BUILDERS: Ferries

[coder at ibm.net]

Found on another MUD list, and thought worthy of comment.  What *really*
should be the effective subjective measure of space of a MUD?  How is the
subjective sense of distance to be engendered, controlled, and rendered
playable?

Date: Tue, 2 Dec 1997 18:45:04 -0500 (EST)
From: Erika Stokes <erika at Zeus.GateKey.Com>
To: builders at hestia.gatekey.com
Subject: BUILDERS: Ferries

PhoenixMUD does not have a ferry system right now because it sort of
defeats the purpose of having to travel from one continent to another.
Personally I think the idea that people can fly across the oceans is a bit
ridiculous but I can't code a pay ferry system (or code anything for that
matter!) so it is staying the way it is for now.  

We are in the process of re-coding the entire mud so that it is 
completely different and the ocean issue will be brought up at that time. 
I hope to prevent "flying" across oceans at all and require that
characters purchase fare on a boat to get across for themselves, their
animals, and any vehicles they wish to take along with them. With the
hometown code and portal spell code I don't think this will be too odious
a task.  When we open for alpha with the new code we'll have around 10,000
rooms of fair to above average quality (i.e. real rooms, not fillers) so
transversing continents will hopefully become less of a daily issue than
it is now with many of the high level zones across oceans and the one
hometown surrounded by newbie areas.

My first mortal mud, Silicon Realms, had twelve "ferry" rooms to  various
parts of the mud (there were only 2-2.5k rooms in the world) but no way to
access them via land.  That was an easy out for the imps and made player's
lives easier but at the same time made the world seem less real.  When I
think of my own world, which I don't even know as well as I knew the SR
world, I can envision it as a  connected planet (the map on my wall
doesn't hurt).  I found out after months of playing SR that I had the
world completely turned upside down and inside out and didn't know it well
at all--although I know the sequence of directions to get in and out of
the various areas I really had no concept of the world as a whole.  That
was a disappointing discovery.

There are other problems with ships as well.  Our oceans are actual
areas--if you explore them completely you can find various islands and
exits to different parts of the adjoining continents.  A ship  would
either have to make stops along the way (via extended teleport delays) or
there would have to be several ships.  With extended room exit options
(swing rope, enter fireplace, etc.) that might be an option anyway.  You
could choose your destination by typing "board Aglaron" or "board
Caledon".  The options are a bit staggering right now--I just worked an
extra long day, I think I should just stop babbling now. ;)

Of course... there are so few of us that actually talk maybe it doesn't
matter how much I ramble.

Any comments on ships and other "teleport" type rooms that cover vast
distances quickly?

--Erika

--
J C Lawrence                               Internet: claw at null.net
----------(*)                              Internet: coder at ibm.net
...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...