[MUD-Dev] Re: Introductions and descriptions

[Richard Woolcock]

Sauron wrote:

[snip]
> IMHO this point is really moot because actions don't really have much
> place in descriptions.  Would a char honestly react the same if the King
> of Whatever walks up to him as if the Evil Dragon walked up to him? In
> most mushes, you can set @adescs (list of actions triggered when someone
> looks at you) so you actually DO the actions and are aware that you do
> them rather than they appear to happen when someone looks at you. ie You
> could set different reactions based on whether a npc with @race = Dragon
> or @race = fairy looked at you. I have not seen anything beyone client
> triggers used for this sort of thing in most muds, however I think even
> that is better than having actions in the desc.

I coded an 'evil eye' power, which is sort of configurable by the player.
Not only does it allow you to perform specified actions when someone looks
at you, but it also allows you to force other people to perform actions.
I'm probably going to be removing it though, because I'm fed up of having
to constantly put in abuser-blocks (like making people shout some extremely
crude things for example).

> Also, I believe there should be different types of descs compared to the
> type of look you do. If you are just glancing at him, as in while you
> are talking (in RL) you get a short one line desc. If you are giving him
> a good look over, probably a three or four sentence desc would be
> sufficient. If you are evaluating his abilities, a desc based on his
> physical attributes and how they compare to yours would be appropriate.
> However, it may not be possible to code something like this in your
> situation.

Yes this would be interesting.  I have the 'consider' command give a 
message along the lines of 'KaVir examines you carefully, looking for
your weaknesses', whilst diagnose shows 'KaVir examines you carefully,
diagnosing your injuries'.  In addition, whenever you move 'up' or 
'down', you always tilt your head up or down first to make sure you
can move that way (other directions make your character 'turn left',
etc).  It would be nice to have different levels of 'look' showing 
different levels of information with a selection of different 
messages like this... the 'visual' effect from actually seeing
players and mobs doing stuff like this is IMO a very nice touch.

KaVir.