[MUD-Dev] UI Issues: Anti-scripting techniques

[Caliban Tiresias Darklock]

On Mon, 6 Oct 1997 21:16:09 PST8PDT, "Brandon J. Rickman"
<ashes at pc4.zennet.com> wrote:

>If you talk to someone who has taken a baking class they will tell you
>that baking is an art, cooking is a science.

I can tell you from experience that they're *both* arts which are based
on science. You can cook a meatloaf just by following the directions on
the back of the bread crumb box. But making a *great* meatloaf, or
modifying the recipe for a different presentation, requires artistry. 

Now, where you get in to the realm of quantum physics is when you try to
go from regular cooking/baking to the microwave... or, even worse for a
baker, to a convection oven. (Ever bake a cake in a convection oven? God
it's a pain in the ass. All of the rules change.)

>The point is to make the general skills more adaptable
>without complicating the skill web.  A master chef with no campfire
>familiarity might have problems keeping ash out of the scrambled eggs,
>but they would taste better than expected.

I like this idea. I like it a lot.

>This is useful for hard-to-fathom skills like music.  Having a high
>music skill doesn't make one a virtuoso on all instruments.  But a
>good musician can pick up an instrument they have never played and
>quickly make some musical sounds with it.  

As someone who plays multiple instruments, I can vouch for this to a
reasonable degree as well. I'm also of the opinion that good math skills
enhance musical ability, but other musicians look at me like some sort
of bug every time I advance the theory...

>In 
>Stonekeep (an essentially single player CRPG from 95(?)) this added some
>hidden refinement to combat as your character developed a familiarity
>"skill" with each different weapon used.  Even if your combat skills
>didn't increase you would fight more effectively with the same weapon
>after some time.

Raise your hand if you went to some 'safe' location and put something
heavy on the mouse button while you watched a rented video, so your
skill would max. Yep... just like any other MUD skill system. ;)

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