[MUD-Dev] RP thesis...

[Matt Chatterley]

On Sat, 17 May 1997, Nathan Yospe wrote:
> On Sat, 17 May 1997, Matt Chatterley wrote:

> :I wasn't entirely clear to the point I meant, above - I think that
> :enforcing a 'native' language by default is a bad thing (you need to bend
> :reality a little to make things a bit easier), but having them at all is
> :certainly a good thing (An excited elf guard on the scene of a raid will
> :drop to his native elvish rather than the common tongue, for instance).
> :It's partly a personal thing.. and also, if it were a LARGE scale game
> :(say Ultima-online type player connection figures, or rather as they would
> :estimate), it would probably work having native languages as default. For
> :a 30 player-at-peak mud, it probably wouldn't.
> 
> That's cute. I pretty much neglected any of the languages employed
> natively by nonhuman species (and humans, who speak a creole with roots in
> latin-english-japanese-east asian) except where names were concerned.

*giggle* Cute, eh? ;)

It could conceivably be thought of as dialects - for instance, in Germany,
they all speak a basically similar language, but there are several quite
different dialects. To a non-native-speaker, some dialects may be very
different to the generalised form of the language (s)he learnt. Hmm, no,
on second thoughts it's a tad more extreme than that.. but thats the
general gist.

Everyone speaks one language with a degree of natural fluency, but also
has a native tongue in which they really communicate.. hmm, still feels a
bit artificial, but it's a workable situation. Perhaps one can take the
standpoint that adventurers are especial, and were all educated to the
point of speaking a common language (although, if you have such things as
barbarians, it gets a touch far-fetched too). Interesting hurdle.
 
> :Yeah. Implementing eating (as a necessity, rather than the typical 'eat
> :bread x10 for HPs back thing) is something I'm looking into. The trick of
> :course is to do it subtly, and so that it isn't a bore to do (a routine
> :thing that people set up triggers for, or deal with as simply as possible,
> :and so forth). One step towards this is to adjust healing *rate* when
> :characters eat, and give little or no HPs back. Perhaps physical and
> :mental fatigue are relieved a little, and morale of a group (say a bunch
> :of soldiers) would certainly go up. An interesting topic.
> 
> Eating makes little sense in the context of Singularity, as most beings
> have internal glucose feeds and converters... breathing, as well, can be
> replaced, with a little extra spending. Of course, these are not installed
> when you start, and feeding oneself becomes a problem. The pain in the gut
> and dizziness that affects coordination and reflex speed are good
> motivators toward either getting the three squares, or installing a
> glocose feed.

<g> This does bring into passing the matter of time. Or does it?

It would be truly trivial to put in a 'satiation counter' in the living
object, and have it tick away slowly, giving different states on it
different influences, and different consumption rates for different
physiologies (A buff troll will use food faster than a human because of
his naturally fast metabolism, for instance).

It would by this route, also be trivial to put in such things as
'bloating' (You've eaten too much, if you run about now, you'll barf!),
and other effects of alchohol (drink too much.. and ditto, eating with a
hangover nasty too). Starvation, and hunger influences on your
performances are also fairly trivial to work in. Not so easy to do it
well, and it's not easy to tell if it's a truly desirable thing, which is
where I'm rather stumped. :)
 
> :Ayup. Any semi-competent coder can eventually sling together all that he
> :wants into a mud (I couldn't code at all in LPC about 6 months ago, but
> :I've learnt an awful lot just from initially hacking about with Nightmare,
> :and then writing huge hunks of code myself; currently a mail & news
> :system.. it's amazing how fast you can learn given a small amount of
> :dedication, if you really want to), but you really need to apply yourself
> :to balance it, and make sure it is all well integrated together (it should
> :feel like one fluid reality, not a bunch of systems hurled together to
> :make one).
> 
> Yeah, nothing inproves a skill like practice, application, and
> experimentation. Now... it does seem to me that, were I actually writing a
> mud with a deadline, I'd be experimenting a lot less... but hey! What the
> hell.

