[MUD-Dev] Spoken Languages & Food [was RP thesis...]

[Jon A. Lambert]

> From: clawrenc at cup.hp.com
> In <Pine.GSO.3.95.970530083525.1126B-100000 at xi>, on 05/30/97 
>    at 08:14 AM, Travis S Casey <casey at nu.cs.fsu.edu> said:
> >Don't get me wrong -- I agree that characters should be penalized for
> >damage more than they are.  I just don't agree that most  people
> >would be rolling around screaming on the floor at 10% damage.  :-)
> 
> Quite, tho one may debate the definition of 10%.  Is that 10% of body
> mass lost?  etc.
> 
There are certain areas of the body where a 1% damage (or 1 hit point)
would effectively disable an opponent. *cough*  And there are cases 
where a death-dealing blow is not disabling/crippling to an opponent 
for many minutes or even hours.  I prefer not to handle this through 
an allocation of "hit points" or % effectiveness to areas or divisions 
of the anatomy (limb-based or whatever terminology you prefer).  

I handle this through a system of critical hits with the resulting effects 
modeled through effects/wounds inflicted on areas of the body.  
Very much like spell effects which wear off naturally, removed through
very specific healing, or which may deteriorate through lack of same.

I use a total body summary of concussion and blood points (look ma, no
hit points here *gurgle*)  However critical hits specify explicit area,
bleeding rate, disabling % until treated (a negative modifier to all
movement actions), time til death (if appropriate), % chance of scarring,
explicit damage type (nerve, bone, cartilage, fracture, etc.), nice 
descriptive messages for observers, and disturbing ones for the affected.

It seems to handle both situations nicely.  That is damage that is not
necessarily life-threatening but very disabling and that which is
severely life-threatening.
As far as interesting and unique messages go, it generates 1800 of them.
Memory requirements of course reflect this, as combat associated tables
take about 150K of memory, without string sharing in yet.


JL