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<head>
<title>Crossfire Playerbook - Chapter 6</title>
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<h1>Equipment</h1>
<p>
<h2><a name="6.1.0">Going to market..</h2>
<!--#include file="shop.html"-->
You can find equipment for sale at easily recognizable buildings. To buy an
item just pick it up and walk out of the building by stepping on a
shop mat
<!--#include file="shopmat.html"-->
. The cost of the item will automatically be
deducted from your money
<!--#include file="money.html"-->
. To sell an item,
enter the shop and drop the item
on the shop floor. Money from the sale will auto-matically be placed in your
inventory. Use the <samp>examine</samp> command, or the cursor and left button
of the mouse to examine the price of an item <em>before</em> you buy or sell.
<p>
<h3><a name="6.1.1">Some notes about shopping</h3>
Most items will have a value based on their ``standard'' cost
multiplied by a factor based on your charisma (see table <a href="chap2.html#table_pri_eff">primary stat effects</a>).
You can never look good enough that you can buy stuff then sell
it at a profit.
<p>
Some notable exceptions to the above:<p>
<ul>
<li> Gems will always be sold or bought 3% more or less their standard value.
<li> For magic stuff value is 3 *(<samp>magic</samp>)^3</samp> of standard value.
<li> Unidentified items value is 2/3 of standard.
</ul>
<p>
<h3><a name="6.1.2">Plundering shops</h3>
It is not possible to steal from shops (sorry!). If you somehow make
it out of a shop with ``unpaid'' items, you will find that they will
be unusable until paid for. On another note, if you save yourself with
unpaid items in a shop, then crash the game and reload, you will
find that the unpaid items will not be saved.<p>
<h2><a name="6.2.0">Items</h2>
In this section we detail some interesting properties of various
bits of equipment which may be found in <em>Crossfire</em>
<p>
<strong>Books:</strong>
<!--#include file="books.html"-->
<p>
This is how players can obtain magical spells, sometimes a player can learn
the spell, other times they cannot. The chance depends on the type of spell,
either INT (incantations) or WIS (prayers) is used to help determine the
percentage chance that the spell might be learned (see section <a
href="chap4.html#4.10.0">learning a spell</a> for details).<p>
There are many, many different types of books out there, as well as being
spell books (grimores and prayerbooks), the following information can appear
in books generated in shops and/or monster treasure hoards:
<ul>
<li> Compendiums on monsters. Their powers/abilities are
described as in the <A href="../spoiler-html/spoiler.html">spoiler</a>.
<li> Compendiums of incantations/prayers by spell Path. Higher
level texts are more complete in their description of
available spells.
<li> ``Bibles'': various aspects, properties, and characteristics
of a God/cult are described. Higher level texts
have more/better information.
<li> Compendiums explaining the powers of magic items. Higher
level texts have more items detailed.
<li> Alchemical Formulae.
<li> Other randomly generated information.
</ul>
Book level is assigned when the book is generated as treasure.
Level is based on the difficulty of the map the book is
generated on. All information is <em>server</em> specific.<p>
<strong>Scrolls and Potions:</strong>
<!--#include file="scrolls.html"-->
<!--#include file="potions.html"-->
<p>
Most of these items provide a one-shot use of a spell without making
the user expend either mana or grace. Scroll use depends on the
user's <samp>literacy</samp> skill and may fail. Potions always
work, but are more expensive to buy. Several kinds of items are
classed as "potions": balms, figurines, and dusts. Some potions
don't cast spells, but instead raise the drinker's stats. Beware
cursed potions. They can <em>lower</em> your stats instead!
<p>
<strong>Wands(Staves)/Rods/Horns:</strong>
<!--#include file="wands.html"-->
<!--#include file="rods.html"-->
<!--#include file="horns.html"-->
<p>
These items provide use of spells. Wands have a limited
number of charges, while horns and rods will recharge
(but don't fire as much damage in a small amount of time).
Horns are used at the overall level of ability of the
user, while rods and wands cast spells at the item level.
<p>
<strong>Rings:</strong>
<!--#include file="rings.html"-->
<p>
Many different types, rings can be worn to add/remove different
immunities, gain/lose spell Paths and alter all types of stats. <p>
<strong>Food/Flesh:</strong>
<!--#include file="food.html"-->
<!--#include file="flesh.html"-->
<p>
These items provide sustenance. Food is generally more healthy
to eat, while some flesh items can be sold for good cash. Both
types may temporarily alter your stats, and/or be poisonous.
Many flesh items inherit the properties of the monster they
came from. For example, a ``poisonous'' monster will leave
behind poisonous flesh. Don't eat it if you know what's good
for you!!
<p>
<strong>Weapons/Armour: </strong><p>
Tons of items, it is up to you as the player to figure out which work
better then others. Take a look at weapon/armour weight in the <A
href="../spoiler-html/spoiler.html">spoiler</a>
to get an idea of how enchanted unidentified items are. <p>
<strong>Artifacts:</strong><p>
These are the real treasures of the game. There are more than 20
artifacts out there, but they are very hard to come by.
<p>
<h2><a name="6.3.0">Encumbrance</h2>
Armour, weapons, shields will encumber a wizard and cause spell
failure. Light equipment causes no failure at all whereas heavy equipment
causes mondo failures.
<p>
The reasoning is that the bulkiness of objects, not their weight exactly, is
what causes failures. So the basic idea of encumbrance is that items get in
the way more than they weigh down. Unfortunately, our only measure of
'getting in the way' was the weight.<p>
<h3><a name="6.3.1">How encumbrance is calculated</h3>
Encumbrance points are tallied only from <em>applied</em> objects. Weapons
give
3x their weight in kg in encumbrance points. Shields give 1/2 their weight
in kg in encumbrance points. Armour gives its weight in encumbrance points.<p>
There's an allowance of encumbrance points which all players get before they
start losing incantations, this was about 35-45, not too much.<p>
The formula works like this: You make a roll of 1-200. You compare it to a
failure threshold. This threshold is: encumbrance + incantation
<samp>level</samp> - caster <samp>level</samp> - 35<p>
For example, lets say a 4th <samp>level</samp> wizard is casting a 5th
<samp>level</samp> incantation . The wizard is wearing plate mail (100 kg),
a 20 kg shield and wielding a 15 kg weapon. His encumbrance is 100 + 10 + 45
= 155. Thus, his threshold for failure is 155 + 5 - 4 = 156 or just about
3/4 failure rate.<p>
There is no special bonuses for using magical equipment, although, it is
clear that magical armour and weapons make things better through their weight.
<p>
<h2><a name="6.4.0">Enchantments</h2>
Some items will have numerical values such as +1, +2, +3, etc.
trailing their names. These <em>magic</em> values indicate that the item
is enchanted,
and in some way may be better or (if the value is negative) worse
than ordinary run of the day items of its kind.<p>
<h3><a name="6.4.1">Enchanting armour</h3>
Enchantment of armour is achieved with the
<em>enchant armour</em>
<!--#include file="scrolls.html"-->
scrolls.
Each time you successfully use a scroll, you will
add a plus value, more armour to the piece of equipment and
some fractional amount of weight.
<p>
You may only add up to 1 + (overall <samp>level</samp>/10) (rounded down
like an integer) in pluses to any one piece of armour. How much armour value
you add to the item is also dependent on your overall <samp>level</samp>.
You may never enchant a piece of armour to have an armour rating greater
than their overall <samp>level</samp> or 99.<p>
<h3><a name="6.4.2">Enchanting weapons</h3>
This is done via a series of scrolls
<!--#include file="scrolls.html"-->
that you may find or buy in shops. The procedure is done in two steps. Use
the <em>prepare weapon</em> scroll to lay a magic matrix on your weapon.
Then use any of the other scrolls to add enchantments you want. Note that
some of these scrolls will also require a ``sacrifice'' to be made when they
are read. To sacrifice an object just stand over it when you read the weapon
scroll. Scrolls for weapon enchantment are: <p>
<strong>Prepare weapon</strong><p>
Diamonds are required for the sacrifice. The item
can be enchanted the square root of the number of diamonds sacrificed. Thus,
if 100 diamonds are sacrificed, the weapon can have 10 other enchant scrolls
read.
<p>
<strong>Improve damage</strong><p>
There is no sacrifice. Each scroll read will increase the damage by 5
points, and the weight by 5 kilograms.
<p>
<strong>Lower (Improve) Weight</strong><p>
There is no sacrifice. Each scroll read will reduce the weight by 20%.
The minimum weight a weapon can have is 1 gram.
<p>
<strong>Enchant weapon</strong><p>
This does not require any sacrifices, and increases the magic by 1.
<p>
<strong>Improve Stat</strong> (ie, Strength, Dexterity, etc)<br>
The sacrifice is the potion
<!--#include file="potion.html"-->
of the same type
as the ability to be increased (ie, Improve Strength requires strength
potions). The number of potions needed is the sum of all the abilities
the weapon presently gives multiplied by 2. The ability will then be
increased by 1 point. Thus, if a sword is Int +2 and Str +2, then 8
potions would be needed to raise any stat by one point. But if the
sword was Int +2, Str +2, and Wis -2, then only 4 potions. A minimum of
2 potions will be needed.
<p>
<strong>WARNING:</strong> something to keep in mind before you start
enchanting like crazy - you can only use a weapon that has 5 + 1
enchantments for every 5 levels of <samp>physique</samp> experience you
possess. So, a character with 10th level in the <samp>physique</samp>
experience category may only be able to use a weapon with a maximum of 7
enchantments!<p>
<a href="handbook.html"><img src="fig/book.gif">Back to table of contents</a><br>
<a href="chap5.html"><img src="fig/stairup.gif">Go to chapter 5</a><br>
<a href="chap7.html"><img src="fig/stairdown.gif">Go to chapter 7</a><br>
