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

[Adam Wiggins]

[Derrick Jones:]
> On Tue, 25 Nov 1997, Richard Woolcock wrote:
> > Derrick Jones wrote:
> > > Perhaps the mud's web-page would be better
> > > suited for character creation?  This would make help files a bit easier to
> > > navigate, and character generation is where they're leaned on the most.
> > This would be a good idea, but it should be an option not a replacement - 
> > at university, I didn't have web access unless I used the xterms (which I 
> > wasn't allowed to use for anything to do with "those silly games").  Instead
> > I had to stick with dumb terminals and the occasional PC.
> 
> True.  Hadn't concidered access difficulties.

I doubt there is anyone with access to the internet that can't get on
the web if they need to.  I quite frequently loaded up lynx on the
university's vt-100 terminals to get some info on a web page.
However, I don't *like* doing this.  I don't like logging onto a mud,
starting character creation, and getting a message that I should first
read the creation docs at www.whatever.org.
Now, I think a good web page for players that have already taken an
interest in is a great idea.  You can put up graphical maps of the world,
pictures of what certain races look like (very useful if you have highly
unique races), plus lots of general info about the world and the
game interface.  Thus you get someone who logs onto a mud, starts
character creation, reads the online docs (which, so as not to scare
anyone off straight away, should be short and sweet) for creation, makes
a character, and starts playing the game.  At some point (probably in
the main help index) they should be presented with the web page address,
so once they've seen that 'hey, this looks pretty cool...I'd like to
get some more info about the world and game in general' then they can
pop over to the page.
Or, if they so desire, they can pop up a web browser in another window
straight off and use that for any help they might need.  But they
shouldn't be required to do this.

> > Hmmm well I coded books, but they were only used for spells.  You write spell
> > on the pages (with a pen), then insert the pages into the book, flick throu
> > the book until you find the spell you want, and then cast it.  The spells
> > are written in a funny sort of semi-code format, and you can get some quite
> > entertaining results (including the ability to 'chain' spells, but having a
> > spell automatically cast the spell on the next page, with optional parameter
> 
> Nifty.  I might hide a few spells in libraries as well...Mostly useless
> stuff, or even spells that are dangerous (to the caster) to cast.  There
> was a list of completely useless spells posted here that could provide a
> good deal of comic relief.
> On a side note, how do you handle players learning/casting spells from one
> another's spellbooks?  Do you require a certain proficiency level (other
> spells known, exp level, casting skills minimums, etc) to learn a new
> spell?

The mud I coded mages for had spellbooks, however they weren't needed to
cast spells.  Instead, the skill decay on your spell skills was very
quick.  Mages had to regularly study the spell (from a written version)
in order to arest the decay.  Anyone with a pen could scribe a spell they
knew, at the percentage they knew it.  A mage could also learn a spell
from a book, although it was much more difficult that way than from
a teacher.  There was nothing magical about the spellbooks themselves;
someone with skill in 'written' for the language the book was written
in could easily copy it to another book, and even copy it to a different
language.  Of course, if you had a book full of book scribed at high
percentages (especially 90+) it was pretty valuable; making copies was
a good idea, but carring around lots of thick books was pretty impractical.

> > Perhaps more muds should start advertising '10 levels' rather than '1000 
> > levels' - at least you'd know you had a good chance of having plenty of
> > places you could explore.
>
> Hrm...I don't have a problem with the 1000 levels, its just that in a mud
> with 1000 levels, you're level 37 (which is completely off the scale
> compared to a level 1) within 15 minutes.  In order to find a group when
> you first log on, you have to find other players who started withing 5
> minutes of yourself.  Now if you had 1000 levels, with each level being a
> very minor increment in power (a level 5 and 25 could still be
> comparable), or simply making each level take a good deal of online
> time(essentially making it that no one really ever gets passed level 100
> or so...with most people still with 1-10) would avoid many of the problems
> associated with a level-based combat mud.

Number of levels doesn't matter, just the relative level of power they
actually represent.  If a level 5 is twice as powerful as a level 10,
and a level 20 is twice again more powerful, people can only group within
a few levels.  If a level 50 is roughly twice as powerful as a level 1,
then a lot more inter-level grouping can occur.
This is the route we used on a mud I worked on (the same one with
the spellbooks, above) and I thought it worked really well.  Characters
did not gain hitpoints, saving throws, thac0, or anything else with levels;
only practices to increase their skills.  Thus dragging along a character
half your level when adventuring is a good idea - they can be perfectly
useful.  On most combat-oriented level-based muds, a low level person
is worthless.  They can't hit (thac0), get toasted by the first area spell
that comes along (their hitpoints are usually 1/50th of the higher-levels),
can't carry your gear back if you die (since # of carried objects is
usually very low at low levels), and take a disproportionate amount
of experience away from each kill.

> By 'safe' I meant areas not populated by aggressively violent NPCs.  A
> player can well get into a fight there, but the disposition of the locals
> is such that the player can walk around the area freely without worrying
> about things constantly jumping out and trying to eat them.  Midgaard on
> the old DIKUs was a 'safe' zone on this token, as was most of the mudworld
> on many of the derived muds.

I think it's a good idea to have the towns be relatively safe.  I like
dangerous worlds, but it's nice to have a haven.  On the mud above,
we had the hometowns of each race (varying levels of danger within),
plus a giant plateau in the middle of the land with a nigh-impenetrable
keep atop, which was created and protected by the most powerful diety.
This is a pretty sharp contrast to the average diku which likes to
have dragons or orcs or trolls or whatever invade Midgaard every other
day.  I like invasions, but overuse of them just gets old.  It's nice
to have someplace that you can generally count on being relatively safe
all the time.