[MUD-Dev] Status visualization Was: UI Issues: Anti-scripting techniques

[Vadim Tkachenko]

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Travis Casey wrote:
> 
> Brian Price <blprice at bedford.net> wrote:
> 
> >I'm against numeric displays of anytype except where they represent
> >something that could be realistically measured on some scale within
> >the game.  In most cases I believe they lead directly to power gaming
> >attempts and indirectly to scripting/spamming.  If you simply must
> >use a gradual improvement % based skill system, I believe that using
> >incompetent for 01-10, barely competent for 11-20, etc. would give
> >the necessary feedback to the player while doing much to hide any
> >gains from spamming or scripting, reducing the incentive as it were.
> 
> I like using numbers -- they're easy to display and understand, where
> many "descriptive" systems use adjectives where it can be hard to tell
> which is better.  Also, since Arabic numerals are used in many languages,
> they make it easier for players who aren't native English speakers.
> 
> However, there's no reason my the numbers displayed have to be the actual
> numbers that the mud uses internally.  The players might be shown their
> skills on a 0 to 10 scale, for example, even though the mud internally uses
> a 0 to 100 scale.

This part triggered me to offer the idea I've been thinking over for a
while.

In my model, properties are unlimited in number, ordered in a tree-like
fashion, every leaf, as well as a node, can have a value, nodes have two
- literal and weighted. Thus, it's difficult to estimate a complete
picture even roughly without spending significant time walking that tree
(right now I'm talking about the graphical client) - it's impossible to
have just a small panel with up to 5-10 stats and values, the number of
properties, once again, is unlimited.

So, the next idea was to create some sort of a visualization for that
tree which will reflect, at least approximately, a current status.

As I see it now, it may be some sort of a fractal figure, let's say
snowflake, with a fixed number of directions on each level (while the
number of properties the character has may be big, it's constant - new
properties don't get added to the system every 15 minutes) - so,
there'll be a one-to-one correspondence between a direction (angle) and
the property it describes.
Then, as far as this is a fractal structure and I can't arbitrarily
change a length of any rib (? correct me, I don't know the proper name
for that) in a snowflake, the only method to visualize the value for any
given property is color. Then, given the concept of modifiers (see
reference below), I say that the unmodified property value is displayed
in shades of gray, any bonus modifiers shift it to, say, green and any
penalty/damage modifiers shift it to red (you may have more than one
modifier at a time).

Thus, the result is a visualization using which you would be able to
tell your (other object's) exact property breakdown, at least
approximate, almost instantly (like the artificial horizon in the modern
aircrafts, which can give you the estimate on dozen different parameters
at one glance).

Any comments?

> --
>       |\      _,,,---,,_        Travis S. Casey  <efindel at io.com>
>  ZZzz  /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_   No one agrees with me.  Not even me.
>      |,4-  ) )-,_..;\ (  `'-'        rec.games.design FAQ:
>     '---''(_/--'  `-'\_)      http://www.io.com/~efindel/design.html

PS: The concept of modifier is described at
http://206.139.13.23/~vt/gradient, look for 'Wounds'

--
Still alive and smile stays on,
Vadim Tkachenko <VadimT at 4CS.Com>
--
UNIX _is_ user friendly, he's just very picky about who his friends are
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