Just a bit of musing

[coder at ibm.net]

On 26/02/97 at 02:31 PM, Nathan Yospe <yospe at hawaii.edu> said:

>A thread on rec.games.mud.admin has recently turned to combat
>interaction. The thread is, unfortunately, dominated by the diku types,
>who have rather limited perception when it comes to combat...

Lemme guess, having seen this afore:  They've locked themselves into a set
model of "how combat should be", and from there have large ceased to think
about how it could otherwise be done.  The entire push is thus to create
something which is a mere extension of the current system, rather than
dropping back and re-examining newly.

>...the concept of a MUD based on free space instead of rooms has been
>clinging to my mind. What do you guys think of this? 

Very attractive, and do-able.  The big problem for me would be in
establishing relevancy of data.  Consider:

JoeBloe is is the middle of a vast plain of grass that stretches from
horizon to horizon.  To the far east a range of mountains pokes over the
horizon.  The location description would then be something along the line
of, "All you see is grass, and Cheech and Chong wannabes."  <kof>  A
simple filter on proxmity would then exclude displaying descriptions of
the characters fighting 500 yards away, but would report the snake that
slithered across your foot.  Where it gets interesting is in relevance, 
What if one of the mountains to the east turns into a volcanoe and erupts? 
Loooong distance away, but highly noticable, attention commanding, and
relevant.  Distance also doesn't have to be the only factor:
appearance/brightness/glittler/flash, range/distance, empathic awareness,
motion, state change, etc.

>D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D
>D B D D D D D D D O D D D D D
>D D X D O D D X D D D D X D D
>D D D D D D D D D S D D D D D
>D D B D D D S D D D D D D D D
>D D D D O D D D D D D D D D D
>D D D D D D D D D D O D D D D
>D D X D D S D X D D D D X D D
>D D B D D D D D D D D D D D D
>D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D

As commented earlier I've largely arrived at the conclusion that defining
the MUD space by cells gridded, where every cell is defined as of various
states is a Bad Idea.  Go for a free coordinate spare, and then define
nodes as occupying locations whithin that space.

--
J C Lawrence                               Internet: claw at null.net
----------(*)                              Internet: coder at ibm.net
...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...