Unique Items (was Re: [MUD-Dev] MUD Wimping)

[Neddy Seagoon]

On Fri, 4 Aug 2000, Lord Ashon wrote:
> We have a couple collectors items that sometimes appear when we
> generate our items, the faovrites eem to be the glass pants, and the sharp
> leather sword.  *sigh*  These amazingly enough, are highly prized.  Old
> timers will constantly pay very high prices to get their hands on enough
> glass pants to wear for every day of the week. It becomes a status symbol.
> And since they don't have any _real_ value I leave these oddities in. 

rofl! Oddly enough, this takes us back to Tenarius's main point - the
players want to have fun when they play. I'm always amazed that
implementors feel the need to add in code for extra realism, such as
armour sizes, at the expense of the game. And just about thw whole time,
it's the changes done for the sake of 'immersion' or 'role-play' (ugh!
Terrible bastardised word) that result in a loss of fun.

I've noticed that the perceived 'less role-play' classes and races tend to
get screwed - at least on the diku derivatives. You get to pay extra for
being a giant ogre, but it'll make the game less fun for you in that you
are forced to play a stereotyped stupid tank.

I think what Tenarius is trying to tell us as Admins, is that we should
ask ourselves if the game will be more fun if we add that extra piece of
code. I've seen people add starvation code that leads to death. In other
words, link death can kill your beloved character.
Stop and think before you change the code. Will that constipation effect
really enhance the mud? (of course we know, from a roleplay perspective,
all dwarves are constipated. :) You would be too if you wore that much
armour)
Don't be mistaken, players love a challenge simply for the boasting
rights; so don't make the game too easy - that's not fun either.

Another trap that a few people have mentioned is the upward spiral. I've
played on a mud where every next class that gets implemented is more
cheesy than the previous one. This is another problem which has to be
avoided - nobody wants to see berserkers losing to bards in a toe to toe
fight.

Anyway, and this brings us back to the point of the first email, random
item generation *is* fun. If you can do it well, it makes endless
levelling a lot more fun because you always want to know what you can get.
You need only look at the success of the Diablo games to realise that.

Oh man, I want a pair of glass pants!

Joe Graham
Pls excuse all typos - I'm using Windows Telnet (shudder)
----          We don't always get what we deserve.
"They say he done them in. They say he done it wif an axe."
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