[MUD-Dev] lots of stuff, sigh.

[Chris Gray]

[Chris L:]

:>[Fortress Fract, Blue Grass Path]
:
:>I read your description of those with a mixture of fascination and
:>horror. Fascination from the implementor part of me, and horror from
:>the potential player part of me.
:
:I'm *very* interested here.  What specifically fascinated you, and
:what horrified you?  Was there anything that attracted you as a
:player?

As a player, I think I would end up trying to map the BG Path, especially
if it looked like I needed to be able to use it to continue exploring.
I think I would find the castle just too frustrating, especially the
part about unknown actions by others upsetting my exploration. As a
human being and programmer, both concepts are very interesting to me,
but as a player, I'm pretty lazy, so, if I was told what the fortress
was like, I might visit out of curiousity, but I very much doubt I
would get serious about it. The frustration would come in if it seemed
to me that the game required me to solve the fortress in order to
go other places in the game.

:					   Were I to do it again I'd
:probably make for easier egress ("You climb into the water chute to
:get shot out into the middle of the lake, there to test whether you
:can swim better or faster than the many monsters in the lake").  Sort
:of a I-give-up-gemme-outta-here/bail system

That would be good, from my point of view. More frustrating even than
not being able to solve it would be being trapped in it. I suspect I
would have just abandoned my character, and perhaps the entire game.

:Last time I came to do that I was working at a Microstation shop -- I
:grabbed a dual-headed Interpro and drew the samn thing in 3D with full
:collision detection and 3D fly-thrus (and a lotta help from one of the
:CADOps I was carpooling with).  Took me about a month of weekends only
:to lose all the files when the damn machine got dropped down a
:stairwell.

Now that sounds like a fun way to go! I'd love to be able to build a
3D navigable model of my big castle. I've got an overhead tile-built view
of it as a separate AmigaMUD setup, but that's not even close to the same!

:A little while ago we went out to buy toys for my then 18 or so month
:old son.  'Nuf to say that we wandered home with several thousand
:pieces of Lincoln Logs.  Perfect castle building stuff.

I've heard of those, but have never seen them up here in Canada.

:The thing I don't like about the new LEGO are all the little men,
:curvy bits, pieces at different scales (doors, windows etc), and other
:such.	I always liked the fact that with the plain blocks I could
:chose the scale and proportion of the whole model.  All the little men
:and rockets and boats and funny looking windows etc sorta spoiled that
:for me.

I started out that way, buying only basic bricks. I eventually bought one
of their castle sets just to see what it was like. The kid play they pack
in is good, but there isn't a lot of realism. Now, I just buy some sets,
build the regular model once for good measure, and then sort out all of
the useful parts (weapons, decorations, etc.) for use in my final project.

--
Chris Gray   cg at ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA