[MUD-Dev] Quests [was Resets, repops and quests]

[Jeff Kesselman]

At 08:03 PM 5/30/97 PST8PDT, Shawn Halpenny wrote:
>Perhaps we need to try looking at them a different way.  I think that if
>you're considering a scripting language interpreted by a quest engine
>(and I was definitely going to do this until 5 minutes ago), you're
>implicitly accepting a linear flow of events leading to the goal of the
>quest. 

Not at all. Yo ucan describe anything rpetty much witha LL(1) langauge.
Your problem is that yo uare thinking in terms of structured code.

Try thinking mreo in the object oruiented way most MUD systems work
instead... they  are a good example of a dynamic system.


> Is it possible to visualize each dynamic quest as a directed
>graph?  A sort of "quest net"?  At each node is a subgoal whose
>completion is required (in whole or in part) in order to complete the
>entire quest. 

What you are describing here is a "world ganme" in IFGS terms.  it is STILL
highly progamatic, all you've done is borken the linear order...

These are better, but you can do better still if you appraoch your design
the way a Dungeon master (a good one) approaches world and adventure
design-- a good DM does NOt try to predict the ending, he builds
situations, lets the players react ot them, and reacts to the players'
reactions.

JK