[MUD-Dev] A flamewar startingpoint.

[Matt Chatterley]

On Wed, 17 Dec 1997, Marian Griffith wrote:
> On Tue 09 Dec, coder at ibm.net wrote:
> > On 10/11/97 at 08:44 PM, cg at ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA (Chris Gray)
> > said:
> 
> > >Having a tedious requirement to 'eat food' is not hard to implement - it
> > >would probably take an afternoon to add. I'm all for having atmosphere in
> > >a game, but there are lots of players (often including me), that don't
> > >care to spend a lot of time doing things that don't move my character
> > >forward.
> 
> Of course this depends on the game, and what constitutes 'moving your cha-
> racter forwards'.  I agree that on the typical mud or mush food is handled
> in such a way that tedious is the only way to describe it. There is no re-
> lation with the actual goal of the game  and there is no real game part in
> it either.  Food is plentyfull once you are past level 3  and insisting on
> characters to regularly buy and eat bread is pointless. It is easy to ima-
> gine a game  where neither is the case though  and it being done in such a
> way that it is neither tedious nor pointless.  The gathering and preparing
> of food may be a valid sub game,  if you drop the linear advancement along
> levels...

*Absolutely*. If we define 'moving your character forwards' as advancing
or progressing in some social, economic, political, physical or mental
capacity, I would say: If you are in the typical environment (eg: Diku is
a good example of this) where the game simply goes 'You are hungry'
spasmodically until you eat (I tried not eating on one game and it *never*
harmed me, even after 12 hours of 'You are hungry' messages, which is a
hell of a long time in-game), and requires you to wolf several loaves of
bread to appease is, is useless. It is also useless when food is just
something to make things harder for one particular set of players, I was
tempted to say, but then I looked at my own motives, and I realised this
was what I wanted, albeit in a slightly subtler form!

I will have groups of players who are adventurers (picture a D&D party, or
somesuch; this is the sort of thing I'm working to get players into), and
by definition adventure. This is as opposed to the soldier, or politician,
or entrepreneur style of gaming (all of which should be possible, except
perhaps politics, but then, certain politics are possible).

These groups particularly will by their nature spend a lot of time in
hostile territory (for instance, exploring old deserted temples and
dodging giant rolling boulders), and it is desirable that there are
restrictions on how long they can stay in an area (otherwise they will be
under no pressure, and will take fewer risks). Enter food requirements.
Hunting takes time as does foraging (but are ways to survive), and
carrying capacity is limited (beasts of burden help), also getting
*nutritious* food which doesn't go off..

The food is not a restriction within itself (the typical player should be
wealthy enough to eat fine in town, or skilled enough to hunt/forage for a
decent meal), unless the circumstances make it so (seiges, and so on).

[Snip]

> > You may have got something there.  Consider:
> 
> >   Eating food is not generally interesting.  Have a deafult configuration
> > which debits your monies appropriately when needed, and otherwise ensures
> > that your body is reasonably well fed without any interaction with or
> > reports to the player.  Extremes will be brought to the player's attention
> > (eg starvation, poisoning etc) for direct handling.
> 
> While in a city and in possession of sufficient funds  there should be no
> real need to bother the player with food. For trips outside town food can
> well be considered a critical matter.  A player should either pack enough
> of it  before venturing into uninhabited lands,  or learn to live off the
> land first.

I was pondering this. I think I will have it so that players can 'check
into' an inn in town, which will move them to a safe room if they go
offline for a significant amount of time (as long as they are in a safe
area to start with), and automagically feed them when they log on there.

[Snip]

Regards,
	-Matt Chatterley
	ICQ: 5580107
"I shall never believe that God plays dice with the world." -Einstein