[MUD-Dev] Virtual Chemistry

[Matt Chatterley]

On Sun, 13 Jul 1997, Chris Gray wrote:

> I also find this interesting. I've done a bit of "fixed recipe" stuff,
> but haven't actually tried a more general system. The problem I see with
> a more general system (where you don't have fixed recipes, but that the
> effects come out of general rules applied to the mixing of components),
> is that it might be difficult to come up with a set of rules that is
> interesting, but that can also allow some useful (and useable!) spells.
> You don't want the useful spells to be all simple spells, but you also
> don't want all of the spells to be useful. So, how do you make the rules
> or formulas work out right?

Right. It would be fairly hard to create the rules (some sort of matrix of
effects would seem in order) and possibly quite complex. I'm currently
unsure as to how you would handle this, and pondering upon it.
 
> An approach, that I vaguely recall seeing on this list (?) is to choose
> a bunch of "elemental" influences. Each ingredient can supply a few of
> the elements in varying strengths. Some influences cancel or mutate the
> effects of others, so the varying strengths can sometimes result in
> addition, sometimes in cancellation. Each useful spell would require a
> few influences of sufficient strength, and perhaps in some required
> range of proportions. If the mixture doesn't provide that, the result
> just won't happen as desired. Perhaps you don't have enough of the
> influence for "distance", and so your fireball explodes in your face, or
> perhaps just won't reach the target. If you don't have enough of the
> influence for heat, your fireball is just a warm glow (I *know* I've
> seen this on the list!). If you have too much of the "water" influence,
> your fireball scalds rather than just burns.
> 
> You need a fairly detailed world view in order for the various effects to
> be meaningful in that world, of course.

Yeah. Varying degrees of detail depending on how much you actually have
possible. If you have say 15 different ingredients, allowing 2-15 to be
mixed at a time in any proportion to produce different effects, just
storing a list of those effects is impractical - we're talking about a
HUGE number of permutations already.

Regards,
	-Matt Chatterley
	http://user.itl.net/~neddy/index.html
"Never enter an arsekicking contest with a porcupine."-Cohen The Barbarian