[MUD-Dev] Spellcaster, or Waving Hands

[clawrenc at cup.hp.com]

In <33F33748.78AD42AC at sparta.mainstream.net>, on 08/14/97 
   at 09:54 AM, Michael Hohensee <michael at sparta.mainstream.net> said:

>clawrenc at cup.hp.com wrote:

>> In <33E9E729.41049A12 at sparta.mainstream.net>, on 08/07/97
>>    at 08:42 AM, Michael Hohensee <michael at sparta.mainstream.net> said:

>> >clawrenc at cup.hp.com wrote:


>> >>
>> >>                       WAVING HANDS
>> >>                (also known as: SPELLCASTER)
>> >>                     Richard Bartle
>> 
...
>> Precisely.  I suspect taht I'll steal it whole coth and then invest a
>> terrible amount of time trying to extend it to the various neat things
>> I also do (will power fights etc), as well as some sort of generic
>> magic/spell extensions:
...
>One could have the client program display a list of known finishes
>for the opponent's spell too. 

This is precisely what I'd expect, along with a list of possible
extensions of the current user's state.

>Of course, if you're inexperienced,
>there might be a time lag between sight of gestures and
>understanding.  Perhaps one can make this time lag player defined, by
>having the client be able to "test" the player's abilities.  The
>client could send over a sequence of gestures, and the time it takes
>the player to realize what spell it is becomes the time it takes the
>client to tell the player what spell is being cast in the future.

I dislike this as random net lag variations could play havoc with even
brilliantly cast spells.  Additionally the original Waving Hands was
implicitly round based. which I feel also gave it much of its power as
a game system.  Moving to time rated system would seem to lose much of
that.

>Of course, one would need a graphical mouse interface, for this to be
>a fair test.

Yup.

>> >However, it seems to me, that to fight out one of these combats with
>> >any amount of speed or efficiency, a client program would be
>> >required.
>> 
>> Much as I hate cients for telnet MUD play, I've come to think taht
>> *not* having a client for any decently advanced game is a recipe for
>> disaster.

Note: 

  "Decenty advanced game" != Any MUD I know of currently in existance.
  "Decenty advanced game" == The sorts of games we discuss here.

>A better idea would be to introduce the effect of "timing" to
>spellcasting.  Sure, you can gesture through the spell real fast, but
>is that really enough time for the magical forces to accumulate and
>be shaped?  Of course not!  

This would seem to depend on your magic model.  If you have externally
generated forces which need time to fulfill, then yes.  If the forces
are entirely internal/resource based (ie my model), then no.

>Likewise, going too slowly allows some
>energy to escape...  The client can oversee how much time there is
>between keystrokes, and pass this information to the server.  (or
>just possibly tell the server how much energy the spell is supposed
>to have).

Hurm.  If the timing were bound to the client this would work.  If it
were bound to the server it would seem woefully susceptible to net lag
variations.

--
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...