[MUD-Dev] Graphic MUDS/Ultima Online

[clawrenc at cup.hp.com]

In <Pine.LNX.3.96.970811230140.168Z-100000 at mpc.dyn.ml.org>, on
08/11/97 
   at 03:17 PM, Matt Chatterley <root at mpc.dyn.ml.org> said:

>On Mon, 11 Aug 1997 clawrenc at cup.hp.com wrote:

>>    at 07:13 PM, Matt Chatterley <root at mpc.dyn.ml.org> said:

>> I see a big value in saving the corpses and every other minor object. 
>> These are opportunities in the making, not problems.  Removing them
>> __decreases__ the playability and intricacy of the world.

>I see a value in having them around for more than 20 seconds while
>they rot (ie several hours of rotting game time, depending on what
>happens to them), but not in saving them over reboots and crashes.
>You are however undeniably right that their existance creates
>opportunities - but if you have a large amount of killing, and large
>amount of corpse objects that use lots of resources (this does hint
>at poor design for the situtation, mind!), you have problems too.

That would seem to suggest more that insufficient design has gone in
to supporting corpses, or in making corpses a potentially valuable
resource.

>The solution that is amicable? make your corpses very simple objects
>that use few resources, and have the complex stuff for making the
>best of the opportunities elsewhere - also bear in mind the sort of
>natural cycle that may develop..

Exactly.  The simplest case is to have a near NULL object for the
corpse, and all the features bound to it by a single point object
which is shared by all corpses (ie single object with many locations).

>> If the sheer quantity of corpses start to become a problem, then
>> players will figure out a solution.  You can encourage this by having
>> corpses lieing about the place have negative side-effects on players
>> (smell, disease, flies, scavengers, tricking footing, difficulty
>> breathing etc).  Sooner or later some player will come up with a
>> solution.  Quite possibly he'll start up a mini-business, "5 gold
>> pieces and I'll rid your house of corpses!".  This could then turn
>> into a side line where he minced ths corpses and sold them for
>> fertiliser, or dumped them in the canyon to attract dragons which he
>> then lead paid troops of adventurers to attempt, etc etc etc.  

>This is really fantastic - trash as a resource in its own right.

You missed my entire Trash Collector scenario then?

>Moreover, it requires very little work to achieve, since its largely
>a social thing. 

Why social?  That's just one possible model:

  Bubba wanders down the road.  
  Bubba sees a corpse.  
  Bubba drags the corpse off to his hut.  
  Bubba finds another corpse.  
  etc etc etc.  
  Bubba feeds his corspes to his carnivourous war horses.
  Bubba mounts his bloodthirsty steed and makes more corpses.

No society needed there.

>...A player could collect the old corpses from a battle
>field (a battle between the centaur and dwarves), and have the skin
>of the centaurs made into tan/leather, and the horse body parts
>chopped up for food. The dwarves could be shipped back to their
>people, or simply disposed of.

That too.

--
J C Lawrence                           Internet: claw at null.net
(Contractor)                           Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------------(*)               Internet: clawrenc at cup.hp.com
...Honorary Member Clan McFUD -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...