[MUD-Dev] Reasonable danger [was Alright... IF your gonan do DESIESE...]

[Marian Griffith]

On Sun 01 Jun, Matt Chatterley wrote:
> On Wed, 28 May 1997, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:
> > Adam Wiggins wrote:

> > > It's fine to have dangerous stuff around (dragons
> > > ravaging the land, even) as long as there are ways 'out' for a
> > > semi-ingenious player (hiding where the dragon can't see you, running
> > > away, whatever).

> > And try never, ever, ever to put a level 35-50 area full of aggros
> > directly adjoining a level 5-10 area, with nothing more than a sign
> > saying 'here is danger' to indicate the change. 

> Yeah.. it's not only a little artificial (depending how the sign is
> worded), but also not very friendly.

> Tessalating your areas so that they join onto reasonably close ranged
> areas is just common sense - but you need to make it fit in with the rest
> of the land too. For instance, if you have a tundra area, with small
> animals on it (newbie levels), you can't really affix a level with frost
> giants in it, if they're high level monsters, but nor should they be low
> level monsters. Heh. :P

The solution I liked best, though I haven't seen it implemented ever, was
the following.  Instead of separating areas by level, each are holds mon-
sters of all levels.  Including monsters that are pretty much  impossible
to kill regardless the level and number of players involved. Most of them
wander and are aggressive to players.
To balance this low level players,  and players with poor armour classes,
have much better  hiding and sneaking skills.  So once a low level is out
of the baby classes,  they have access to a fair collection of skills and
spells to hide away from pretty much anything in the game.  That way they
can explore the game world  with reasonable confidence.  Even if they are
spotted they can make a run for it  and hide somewhere.  The same is true
for players with poor (really poor) armour. E.g. thiefs.
The advantage of this is that even high level groups  need some low level
players to act as scout, because there's allways the chance of running in
on one of the truly nasty monsters when you're looking for that juicy fat
monster full of gold or equipment you're after. For the low level players
the advantage is that they 1- get to know the high level players,  and 2-
get to know the gameworld.  They may even get some  semi-decent equipment
for their help in scouting.  Or help when  they have to get out of hiding
to fight the low level monsters in the area and risk something walking in
on them that's tougher than they can handle.
It also has the nice side effect that thiefs and mages have little use of
that armour.  It will only make them conspicuous to the monsters and they
don't have the hitpoints to withstand a frontal with a dragon or somesuch.

marian
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey