{MUD} Re: Misc MUD issues

[Alex Oren]

On Mon, 26 Aug 1996 09:41:17 -0700, JCL wrote:

} On Aug 25,  8:21am, Alex Oren wrote:
} 
} > [JCL:]
} > } I'm assuming above that B fights without any skill, but that his actions
} > } are slightly topical to the combat at hand (eg at least tries to dodge
} > } the hammer coming at his head instead of taking off his helm and walking
} > } onto his sword in the mean time).
} >
} > This approach will probably give more weight to typing speed than to strategy
} > and tactics.
} 
} <<Please note that the above example for B was meant to suggest a player who
} does far more to kill himself than actually damage his opponent>>

Then, let me suggest that the bozo player will fare worse than the automated
one, but OTOH, he will get experience (skill points, whatever) for trying, thus
improving his *game* fighting skills (I assume that *player* fighting skills
will naturally improve with time). Whereas the automated player will not
improve, he's not trying anything new after all :-)


} Again, I feel this depends on pacing far more than anything else.  Ignoring the
} complexity and typing ease of the required commands, if combat rounds run at,
} say, 1 per second, then yes, the short lag, fast typist etc will have a massive
} advantage.  If combat runs at 15 seconds per round (possibly taking the other
} extreme), then there's quite a bit of time to develop a thoughful approach to
} your attack/defense.

Since a MUD is a multiplayer, multievent environment, the pace of combat should
be the same as the pace of other command processing. (How will you distinguish
between "combat" commands and others, anyway? What about people wandering into
combats?)

While 5 seconds to a turn will not allow for a very detailed combat action
without disadvantaging the slow readers/typists, having to wait 20 seconds to
complete 4 "north" commands in succession may cause the players to consider
other gaming options (solitaire?)


Have fun,
Alex.