[MUD-Dev] Introductions and

[Maddy]

Previously, Mike Sellers wrote....
> 
> At 10:05 AM 11/18/97 PST8PDT, Matt Chatterley wrote:

> >This is another interesting area actually, and the first point I'd keep in
> >mind, is that if you are aiming at a very rp-centric game, fully automated
> >descriptions are probably a bad idea (note: for the benefit of anyone in
> >the audience, rp-centric mainly refers to Tiny-derivs, but could
> >technically be anything. Most tiny-derivs have player-written descs, but I
> >know at least one which does not).
> 
> Perhaps you could let people write their own descs as a function of their
> level/rank/score in the game?  Or, perhaps better for RPing, keep the desc
> automatic, but include a bit more spice if the character is powerful in the
> game, where this 'spice' accentuates the character's most powerful
> attributes.  Frankly, if I never see another desc along the lines of
> "flaming red hair and lips to match, ice blue eyes that at once chill your
> soul and inflame your desire..." (ugh) that'll be fine with me! :)  

Well there is no real easy way you can tell someones rank just by looking at
them - remember the tale of the Prince and the Pauper?  I'd be fairly
annoyed if I was given the description that told everyone I was king, when I
was dressed in rags and trying to get a feel of what the local populous
thought of me.

> While we're talking about names, how do you propose to deal with
> name-collision?  I've never really liked the fact that all names in typical
> MUDs must be unique.  It seems like you could easily allow for multiple
> name instances by keying off the combo of character name and player name
> internally.  The only problem comes up in areas where, for example, I want
> to talk to "Joe" or send game-mail to "Joe."  If there are a dozen Joes out
> there, how do I know which one I want?  Even in the scheme described above,
> you could have several "Joe Doe" characters.  I suppose you could list
> further, publicly known information for each, such as occupation, general
> area where they live ("Joe Doe of Tos, who is a merchant"), or in a
> graphical environment, a picture of them -- anything to help other players
> differentiate their Joe from all other Joes.
> 
> Thoughts on this?

Well they way I see it - you're talking about OOC contructs.  If you want to
talk to someone, you go off and find them, don't you?  You don't send out a
telepathic message.  Finding Joe, is simple a case of asking people if
they've seen him - they might not know who you mean and will need a
description - they might even assume you mean a different Joe and direct you
to the wrong one.

The same goes for mail - you're at the mercy of the local population to
deliver the mail.  It might seem a little harsh, but it does add flavour to
the game.  If you want to keep in contact with someone, then you make
arrangements to meet up, rather than disappearing off into the wilderness
and then expecting to find them straight away when you come back.

Maddy