[MUD-Dev] Re: generic objects, behaviors

[Andy Davidoff]

hi :)
introduction to follow in a bit, i want to catch up with the archives
first.

:I really want to to make objects generic.  I want some player to be
:able to take some clothes, a couple branches and a broomstick, make a
:scarecrow, cast a spell on it to animate it, and Voila!  Have a
:mobile.  I want a player to be able to take a couple pebbles, put them
:in a small box, seal the box, and instantly have a rattle.  It this
:interpretive behaviour of objects that I think is the *real* key.

agreed:
i want a player to be able to fill a bucket with water from a river,
suspend it over a couple of logs, light the wood on fire, and boil the
water out of the bucket in the form of steam. i want the player to be
able to cook, freeze/boil liquids at varying temperatures, crack glass
with temperature change, & toss scalding hot liquid onto an enemy.
i want a bucket of sea-water to boil off leaving a residual crust of salt.

i want a player to be able to buy a ball of string, enter a forest while
trailing the string, and find his way out by rewinding the ball.
 i want
him to be able to add more string to the end of a line, and i want
the enemy hunting him to be able to light the string on fire, or pull
it out of the forest, with or without his quarry on the other end.

i want a player to be able to fill a bottle with oil, insert a rag, light,
and toss onto an attacker or building. i want the building to burn.
i want the resultant landscape to reflect the event. i want a forest
to regrow after a fire. i want nearby villages to plant crops, harvest,
etc. i want fire to make smoke. i want smoke to follow the wind. i
want wind to follow the terrain, weather to be shaped by the land &
seas. i want days to vary in length with the changing of the seasons.

i want a player to be able to carve blocks of ice from a frozen lake
for the construction of a functional igloo, or an ice-fishing hole.
i want a player to be able to ski/sled down snow-covered mountains,
melt snow for water, have a snowball fight, & follow footprints in snow.

any of these things are doable in diku, but in my mud i want objects
to behave the way they do because it is their very nature to do so, not
because someone spent 6 months writing a million lines of special
procedures &/or user code to accurately model each and every possible
scenario and circumstance. IMO this is the easy/fun stuff, however...

dert