in the save files).  The function 'slot_lookup'
converts slot numbers to skill numbers.

The range of slot numbers is 0 to 32767.  There is no need to assign them
consecutively.  In the future, slot numbers may disappear completely, and
area files may reference spells directly by name instead of by slot number.

[For those familiar with original Diku code ... slot numbers are simply the
original Diku spell numbers.]



=== The spell driver

The spell driver level is the first half of 'magic.c'.  It consists of
'do_cast' for the 'cast' command and 'obj_cast_spell' which is called from
'do_brandish', 'do_eat', 'do_quaff', 'do_recite', and 'do_zap'.

The spell driver takes care of level checking, position checking, target
selection, target validation (such as preventing PC's from casting offensive
spells on other PC's), staff area effect (just multi-target selection), mana
costs, wait states, and starting combat for offensive spells.  All of these
things are table-driven by 'skill_table'.

The spell function itself takes care of calling functions like 'damage' and
'affect_to_char'.  Read the existing ones to see what is needed for a new one.

Some spells, such as 'earthquake', 'locate object' or 'summon', perform their
own target selection.  These spells are target type TAR_IGNORE.  Within the
spell function, the variable 'target_name' is available (set by the spell
driver).



=== Adding a new spell

(1) Find a free slot number.  Make sure it's not already used in 'const.c'.
    Merc reserves slot numbers below 500 for future expansion.  We promise we
    won't use numbers 500 or above in future Merc releases.  Thus if you number
    your spells 500 or above, you will have an easier time upgrading to future
    releases of the Merc base code.

(2) Choose appropriate values for the other 'skill_table' fields, and write
    your new paragraph into 'const.c'.  Order is immaterial.

(3) Add the 'spell_*' function declaration to the 'DECLARE_SPELL_FUN' section
    of 'merc.h'.

(4) Drop the code for the spell function into 'magic.c'.

(5) If your spell needs 'AFF_*' bits, create new 'AFF_* bits' in 'merc.h'.

(6) You may need to increase 'MAX_SKILL' in 'merc.h'.



=== Adding a new skill

For skills, only some of the fields are relevant: 'name', 'skill_level',
'beats', 'pgsn', 'noun_damage', and 'msg_off' are used; 'slot', 'min_mana',
'spell_fun', 'target', and 'minimum_position' are not used.

Skills are either automatic (such as 'parry') or manual (such as 'rescue').
Many automatic skills are referenced in 'fight.c'; look at 'multi_hit' for
examples of the use of 'gsn_second_attack' and 'gsn_third_attack'.

An explicit skill such as 'rescue' has its associated command 'do_rescue'.
This command is defined and called in the normal way in interp.c.  Within
'do_rescue', 'gsn_rescue' is used to find fields such as 'beats'.

To add a new skill:

(1) Choose appropriate values for the 'skill_table' fields, and write your new
    paragraph into 'const.c'.  Order is immaterial.

(2) You'll probably need a 'gsn'.  Declare it in 'merc.h' and 'db.c'.  Drop its
    address into the 'pgsn' field of the paragraph in 'const.c'.

(3) If the skill is automatic, just use 'ch->pcdata->learned[gsn_new_skill]'
    in your code.  If your skill is manual, you need to write an appropriate
    command function for it.

(4) You may need to increase 'MAX_SKILL' in 'merc.h'.