Ho hum

[Nathan Yospe]

On Sat, 12 Apr 1997, Ling wrote:
:Um, oh, I forgot to point out in my introduction:  I'm 20 (for the next
:month anyway), programmed trivial things for 10+ years but otherwise I've
:never had an ounce of training, studying Elect Eng, computer related
:interests include artificial life (before the release of Creatures) and
:game design (esp strategy games).  Tekkie by day and clubber or mud addict
:by night.

Hmmm. Did any of us provide personal life stuff? *shrug* I'm an extreme
sports buff by day, and do just about everything under the sun by night.
Well, creative entertainment-wise. I guess mud development is just an
extension of that. I'm also formally untrained, 22, and into biomedical
science (particularly molecular genetics) and condensed matter physics
(particularly crystaline nanotech)

:Nathan:  How on earth does your intepreter conducts the risk assessment?
:Eg:
:> shoot rifle at tank
:You sure?
:> yes
:You die but luckily it wasn't painful coz that one had the latest
:vapouriser thingibob (manufactured by Grestel).
:etc

You mean, how does it decide to ask "you sure"? That's pretty simple.
There is a probability weight on prefered interpretation of a command,
with comparative risk being a crude product of action effectiveness and
consequences. This is part of the command interpreter, and is tied
directly to verb evaluation and the natural language parser. I just tag
that to call a confirmation (default is a simple "You want to do _what_?")
if there is no confirmation override present. (Ending a sentance with
"anyway", starting it with '&', or typing '&' subsequent to a warning
sends the override, a simple boolean value.)

:Nathan again:  Back to room coding, have you considered lighting effects 
:in your 3D environment?  If I shone a torch at a wall, it would illuminate
:just the wall in the room.  If the wall was the side of a spacecraft, it
:would illuminate just the local area.  If I poked the torch at a window,
:the insiders see a torch shining through and I could see inside.  If I
:shone a floodlight, the insiders get blinded... (which is why YOU should
:buy flare protection for your cybereyes!)

I've been playing with it, and have some directional light and blinding,
but I don't have, for example, shadows well designed yet. Its tapped into
my point to point visability code, and I also don't have diffused
lighting code for, say, light in the next room that inhibits visual
contact (meaning you can't see the light source, you don't get the light,
more or less.)

:Can someone retrieve the old threads on skills?  I'll be quite interested
:in reading through some of the old stuff.  Just thought I'd bring the
:topic of game design back into the mailing list and pollute the optic
:fibres with my presence whilst I'm at it.

Ah, now this is a fun debate. Personally, I like a system with feedback
between a list of attributes and a list of skills, all of which are
universal, but with default null values for both unless otherwise
specified. In other words, you always can try to fly, but without wings,
not only will you lack the strength in your wing muscles, and the skill to
control them, but also the finess that is _flying_..... but, if you were
to graft a pair of wings, you would be welcome to try.


   __    _   __  _   _   ,  ,  , ,  
  /_  / / ) /_  /_) / ) /| /| / /\            First Light of a Nova Dawn
 /   / / \ /_  /_) / \ /-|/ |/ /_/            Final Night of a World Gone
Nathan F. Yospe - University of Hawaii Dept of Physics - yospe at hawaii.edu