Issues from the digests and Wout's list

[Ling]

On Wed, 16 Apr 1997, Shawn Halpenny wrote:

> On Apr 10,  6:57pm, clawrenc at cup.hp.com wrote:

> JCL> The only outstanding one I can remember here is suggesting command
> JCL> compleation ala:
> JCL>
> JCL>   > get bag
> JCL>   Do you want the:
> JCL>     1 -- Mouldy sack
> JCL>     2 -- Paper bag
> JCL>     3 -- Leather satchel
> JCL>     0 -- Cancel command
> JCL>   >> 3
> JCL>   You take the leather satchel,
> JCL>
> JCL> I currently do this, with caveats for nested compleations, multiple
> JCL> character support (multi-playing) and priority interrupts.
> 
> I remember a posting to one of the ng's a while back in this vein, and I
> wondered then, as now, what happens if the poor sod who just typed "get
> bag" and was suddenly attacked by UggUgg.  Will the parser still be waiting
> for a response of 0-3?  Or if a response of anything _not_ 0-3 fails the
> get command without notification, executes the just-typed command
> "c superkill UggUgg", and then returns to the base state of waiting for any
> command?  I'm leaning toward the latter, since IMO forcing a reply of 0-3
> makes the interface work against the user in cases like above.

The later for me too.  It's natural after all.  I've been thoroughly
annoyed by the MudOS parsing which just prompts me:  Which one?  then
forcing me to retype the entire sentence again. 

> JCL> >3) Skills and skill trees.
> JCL>
> JCL> Nathan: I like your recent comment on flat trees without
> JCL> pre-requisites (eg anyone can *try* to fly, it just won't work if you
> JCL> don't have wings/rocket assist etc)  Care to expand?
> 
> Related to this vein, I'm moving towards a model where there are no skill
> sets, really, just commands bound to particular objects which can be added
> or removed from a character's immediate environment (inventory, equipment,
> body).	For example:  the only people who can attempt to fly are people
> who have wings or a rocket pack.  The reason they can attempt it is
> because the "fly" command is built into the wings/rocket pack, which, when
> added to the immediate environment, bestow the "skill" on the character by
> giving them the fly command in this case.  No one has to go "buy" their
> flying skill, they just acquire the means to make it possible.	Then as
> they attempt to use the command, the code for the command is responsible
> for handling all the variables used to fly.  I don't know if that was very
> clear.	How I'll determine how good the person is at flying, I haven't
> explored to much detail (yet)--suffice it to say though that it could get
> interesting since my "skill" system is a loose, mutated thing that I'm not
> entirely convinced will do what I want.

Erm, that's icky.  That's the way the original LPs (and many current ones)
do it.  A verb is, by default, associated with an object.  Drink would be
associated with a glass.  The glass checks it's own state and etc.  It's
been dropped in favour of a universal parser, the underlining concept
being that a player typing 'drink' will get:  Drink from what?  as the
error message and know that the verb can be used in the entire game.

I think it would be better to define that the jetpack has the ability to
fly and has n units of fuel with an efficiency of so and so percent, etc.


In the spirit of random thoughts attached to the end of the message, given
that I have a 3D environment, should I treat time as real time?  That is,
my characters can move at 10 metres a second (they're all good sprinters)
and I have a field 500 metres across.  Do I have the players run at real
time?  A mere 50 seconds to leg it across, in fact, what speed should I
run my mud at?  I've been toying with the idea of multipling the gametime
by a single digit number like 6.  That would reduce the 50 second sprint
down to 8 seconds.  Alternatively, I could have my characters move
'instantly', if the player hasn't moved recently, then she travels the
first 30 metres without any time delay...  It all gets terribly messie.

Then there's the interplanetary bit.  Heheh.  Intersystem travel takes
days, haha, do I force the players to come back another day? :)

Btw, just thought of something:  If a character executes time consuming
action like trying to debug a program, the player could type: 'then buy a
can of coke'  which would be queued and executed later.  Imagine this for
the above system, someone would have to be insane to type:  'run to the
house and slam the door' when under pressure, typing 'run to the house'
would set the action off and get the character legging it for cover and
'then slam the door' would make the character flick round, slam the door
immediately after.  A sort of primitive combat script.

(still a busy person)
  |				"With my naked eyes I saw the falling"
_O_O_  Ling - Freshwater fish	 rain coming down on."