[MUD-Dev] A flamewar startingpoint.

[Miroslav Silovic]

Derrick Jones <gunther at online1.magnus1.com> writes:

> On Thu, 13 Nov 1997, Miroslav Silovic wrote:
> 
> > 
> > Adam Wiggins <nightfall at user2.inficad.com> writes:
> > 
> > > I like slower timescales.  They take care of this problem pretty
> > > nicely; 24 mud hours for us is about 2.5 RL hours.  Since I can go
> > > pretty easily for 24 hours after eating a big meal, I figure people
> > > that don't want to worry much about food can fill up and not have to
> > > worry about it for several hours of play.  Of course, this still doesn't
> > > solve the basic problem, which is that diku/lp-style food is pretty
> > > boring no matter how little you have to do it, and as I always
> > > say I don't see much point to putting something in the game that doesn't
> > > add anything in particular.
> > 
> > Or you can have both. For example, make it happen, but
> > off-camera. I.e.  allow players to set up camps. With a single
> > command, player would unpack, eat, rest, pack, and they'd be able to
> > continue. Perhaps they might also be bothered while camping (that
> > could be checked) - but if no encounter occurs, there should be
> > no message and no delays.
> 
> You then have problems keeping characters in the same time-frame.  Say,
> for example Party_A camps for the night with no problems, and Party_B must
> actively control the nights events.  Party_A sets out once again the next
> morning and passes the sight of Party_B's camp long before Party_B is
> finished with the prior nights activities.  You then have Party_A
> observing a scene that hasn't been defined.  With a 2.5 hour day, an
> 8-hour night would take 50 minutes, during which time the characters are
> unconscious and therefore the players would be forced to sit and wait
> until they regained control of their characters.
> 
> There might be a way to resolve this problem by create non-linear
> time-scales(such as allowing the night to pass more quickly if there is
> nothing within range to affect the area where camp is made), but
> implimenting such a thing would prove quite difficult.
> 

No, the best way, IMHO, to resolve this problem is to ignore it.  If
the part happens to meet the other, they came to rescue - players will
usually rationalize this and may not even notice that something is
wrong.

I'm saying that subliminal inconsistances as well worth the increase
in immersion that game provides.

--
I refuse to use .sig