[MUD-Dev] Supporting RP+PG

[Huibai]

: From: clawrenc at cup.hp.com
: >- hiding all statistics. (HP,skills,levels,etc.)
: >  health is a graphic % bar.  they've got no idea

: Essentially you now have a percentage value. The problem which
: it chares with all the other general systems is in evaluating what
: 20% damage (or whatever) really means in game functionality.  

well, being graphical, it of course doesn't _say_ 20%.
more like: |########   |  which would appear to be about 80% of
full health.  similarly |####      | looks pretty drained for mana.
(non-ascii bar of course!)

as they progress, they _might_ notice that a mob who used to
nail them for half their health bar only hurts them 1/3 now - but
otherwise they will scarcely notice, since the improvement on
the underlying HP and mana is so gradual.  however they want
to interpret their health bar, it's all they get to do so.  as for the
rest of the game, it doesn't care about the % and just deals 
with numbers until it hits a nice 0. :)

I like your combat object idea a lot - involving scripts that will
resolve each turn.  That it drags out a little should be no big
problem, I predict.  Most mud fights last longer in terms of
swings and blows than realistic.  Your method seems to so
far to be more satisfying intellectually, and possibly no one
will care that combat lasted only 6 actual resolved rounds,
since out-analyzing and second-guessing the opponent is
the real effort.  (Very Magic-inspired example, eh?)  I can't
use anything similar for my theme, however; maybe next
time around I'll play around and see how you might've imp'd it.

-John G.