Generic Character Ghosts (in draft)

This proposal is for the inclusion of bones files in the bones folder during installation (or as an Add-On to the game). The suggested “Generic Character Ghosts” (GCG) would be “weaklings” with no experience (XL=1 & next=0%) and would be generated in-game just like regular Player Ghosts. As such, NO change whatsoever would be require to the coding of the game itself, as CGCs can easily be created by non-coding contributors. The only level of effort required on the dev side would be to figure out how to include these GCGs as part of the installation.

The benefit of including GCGs to Crawl downloads is that it would:

1. provide new crawlers with the experience of encountering very weak pseudo-Player ghosts before they start encountering their own player ghosts (which are often very strong from having died an untimely death due to tactical errors);
2. make the offline experience more similar to the online server experience; and
3. make the death of these unique generic ghosts a one-time experience since the bones file would get deleted.
4. for new installations make encountering a strong player ghost less likely on the floors where GCGs can generate.

Also, with this approach, a Nostalgia add-on pack of: “Ghosts of Versions past” could be created for as far back as the bones files are compatible with the current versions such as the DK prototype below for the upcoming v.16.

I have created a Death Knight prototype of 21 bones files with the 6 “viable” DKs able to generate on D:5 and the others on D:3. It works on my Ubuntu Linux with crawl-tiles v.15.2

The download is available in the following Tavern post: https://crawl.develz.org/tavern/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=14226

In my initial Tavern post of this idea, there were mixed reviews & comments. Below is how I addressed those:

1. GCGs use the current Player Ghost generation mechanism and therefore would not generate on D:1 or D:2.
2. GCGs as XL1 weaklings might be too weak for D:3 and deeper and if that is the case, might need to be made a bit stronger to serve an educational purpose for new crawlers about encountering future player ghosts.

1. It is simple to include bones files in the Crawl installation files for all OS. If not, the GCG could be distributed as an Add-on pack.

1. I have yet to come up with criteria that would determine if a GCG should be generated on a level lower than D:3 due to being possibly still a powerful “weakling”. If the data on http://crawl.chaosforge.org/Player_ghost is still accurate for v.15 & trunk, I should be able to create a spreadsheet that will allow me to determine the melee strength of different GCGs.
2. A Tutorial Lesson might need to be created on how to deal with Uniques and Player Ghosts (including GCGs). This might be beneficial even if this proposal is not implemented.
3. Stronger GCGs could be created for deeper levels other than D:3 to D:5.

Please provide your feedback in the following Tavern post: tbd since proposal is still in draft