<g> This is why I don't set myself strict deadlines. "It'd be nice to
finish combat by the end of this month." I think, then two months later, I
finish it, thrice as good as it could have been, due to what I learnt and
thought out in the extra month. Plus it's daft to deadline yourself when
RL time is scarce.

This is also why I always have ~12 projects on the go at once, some easy
(which get boring and I need a break from), some routine (ditto), some
large but not too hard (ditto), and some very complicated, which I use
when I want a challenge. :P

> :> Nice.  I've always liked games which change in scale as you play them.
> :
> :Yeah.. I've always been a 'war games' fan too, so creating something where
> :the player can (having earnt the right to do so, of course) take a more
> :back-seat view and watch his hordes rampage (or maybe not) is something I
> :really want a shot at. Of course, it won't be easy to balance. ;)
> 
> Hmmm. Interesting. Sounds like civnet, though.

Civnet?
 
> :Yeah, this works too. :) We're using the standard (well, fairly standard)
> :heartbeat (or round if you prefer) based combat, in a way. Or rather, we
> :aren't depicting all actions simply be reflex-time delay (some, such as
> :application of archery and other missile attacks ARE reliant on a time
> :delay), but each character will normally take a certain amount of attacks
> :and parries in a round (modifiable through tactics and/or fighting style
> :as well as 'special abilities'), so we will use the above penalties to
> :simulate the effect you have nicely wrapped up. :) It really helps to
> :bring out the 'confusion' involved in being surrounded.
> 
> Hmmm. I do simulate a bit more than that... no pulse, just events... but
> I've gotten some interesting results with my filters. More in a moment...

I pondered briefly on a soley time-based system, but decided against it
for two main reasons, firstly, I didn't like the ideas I had for it (not
many), and secondly, I have no idea how to go about plotting it (actually
setting it up isn't so bad, but planning it out is).
 
> :Imagine..
> :
> :100 Red Lion soldiers march in.
> :The soldiers see your uniform and attack you!
> :38 Red Lion soldiers miss you completely.
> :20 Red Lion soldiers hit you for no damage.
> :10 Red Lion soldiers hit you badly.. and so on.
> :
> :It wouldn't be fun. :)
> 
> How about:
> 
> A huge mob* of Red Lion soldiers marches in. A soldier sees you and
> points at your uniform. The soldiers turn toward you and charge! You try
> to defend yourself, but a soldier gets a blow through, sending a lance of
> searing agony up your side! You kill a soldier with a stab through the
> throat. Something stabs into your back! Your jacket feels warm and wet.
> The world is getting dim. A soldier leers and chops down at you with his
> sword. ...
> 
> You wake up, naked and covered in slime. Soft blue lights frame the room,
> and there is a chemical odor in the air. (etc, etc, etc.)
> 
> *If you happen to be Raymond you will see 100 of them.

<g> Masking the numbers would be a pretty obvious step (just didn't occur
to demonstrate it), but the rest is just style, really, and very
desirable. It's much nicer. ;)
 
> Oh, there are many fun things you can do with subtle treachery. I used to
> play (a few years back) a Rom that had a level difference limit on player
> killing. One way to nail a punk that we used to employ was get them to
> group with you, engage in combat with a big nasty, and recall. They would
> die before they realized that they were being framed. I used another
> similar tactic on those higher level than myself. I mapped the game, then
> got them to chase me, getting to a specified room, I would trigger on "XX
> has arived" to emote "FireBrand leaves south.", then activate hide. They
> would dart after me south, and come face to face with the biggest, baddest
> aggressive baddie in the game. I would recall and laugh my ass off when
> they reappeared, without EQ and minimal on hitpoints, having just died.
> Ah, those were the days.

Now thats just dang mean. ;)

Regards,
	-Matt Chatterley
	http://user.itl.net/~neddy/index.html
"Fishing is complete and utter madness."  -Spike Milligan