[MUD-Dev] Re: Less numbers, more roleplaying.

[Adam Wiggins]

[Derrick Jones:]
> On Mon, 24 Nov 1997, Marian Griffith wrote:
> > Not to mention that those help files are boring to read also! Most of
> > the time they are rather technical and completely out of character to
> > say the least.  They immediately show that nobody cares about writing
> > them and that nobody ought to care about reading them.
> 
> One problem I forsee in writing my own help files is that I don't think
> about _how_ to do things anymore when I mud, and putting a second-nature
> activities into words is difficult.  This problem compounds when you write
> your own code, as willing to do something automatically results in the
> proper command every time.  I can't document things _I_ would want to see
> in the help files, because how often does the programmer need to read the
> help files on his own program?
> I'll probably sit my girlfriend down at the computer (she's only nominally
> computer literate, can run most programs on windows, but no exposure to
> command-line interpreters) and put any information she needs to play the
> game in the files.

Yes - watching someone use any program you've written is always a
good way to spot problems.  Even without them saying anything at all
about it, you can see them trying to do certain things that they can't
(ie, aren't handled by the interface) and wanting to do things but not
knowing how, and trying the 'wrong' way.
Another easy way to get this kind of feedback on a mud would be to log
the first, say, thirty commands of any new character.

> Nodnod the more books in the library the better.  One question I'll put to
> the list, though.  How much control (censorship) should the admin have
> over the contents of player-written books?  One approach would be have a
> staff member act as publisher, rejecting poorly-written works, and perhaps
> assigning a royalty to really well-written works.  The result of leaving
> the shelves unmonitored would be that the library would quickly degrade
> into a bulliten-board style arena, with most 'books' being nonsensical
> jibberish ("Metallica Rules!!!" x 100).

Well, one thing would be to make it more difficult to actually get a book
there.  This could be tied in with some admin control, as well.  For
instance, the player has to get ahold of pen and paper (might be
expensive or at least hard to come by in a fantasy setting), know how
to write (or, perhaps, hire someone who does, suddently creating a demmand
for scribes-for-hire), actually ink the thing, then bind it up and
get it to the library.  Perhaps have printing presses where they can
make you pamphlets you give out to the public (handier if public boards
aren't so common), or bind an actual book for you to give to the librarian.
The librarian could just be a holding point for the book until some
admin can review it and decide to add it to the shelf.  This would
keep the admin's work down (since you can't just submit a dozen books
without effort), as well as making it so that people don't bother
if they don't have anything in particular to say.  Hopefully the motivation
of seeing yourself in print would be enough to make people actually
go through all this bother - maybe the library will pay you a nominal
fee for the volume?

> Perhaps periodic wagon trains travelling from haven to haven would
> even expand their horizons more.  Travel would be relatively safe, as the
> wagons would be protected by mercenaries (Questing mid-level players?).

This is a standard diku device that I've always liked, even though
the implementation is usually pretty lacking - the 'protection' afforded
by the caravan leaders is usually pretty pitiful, all they do is steer
you in the right direction.
The main problem with it that I had as a mud-newibe was not knowing where
the heck they were supposed to be going.  Usually the caravan master
shouts, 'Leaving in five minutes, bound for <name of place you've never
heard of>!' which is not terribly helpful - half the time you don't
even know if they are going to a town or the forest or whatever else.

> > Maybe there is a way to reduce the dangers for new characters.  How about
> > having the chance of being attacked be proportional to the amount of gold
> > and equipment a character carries, as well as to the level?  It would not
> > save them from the truly dangerous areas,  but it would allow them to spy
> > out areas they could not reasonably expect to survive a fight.
> 
> Hrm...The gold/equipment/level argument applies already to player vs
> player combat, so it would be reasonable to apply the same logic to
> intelligent NPC actions.  Wouldn't apply to truely evil creatures though,
> or those creature who attack only for food.  Undead creatures hate
> everything living, and will attack regardless of victem's stregnth
> (Although an intelligent vampire might choose no to attack Buffy the
> Vampire Slayer, unless Buffy's already hurt and the vampire has a chance
> of winning.).  A T-Rex just sees 100-200 pound of fresh USDA grade A
> human.

Well, we discussed this in brief a while back - just when does a
predator actually want to eat?  Since then I've had the chance to
make some interesting observations: I shacked up with my girlfriend,
who owns quite a few semi-exotic predators.  In most cases, these
'vicious' animals don't eat much of anything that walks in front of them.
Most of them have a very specific diet, which actually makes it difficult
to feed them.  For instance, she has two young green anacondas which
normally eat other reptiles.  Getting them to eat animals which are
actually found here in America is quite a pain, usually involving a
process of rubbing an animal they *will* eat against a rabbot or whatever
it is that you want to feed them in order to trick them (via smell) into
thinking that the rabbit qualifies as food.  In some cases you actually
have to use catgut thread to sew the two corpses together (rather a
gruesome procedure) to get them to eat what you want.  She tells me
that they would sooner starve to death than eat something they don't
consider food...not sure how true this is, not having seen it myself.
The reason they ignore any other creature nearby that is not a direct
threat is simply related to being territorial.  Cats, dogs, and iguanas
are all territorial, making them better pets (they stick around) but
hostile to unknown creatures.  Most reptiles are completely uninterested
in combat with anything they don't want to eat and that isn't a direct
threat.  Her Nile monitor ate crickets by the barrelful when it was
younger.  One day he suddenly started ignoring them - they'd crawl
all over his face and he'd barely flinch.  Not food, being too small,
and not hostile (or a threat, even if they did attack).  Even if you
do provoke one of the creatures, they will usually try to inflict a
painful wound as quickly as possible (such as the monitor whipping you
with his tail, or the snake delivering a quick bite) and then retreat.
Perhaps this could be applied to mud creatures?  A dragon sitting on
his hoard would necessarily be territorial, but a wandering T-Rex
type creature, maybe not - thereby ignoring 'low-level' characters
that walked by? 

> > Most towns have something like a safe room in the temple. That frequently
> > acts as refuge to low level players during invasion quests. At least this
> > was so on the muds I have played?
> 
> Dunno, the temple is probably the first place to get sacked when the town
> gets invaded.

Let's see...it depends what the invaders are after.  If they are looking
to kill as many people as possible, you're probably kind of screwed
except to fight back.  If they just want to loot the buidlings and
make off with the equipment and money, a newbie hiding behind a bunch
of barrels is probably going to be more or less safe.