[MUD-Dev] Spoken Languages & Food [was RP thesis...]

[Nathan Yospe]

On Sat, 31 May 1997, Jon A. Lambert wrote:

:> From: clawrenc at cup.hp.com
:> In <Pine.GSO.3.95.970530083525.1126B-100000 at xi>, on 05/30/97 
:>    at 08:14 AM, Travis S Casey <casey at nu.cs.fsu.edu> said:
:> >Don't get me wrong -- I agree that characters should be penalized for
:> >damage more than they are.  I just don't agree that most  people
:> >would be rolling around screaming on the floor at 10% damage.  :-)

:> Quite, tho one may debate the definition of 10%.  Is that 10% of body
:> mass lost?  etc.

:There are certain areas of the body where a 1% damage (or 1 hit point)
:would effectively disable an opponent. *cough*  And there are cases 
:where a death-dealing blow is not disabling/crippling to an opponent 
:for many minutes or even hours.  I prefer not to handle this through 
:an allocation of "hit points" or % effectiveness to areas or divisions 
:of the anatomy (limb-based or whatever terminology you prefer).  

Um... guess this depends on what 1% means. I figure if you, say, have the
spinal column as a seperate part (which I do, as a matter of fact, sort
of) then damage to that part (or that type of damage to the upper torso)
results in the character's limbs flopping around like a stringless puppet.
Which is exactly what happens, in fact.

:I handle this through a system of critical hits with the resulting effects 
:modeled through effects/wounds inflicted on areas of the body.  
:Very much like spell effects which wear off naturally, removed through
:very specific healing, or which may deteriorate through lack of same.

I don't have spell effects, and I don't "apply" damage in that sense...
the damage is removed, rather than added... and I don't have any actual
critical hits. What I do have is a collection of objects composed of bone
core, muscle, and flesh, and a couple of objects composed of, in one case,
vital tissue core encased in bone. (brain damage is generally fatal, and
it has the nice little effect of shutting down the chracter to player info
feed even if it isn't... hence unconciousness leaves you - surprise! -
unaware of your surroundings. That's about when you call in another
character.) Of course, this is specific to humans, though the race
specific code is limited. (Make that nonexistant. Race specificness is all
handled by file loading.) The material composition system (same one that
handles damage to everything else) handles damage - at least the physical
part of it - to characters quite well. Ah, but then there is the nasty
part. Shock. The damage to the mind is what usually kills. When the brain
gives up, or the pain is just too great. (Of course, if the heart stops
pumping, you die... but death due to non specific injury... a few dozen
bullets to the abdomon, all your skin burnt to a crisp, etc. is... well,
you die of shock or pain.)

:I use a total body summary of concussion and blood points (look ma, no
:hit points here *gurgle*)  However critical hits specify explicit area,
:bleeding rate, disabling % until treated (a negative modifier to all
:movement actions), time til death (if appropriate), % chance of scarring,
:explicit damage type (nerve, bone, cartilage, fracture, etc.), nice 
:descriptive messages for observers, and disturbing ones for the affected.

:It seems to handle both situations nicely.  That is damage that is not
:necessarily life-threatening but very disabling and that which is
:severely life-threatening.
:As far as interesting and unique messages go, it generates 1800 of them.
:Memory requirements of course reflect this, as combat associated tables
:take about 150K of memory, without string sharing in yet.

I have no idea how many messages mine generates. Things like the smell of
blood or burned flesh or hair are automatic, as are the pain messages,
which have a few dozen varient templates, ie "A sharp flare of pain
explodes in your side!" Is generated from "<a/an> <paintype> <painverb>
<location>!", alternates (situationally weighted) include "<location>
<painverb> with <a/an> <paintype>" and several using other prototype
components. These components are semi hardcoded... new ones can be added,
but old ones cannot be removed. The <a/an> construct is hardcoded, name
subject to change, but it also handles "the" and "several", "one", "many"
and so forth if it is coupled with a plurality. I skipped on that syntax
for simplicity. The external messages are taken from standard object
damage. Damage to the recipient is passed as a mix of the pain and the
actual physical damage, as well as reflexive reaction messages ("You jerk
back violently as a massive shock wrenches your limbs apart! You land
heavilly on your hands and knees, and feel something wet at the front of
your pants. A sharp tang assults your nostrils.") I do love how much more
effective a text stream is rendered by conjugation of simultanious
sentances. Which reminds me. Gotta add a better cause/effect parser to
that.

   __    _   __  _   _   ,  ,  , ,  
  /_  / / ) /_  /_) / ) /| /| / /\            First Light of a Nova Dawn
 /   / / \ /_  /_) / \ /-|/ |/ /_/            Final Night of a World Gone
Nathan F. Yospe - University of Hawaii Dept of Physics - yospe at hawaii.edu