[MUD-Dev] RP thesis...

[clawrenc at cup.hp.com]

In <Pine.LNX.3.96.970521072306.148E-100000 at mpc.dyn.ml.org>, on
05/21/97 
   at 08:06 AM, Matt Chatterley <root at mpc.dyn.ml.org> said:

>On Tue, 20 May 1997 clawrenc at cup.hp.com wrote:

>> In <Pine.LNX.3.96.970518090712.185C-100000 at mpc.dyn.ml.org>, on
>> 05/18/97 at 09:07 AM, Matt Chatterley <root at mpc.dyn.ml.org> said:
>> 
>> >A troll might like to chow down on a goat's carcass after he biffs it
>> >over the head, but a human would almost certainly cut it up and cook
>> >it first. This is an important distinction. Different races will have
>> >to eat slightly different things.
>> 
>> Don't forget that cooked food is significantly less nourishing than
>> uncooked.  As a friend once put it, "All cooking does is make food
>> more dead."  There's a lot to be said for going au naturale, and I'd
>> expect your players to notice that.

>Quite true - most won't notice per se, though, I'd wager, since the
>effects of food will be fairly subtle to healing, and most players
>won't attempt eating raw carcasses, unless they're trollish, orcish,
>or somesuch. :)

That would be my first and most obvious solution as a player.  UggUgg
hungy -> UggUgg see animal -> UggUgg eat animal -> UggUgg not hungry
-> Problem solved -> UggUgg can get back to doing fun things with the
game.

Of course the implication is that eating is a distractive problem. I
consider that quite accurate -- its how I usually consider eating IRL,
which is kind of amusing as I also really enjoy good food and have a
minor reputation as a gourmand.  The difference is that one is eating
to feed one's body (ie an unpleasant distracting job that just has to
be gotten out of the way as its just one of the annoying chores that
comes with having a meat body), and the other is a aesthetic
experience that is specifically crafted for enjoyment (which feeds the
body as an ignorable and slightly ignoble side-effect).

>> >We have both normal rooms, and our own mappable virtual room areas,
>> >you can create a map such as:
>> 
>> >XXXXXXXXXX	X = impassable terrain
>> >**########	* = swamp
>> >*######@##	# = grassland
>> >XXXXXXXXXX	@ = a lake
>> 
>> >and set a scale for each room - this map would be converted into
>> >normal rooms with randomly set sizes, descriptions, weather suited to
>> >the area, and so forth.
>> 
>> The problem with virtual rooms, which can be handled is when players
>> make a change to a virtual room which requires them to become
>> permanent, or the notice something in a virtual room and refer to it
>> later expecting it to be permanent.
>> 
>> eg:
>> 
>>   > l 
>>   You are in a forest...(desc of forest)
>>   > cut blaze on tree
>>   You cut your sigil on a nearby tree.
>> 
>> or:
>> 
>>   > l
>>   You are in a forest...yada yada something about an oak tree.
>>   ...much later...
>>   > say "Just go east in the forest until you see the Oak tree, 
>>   and then head west..."

><g> I think this would either be disallowed, or chances of seeing
>landmarks on a small scale would vary with the size of the room (a
>room is being given to represent an area of land, most likely, on a
>set scale, which could be quite large). It depends really. :)

If your descriptions for an area of a given type and location are not
all pre-determined (ie every player entering that room will get the
same description), they you will run into problems with players
attempting to derive their own landmarks from the generated
descriptions.  It is unavoidable.  

This also does not remove possibility of players creating presumed
permanent traces of their passage.  Sure its an endless grassy plai
undistinguished by any differentiating features from horizon to
horizon, but our friend Bubba sat down in the middle of it and lit a
bonfire.

You're going to have it so that players *can't* light bonfires in
virtual rooms or do any other things that might leave permanent
effects?

--
J C Lawrence                           Internet: claw at null.net
(Contractor)                           Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------------(*)               Internet: clawrenc at cup.hp.com
...Honorary Member Clan McFUD -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...