[MUD-Dev] C&C and Event Rescheduling

[clawrenc at cup.hp.com]

Jeff Kesselman <jeffk at tenetwork.com> said:
>At 07:52 PM 8/18/97 PST8PDT, JCL wrote:
>>Jeff Kesselman <jeffk at tenetwork.com> said:
>>>At 04:48 PM 8/14/97 PST8PDT, you wrote:
>>>>clawrenc at cup.hp.com wrote:

>>>>> I have severe allergic reactions to tick based systems.
>>>>> Characteristically I prefer the "as fast as the system will let you,"
>>>>> model. The idea that I'll deliberately program a system so that a
>>>>> human can wait on a computer seems treasonous.
>>
>>>Problem with thsi in the real world is it favors LPBs (low ping
>>>bastards) over those witha  lsower connection, and bots over humans.
>>
>>Yes, it favours the faster connections.  My general answer to this is
>>that the answer is to design the game system to not rely on user
>>speed.  As I tend to favour what many here call "chess-like" game

>Hmm interesting.  Without regualrizing speed making the system immune
>to speed as a factor wopuld seem to me to be quite a challenge. In
>any real time system I've seen reaction-time is fairly critical.

Don't forget that I actively encourage user programming.  This largely
removes much of the need, or advantage of remote clients.  Any user
can then set up his little bots to auto-twitch or do whatever
appropriately.  Where the low-lag players have an advantage is in
their ability to react to non-forseeable situations more quickly and
more approriately (less rush).  That's not a trivial advantage, but
its one I'm willing to settle for.  

In that context net lag could be thought of as a model for cognitive
blood sugar levels.  Conversely, local user programs would be learned
habits which operated without concious thought.

>>Minor supporting notes: I don't intend for a repetitive action to
>>*ever* sustainably be profitable.  While a little bit more difficlt I

>Not sure thsi helps.  Have yo useen the Quake aim-bot?  

Nope.

>It doesnt
>generate reptitive actions, what it does is lock and fire yourt
>weaponms for yo uwith astounding reaction time and accuracy...  you
>still "pilot" the player.

Sounds fair, however a low-lag player has no advantage in that case
over a high-lag player for me, as the high-lag player could have the
same bot running as a user-programmed add-on to his character. 
There's no lower lag than in-game.

>>The bot comment I count as an express failure in game design.  Any
>>game which can be profitably automated via a bot is a flawed game
>>design.  I am not interested in producing games where humans are
>>merely less effective bots.

>See the above. Doesnt have to be either/or. Tehre are plenty exampels
>of "cyborg" approaches that are quite successful ina variety of
>games.

True.  I'd forgotten about those in mentioning this again, mostly as I
don't really think of them as significant, just weaknesses in the
interface design.

--
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...