Resets and repops

[claw at null.net]

On 21/03/97 at 11:29 PM, Adam Wiggins <nightfall at inficad.com> said:

>> *grin* Right. Of course, a blob might not be as strong as a human in that
>> suit of armor.

>This also seems to imply that a blob would be smarter than your
>average amobea, if it could actually make an acurate model of the
>human body. Maybe it would make slip-ups, like not doing the ears
>quite right?

>I guess armor would be a tad easier to slip in and out of.  And on
>the beach, it gets to hear things like, "Wow, that guy is positively
>_poured_ into that swimsuit!"  (Okay, I'll stop now.)

I suspect its the pouring out that could get really interesting.

>I always love mobs like "a swarm of bees" or worse yet, "a platoon of
>cityguards."  For some reason I have visions of Groo standing amist
>10,000 bees, taking out one at a time with his scimitars.

  > l
  There is a swarm of 10.000 bees here.
  You are attacked by the bees!
  > retaliate with flyswatter
  You are stung by a bee!  Ouch!
  You are stung by a bee!  Ouch!
  You are stung by a bee!  Ouch!
  You are stung by a bee!  Ouch!
  You are stung by a bee!  Ouch!
  A bee tries to sting you but is deflected by your armour!
  A bee tries to sting you but is deflected by your armour!
  A bee tries to sting you but is deflected by your armour!
  You are stung by a bee!  Ouch!
  You are stung by a bee!  Ouch!
  A bee tries to sting you but is deflected by your armour!
  A bee tries to sting you but is deflected by your armour!
  You are stung by a bee!  Ouch!
  You are stung by a bee!  Ouch!
  You are stung by a bee!  Ouch!
  A bee tries to sting you but is deflected by your armour!
  A bee tries to sting you but is deflected by your armour!
  A bee tries to sting you but is deflected by your armour!
  A bee tries to sting you but is deflected by your armour!
  ...etc...
  You totally *OBLITERATE* a bee with your flyswatter!
  The bee is DEAD!
  You are stung by a bee!  Ouch!
  A bee tries to sting you but is deflected by your armour!
  A bee tries to sting you but is deflected by your armour!
  ...etc...
  Your body is becoming bvery swollen.
  ...

On the other hand, this does have one major boon.  Its about the only
place I can think of where the "obliterate" message actually means
what it says.

>> :A point I'm not resolved on is how to handle component differences in
>> :the group object.  Yes its a pack of wolves, but all of those wolves
>> :are unique in various ways (some wear collars as escaped sled dogs,
>> :some have scars, one is the leader, male/female, young/old etc).  It
>> :gets more obvious when 20 players get their troll characters together. 
>> :Even if they are manipulated as a unit, Does a watcher see a mob of
>> :trolls, or does he see:
...
>I like this, but very tricky to implement.  We've done something
>basic for polyobjects (piles of money, decks of cards) which allows
>for the Rain Man syndrome (you see a pile of coins vs you see 465
>coins), but haven't taken it any further than this.

This is what I'm tempted to do.

>> Of course, lumping things by name is quite fun... it assumes that name
>> (short desc, whatever) implies appearance, so that nature is not known,
>> but appearance is.

>Absolutely.  Makes it a tad easier for a single halfling to hide
>among a bunch of halfings, versus a bunch of humans or a bunch of
>pixies.

The problem here is what mostly bugs me.  It loses sense of contrast
and allows diverse objects to get folded when they are still really
different.  eg 10 balloons all described as "balloon", get lumped
together as "10 balloons" when one of those balloons is bright red,
and the rest white.  The colour difference is not bundled in the short
description as its usually not topical.  It only becomes topical when
you try and bundle it with other diverse balloons.

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