[MUD-Dev] Vast areas in muds

[Nathan Yospe]

On Mon, 19 Jan 1998, John G. wrote:

:: From: Mike Sellers <mike at online-alchemy.com>

:: How do you handle time re-synchronization then?  You enter a
:: vast, boring desert (NevadaMUD! :) ), traverse it slowly in the 
:: shape of a tiny stag beetle, and emerge weeks (and a few
:: paragraphs of text) later -- only to find that just a few minutes
:: have gone by for everyone else.  

:For now, that kind of objective time passage is what I sacrifice
:  to the gods of play quality.  If two players travel to the same
:  place, one travelling through the boring desert and one through
:  the eventful city, the desert wanderer will get there first.  I can't
:  think of any problems this stand has caused so far, with the
:  possible exception of someone showing up rather quickly to a
:  summons.  But that is a plus in a mud, not to dwell on the
:  tedium of waiting.

How in the heck are you going to get the feel of a month in the desert 
from a paragraph of text? (Mind you, my solution has the client fade 
out and start "remembering" character history - a "generated" childhood
or equivalent - when faced with an overwhelming lack of input from both
world (character) and player... so I cannot claim that I always relay
all details.) I think the main issue here is boredom, correct? Methinks
some fun could be had with a stag beetle in a (normal) desert. Snakes,
occasional desert birds, scorpions... of course, this also requires a
system for generating flora and fauna... I have ecosystem breakdowns on
a by-world basis (I don't do by-continent, but I could "fuse" worlds to
get the same result.)

:If you orchestrate events through a central game clock, then
:  maybe you've got something to fear.

Yes.
--

"You? We can't take you," said the Dean, glaring at the Librarian.
"You don't know a thing about guerilla warfare." - Reaper Man,
Nathan F. Yospe  Registered Looney                   by Terry Pratchett
yospe at hawaii.edu   http://www2.hawaii.edu/~yospe           Meow