[MUD-Dev] Graphic MUDS/Ultima Online

[clawrenc at cup.hp.com]

In <c=US%a=_%p=EA%l=MOLACH-970813150342Z-35143 at molach.origin.ea.com>,
on 08/13/97 at 07:00 PM, "Koster, Raph" <rkoster at origin.ea.com> said:

>On Tuesday, August 12, 1997 2:02 PM, clawrenc at cup.hp.com wrote: 

> In <c=US%a=_%p=EA%l=MOLACH-970805184845Z-15089 at molach.origin.ea.com
> on 08/05/97 at 07:17 PM, "Koster, Raph" <rkoster at origin.ea.com> said:

>> >This is what we do in UO. We track raw materials and even abstract 
>> >qualities (spookiness, for example, there's only a fixed amount of 
>> >spooky stuff in the world). and have a fixed total in the world
>> >(well,  fixed except that it increases as playerbase increases). 
>> >We call these  "resources" and we also base our AI on them.
...
>>   Bubba summons a massively spooky demon.
>>   All the spooky items immediately/gradually dissappear from about 
>>     the other players?

>No, he simply fails to summon the demon. :) However, keep in mind
>that  the zero-sum total is not kept on a global level, but rather
>locally  in large regions. So whereas in a cemetery you may not be
>able to  muster enough spookiness to summon the demon because it is
>all in  place in the world already, in downtown, there's a lot of
>pent-up  spookiness waiting to be expressed.

This raises the question of the definition of "spookiness".  Is is an
atmosphereic quota (only a certain number of bats flying about, bumps
in the night, ghoulish cries etc), or does it control the level of
objects *which have spook quotients) available to play?

>Actually, though, this is a bad example, because summoning a demon 
>comes from a different "bank" than the items (which have greater game
> permanence) do... 

Thus da question.

>...a better example is, if the cemetery has some
>unused  spookiness, that's a great reason for it to either attract
>creatures  that like spookiness and seek to "consume" it (ravens,
>bats), or to  spawn some creatures (assuming that they have food and
>shelter available in the locale as well (such as maybe some undead).

Ahh, so it does encompass play objects, but its merely a factor in the
appearance and behaviour of said play objects.

I'm curious: Do you cemetaries re-salt with the corpses of the players
who died there?  This would seem a prime key for initialsing your food
cycle.

>[snip issue of keeping the zero-sum game elastic]

>We do something like this too. We call it "overdrawing the bank." :)

Hehn.  I think of it as rubber-banding, or, as a friend put it: 
Anything can be carried on a motorcycle given enough shock cords.  

Part of the base concept of my energy/particle world (described
earlier) is that the general energy level of any particle type at any
location is usually about the same (and often not far from zero). 
However a player can create temporary massive localised concentrations
(usually thru particle creation).  Thus during a fight he might create
some millions of mana particles to fuel his magic objects and spells. 
This is echoed in my stat system which allows a player to temporarily
(and expensively) throw one of his stats incredibly high (usually at
the cost of throwing many of his other stats sub-basement for the
duration).  This is somehwat equivalent to putting all ones
metaphorical eggs in one basic in hope of commanding the final
decisive blow, while hoping the other chap doesn't notice.

--
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...