[MUD-Dev] Re: Introductions and descriptions

[Adam Wiggins]

[Brandon J. Rickman:]
> On Fri, 28 Nov 1997, Adam Wiggins <nightfall at user1.inficad.com> wrote:
> >> So, when the character first encounters the mushroom, the character checks
> >> to see if he can identify it.  (if skill > rand(0,100) + difficulty). The
> >> game then remembers the result of rand() and stores it with the character
> >> for each type of mushroom.  What is gained from this as apposed keeping
> >> track of object recognition?  Certainly not memory, as you have to
> >> remember the roll, which is larger than a single bit (recognized/not
> >> recognized) for each object.  
> >
> >Of course - this is another thing I forgot to mention about the
> >stealth skills - whether you get 'seen' or not is not a boolean value.
> >Some characters may see you sneaking (if they were paying special
> >attention to you, if they are highly perceptive, if they are good at
> >stealth themselves, if they are your size of smaller) and others may
> >completely miss it (they're in the middle of combat, they are twice your
> >size, they have poor vision in low-light conditions, they have low
> >perception and stealth abilities, etc).  This is especially fun for
> >pick-pocketing - one character does not notice themselves being
> >pick-pocketed, but a character nearby does.  That character can choose
> >to warn the victim of the crime, or can just keep it to themselves.

I forgot to mention here, also, that the messages the character gets
are not boolean.  For instance, messages like "You sense something
moving about nearby" for a partial recognition, or the generic "The
hair stands up on the back of your neck" or "You feel as if you are
being watched" for low recognition.

> I remember having this discussion some time ago somewhere, I'll check my
> archives, perhaps it was rgm.admin.  The point I tried to make was that
> the random() part of a skill check was really just the indeterminate
> affect of all those little things that no one has yet bothered to
> model.  The question was "When would a theif sneeze when attempting
> to backstab?"  Given all those conditions - character skills, lighting,
> character perception, background noise, phase of the moon - one could
> argue that the backstab should always succeed for given conditions.
> The better fighter should always win in combat, right?  Well, no, 
> because that wouldn't be particularly interesting, besides how do
> you determine who is the better fighter?  (This is a rhetorical
> question, but I just know someone will answer it.)

Nods - you've just hit the key to this issue, I think.  It's simply
a mater of ratio.  If we consider a 'full' model to be 100%, a system
which models 50% of the elements of the model needs 50% randomness.
A system which models 100% of the elements (like, say, the universe)
does not need any pseudo-randomness at all.  So, as you increase the
amount of detail of your system, you can reduce the level of randomness,
which is IMO a very good thing.  The system is still unpredictable
by human standards, since there are a lot of factors to keep track of,
but they are real factors.  I find it both more immersive and less
annoying to know I failed my backstab due to a sneeze rather than because
I didn't make a dice roll.  Plus, this adds so much more potential
for strategy into the gameworld - a thief refusing to attempt any stealthy
maneuvers because he's currently got a cold, for example.

> I'll see if I can find the old posts.  I really like discussion of
> pseudo-random skill checks.  But how could a character "learn" something,
> like how to identify a very specific species of mushroom?  If mushroom
> recognition is dependent on a very genreal skill, such as survival,
> and "my" seeded skill requires an 87 to identify a particular mushroom
> but my current skill is 13...  

If it requires an 87 on a scale of 100, this should mean it is a very
difficult mushroom to identify.  Thus only a highly trained survivalist
would be able to tell that particular mushroom apart from the three other
species of nearly identical-looking, but completely harmless, 'shrooms.

Of course, I dislike super general skills except as roots in a skill
tree.  Ie, from the general survival skill you have descended botany,
and from that you have fungi, and from that you have your ability to
identify various genera.  Ideally this skill tree would extend as
deep as possible, possibly to the point of having a seperate node
for each sub-species of that particular mushroom.  That allows you to
have someone point out exactly how to identify that mushroom, making
you highly competent (say, a 90 skill) for that *particular* 'shroom,
but not that much better for mushrooms or fungi in general.

> This should happen more often:
> 
> % west
> You go west.
> Outside the Orphanage
> Shoehorn is here.  A stranger is here.
> Shoehorn shoves past you, leaving east.
> %
> Bubba arrives from the east.
> Bubba exclaims, "Motch my old buddy!"
> % hug Bubba
> You hug Bubba.
> Bubba hugs you.
> You suddenly realize someone has stolen your wallet!!!
> A stranger shoves past you, leaving east.
> You hear a shout from the Orphanage: "More!?!  You want more!?!"

Preach on, brother! :)
We specifically code jostling in crowded rooms to allow for:

Spackle starts moving towards the exit.
Spackle bumps into you.  "Excuse me, kind sir," he says.
Your purse feels lighter.

Naturally thieves *try* to bump into people, but it tends to happen
in large rooms just by accident, which of course leads to the fun of
a completely innocent fellow bumping into that nasty Kzin warrior who
is suspicous of thieves and brewing for a fight...