[MUD-Dev] A flamewar startingpoint.)

[Jon A. Lambert]

On 21 Nov 97 at 8:52, Miroslav Silovic wrote:
> Ola Fosheim Gr=B0stad <olag at ifi.uio.no> writes:
> 
> > What I am thinking of is to go back look at simple, ugly and FUN games
> > from the past and try to see if some of these concepts could be done
> > in a way that won't suffer too badly from lag. Then one build a new
> 
> Two words: Laser Squad! :)
> 
[snipped combat turn]

Excellent!  I remember this game as well as a more recent ones.
Civilization operates on a similar principle yet more graphically 
oriented.  My approach to combat is very similar.    

> I mean, if a good old C64 could do this WITH GRAPHICS, and with pretty
> good AI for the oponent, well... I'm almost ashamed we can't do better
> (remember, they did it with 6510 assembler!)
> 
> Action points limited what you could do in a single turn - they were
> there to track the ammount of time each fighter had. In addition to
> that, the heavier your armour, the fewer AP you got - which severely
> limited what you could do with class 4 (the heaviest) armor.
>

Many RPGs attempt to impose a similar framework.  I've found the 
usability of some of these systems in practice is "not fun" as many
require the GM to keep track of too many variables.  However this
is easily automated in muds.
 
> > enjoyable platform for muds, with reduced bandwith and everything
> > (What would fit in a C64 won't burn too much bandwidth :^).  I'm not
> > so convinced that commercial MUDs have to be so flashy, at least not
> > with the current competition.  After all, a MUD should be enjoyable
> 
> True. But it'd be nice if they could be at least as flashy as the
> old games.
> 
> Lords of Midnight graphics engine, anyone? :)
>

The example of "Habitat" leads me to think graphics is certainly 
doable and at low-bandwidth.  When it ran on Quantumlink, it only 
used 170K clientside storage and the average end-user was at 
1200-2400 baud.  The quality of these graphics may have a negative
impact on your theme.  I would think the simple cartoon-like graphics
would be less than suitable for a WOD theme than a more light-hearted
theme.
  
> > for more than a week or two.  Communication and contents is more
> > important in the long run, right?  Maybe funny graphics, puns and
> > soforth is more important than smooth animations?
> 
> MUSHes have communication and content with no flash whatsoever. I
> agree, in that the only MUDs, to my knowledge, that managed to pack
> enough kick to the flashy combat to compete with even average c64
> games are BattleTech MUSHes. Network lag was severe problem for them,
> though (since you *had* to react in less than 1 second). Server lag,
> however, turned out to be neglectable. I have to add that they were a
> big disappointment to at least some of their authors (I know some of
> them personally) since their main goal, roleplaying in a
> conflict-heavy environment, totally failed in favor of shoot-em-up.

This seems to be the biggest area of difficulty.  I wish to avoid the
arcade-like quality to combat (fastest reflexes win), add a more 
thoughtful approach (cf. JCL's combat scripts), yet preserve a sense
of urgency (a time limit on decisions) without imposing excessive lag
on players.

--
Jon A. Lambert

If I'd known it was harmless, I would have killed it myself.