[MUD-Dev] Life

[Ling]

On Sat, 24 May 1997 coder at ibm.net wrote:

> Its been too long since we've had any decent size posts.  This list
> used to be rife with 30K signal filled chunks.  

Let's bring them back. :)  I'll start slowly though.  Tee hee.

> On 24/05/97 at 07:57 PM, caliban at darklock.com (Caliban Tiresias
> Darklock) said:
> 
> >Something I've discussed with some people is the idea that when a
> >player dies in a game with permanent death, it's terribly
> >demoralising to start over at ground zero. One thing I have

Yep, I can confirm this, having died at a mud with permanent death.  I
just blinked and sat there looking gormless for a bit.  It was a stupid
death as well, I tried someone a bit bigger and left it on auto, I thought
I was doing something else, mope.

> >considered doing is allowing them to take some credit for previous
> >accomplishments in the form of benefits and artificial advancement
> >for the next character. For example, in an AD&D game, I'd give them
> >some form of starting experience and equipment that allows them to
> >hold their own in the party; in a White Wolf game, I'd give them some
> >portion of the experience their previous character had earned to buy
> >skills and whatnot; in a Cyberpunk game, I'd probably let them start
> >with a greater budget for cybernetic enhancements. 

I'm glad you raise this point.  I think, with my sci-fi setting,
characters will die very easily.  Yet characters take ten minutes to
create, each (that's the plan).

I'll have to refer to my life path system.

(http://dark.x.dtu.dk/~ceilidh/char/create_exam.html to see what I'm
taking about.  Lynx compat, Chris.).

What I have jotted down is this:  when characters die, the player is given
more options on the lifepath system for having 'scored points' in a
previous character.  So the new character would have more cash/stats/cars. 
Characters can also start out the game as a master builder (refer to a
post that just arrived).  Oh yeah, I reckon character creation is gonna
take me a few months to slink together (slink?). 

> persistance will always win the day.  I also really dislike the idea
> that a player will lose his character because he got hit by net lag at
> just the wrong time (I've seen fights on Shades start and finish all
> in the time one player was waiting on net lag -- he (me) was unhappy
> about that).  As such I believe that a player should be able to
> largely protect himself against permanent death. 

I would like to see examples on how to increase the life expectancy of
characters.  That is, give me more examples of devices to eliminate death
by netlag and such like.  Combat scripts/packages and bestowing some
intelligence on the characters are a good start.

> the idea that a human player can have multiple characters in a game,
> but has to bend over backwards (login twice or some such) to play them
> both simultaneously.  It seems silly.  So I split the game-login from
> the character login.  Playing around with the idea of slaves,
> will-power fights, demonic possession, swarm bodies (eg hive
> intelligences) etc so I made a single character able to simultaneously
> control multiple bodies.  

Agreed, forcing players to use multiple telnet sessions to a single site
is a bit silly.  I have thought about having players control *teams*
instead of individual characters.  Team death would not happen as long as
at least one of the original characters stay alive (cf: Megatraveller,
computer game, actually, I'm heavily influenced by Megatraveller).

> Advancement in the game is not the simple old progressionm of levels,
> or the hoary old class/multi-class chestnut.  The goal is to advance
> your characters.  You do this by increasing your character's skill
> sets (whcih instantly spread to all their bodies), by gaining magical
> ability, by gaining mana abilities, by gaining strength and will
> power, etc.

I think advancement for my mud would be classed as more possessions and
building up your characters, not in the tradition sense of physical and
mental improvements but more contacts, favours owed and general knowledge.
Take a statesman for example, The New Statesman would have few contacts
within the political structure and he would not be a household name.
 
As the majority of characters start off with skills they need, there is
going to be very little skill advancement.  Looks like I'm going to have a
MUSH/MUD thing on my hands at the end of the millenium. 

I suppose another gain for the players would be an insight to the culture 
and universe of the mud.  Playing different characters would be akin to
watching continuous episodes of a series and learning more and more about
the universe created.  I do intend to spend a few years creating the
world.  Seriously.

> I won't pretend its a roleplaying game in MIro's definition, nor that
> it fits Jeff K's concept of the beer swillin' armpit scratchin'
> minimally literate hormone driven game buying/playing out there.  OTOH
> I do think it is fun.  With luck, should I ever get it up and running,
> others will think so too.

smile

  |    Ling			   "All solders leave a girl behind,
_O_O_  Freshwater fish since 1976   That worships and adores 'em,
				    But mine's here on Ghoyogi, too,
				    Which is, like, unbelievable awesome."
						- PFC Waldo DR Dobbs
			         (DR stands for Diminished Responsibility)