[MUD-Dev] Usability and interface ...

[Derrick Jones]

On Tue, 21 Oct 1997 coder at ibm.net wrote:

> 
> On 13/10/97 at 12:07 PM, Derrick Jones <gunther at online1.magnus1.com> said:
> >On Thu, 9 Oct 1997, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:
> >> On Thursday, October 09, 1997 5:16 AM, Broly 
> >> [SMTP:gunther at online1.magnus1.com] wrote:
> >I also have a plan on the back burner to put in a nutrition system.  This
> >will also increase the range of character travels/interactions.  Salmon
> >is brainfood, red meats are best for muscle building, but they're high in
> >fats...Its going to be tricky to do it right, but once its in, (smart)
> >players will watch what they eat, set up trading guilds, and be
> >ever-mindful of their food supply.
> 
> Nutrition is a broad field -- a tough one to neither skimp on, or adopt
> preconceptions for.

Very true.  Which is exactly why the plan is still on the back burner.  It
may never actually get past the design stage if it proves to be even more
difficult than it already appears.  Right now, its still at the stage of
having foods fit into one or more of a few dozen catagories, with a
overall quality stat.  Add to the mix some racial/ethnic preferences
(Carrots are very poisonous to trolls for example), and you get a variety
of (temporary) affects.
Toughest part of the system as I see it will be to comunicate the
information to players in a way that doesn't seem twinkish. (with the
troll example, how would a player playing a troll know that eating a
carrot could prove fatal?  <sarcasm\> Surgeon General's Warning:  If you
are a troll, eating this product may be hazardous to your health.
</sarcasm>  )

> >Not all skills have to advance/decay at the same rate.  Or even at all.
> >For the golf example, each character would have a personal maximum based
> >on character stats, so that poor dolt would never really become good at
> >the game, but after many, many years he wouldn't be quite so bad.  If you
> >really don't like the idea of basing maximums and advance/decay rates on
> >player stats, determine them at the time of character creation (either
> >random or chosen).
> 
> For me this echoes back to the seperation of character and human player. 
> I have no problem with the character having stats which limit their
> current ability, but I have a big problem with those stats being
> unalterable.  For me the game is more about overcoming those limitations
> than it is working within them.

Again agreed.  I meant determine initially at creation.  There's no reason
why they shouldn't be able to change.  Back to the Golf example (I spend
way too much time at a country club (I work there)), the main reason that
women's tees are so far in front of men's tees (thus evidence that women
on average drive the ball shorter than men) is that the female anatomy is
such that it is much more difficult for a woman to keep her front arm
strait during her backswing; therefore she cannot generate as much power
in the stroke, and therefore has a different drive_golfball ability from
an average male.  The drive_golfball ability, therfore, can be determined
in part by the shape of the woman (there aren't any large-breasted women
on the LPGA, just as there aren't many men under 5' playing professional
basketball) and can be justifiably limited at creation-time.  If the shape
of the woman's body changes, however, the drive_golfball ability could
receive a new limit.  But, alas, this example is a trivial one unless you
intend to make golf an intergral part of your mud...

Gunther