[MUD-Dev] Modeling spells/skills as collections of affects

[Jon A. Lambert]

On  6 Sep 97 at 0:02, Dan Shiovitz wrote:
> 
> I've been thinking of something vaguely like Affects for my system. I'm
> still not precisely sure what to do with someone that wears cursed
> gauntlets of fumbling that make her miss all the time and wields the magic 
> spear Elsinore that always hits its target. I guess some sort of priority
> system would be the way to go here, yes. Of course, I have no idea of a
> consistent way to do so ("yes, this one makes you always hit with level
> 40, whereas this one makes you miss 10% more often with level 50 .. so you
> add them together, and get, uh .."). I suppose that's not a terrible way
> to do things: if each affect is given some sort of power level as well as
> its actual effects, then when two affects contradict each other you could
> let the more powerful one take effect, either at full power or at the
> difference in power of the two .. so maybe in the above example you'd miss
> 1% more often instead of 10%.  Or maybe that's stupid, and if you're
> wearing always-hit shoes and a miss-10% belt, then you should always hit. 
> Or maybe I just shouldn't have any always- items in the game :)
> 
 
Interesting scenarios Dan.  Noted and logged as test cases. :)

I take the character's body and make it a container with objects 
placed "on" it instead of "in" it.  It is a layered container with 
four layers.  Objects designed for use with the character body will 
have layer and location information.  The absence of this information 
in an object defaults to hands/outside layer or mass/volume 
information is used in other container placement.  Affects of lower 
layered objects may preclude or inhibit the use of high layered 
objects. 

The first case could be handled in my system.  The gauntlets are worn 
at layer 2 location hands.  The spear is worn at layer 3 location 
hands.  Affects of gauntlets would occur before the effects of 
the spear.  The spear would be dropped before it could be used in an 
attack.  The second case is questionable.  I would imagine that I 
could sum up the different locational affects to produce an affect 
modifier.  I don't have "always" hit type modifiers or "always" 
anything in my system.  They are always expressed in numerical 
modifiers.  One could equate "always" with either a positive or 
negative infinity.  Here's how I'd handle "infinite" items. Opposing 
infinities would cancel out causing a large explosion creating a 
magical wormhole.  This wormhole would suck the character through it
immediately destroying them.  Upon the closing of the wormhole an 
unstable bi-polar mana node would be created at the location.  
Half-life of several days.  Hmmm. :)

 
Jon A. Lambert