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

[Dan Shiovitz]

On Thu, 11 Sep 1997 clawrenc at cup.hp.com wrote:
> In <Pine.OSF.3.96.970905163356.4223B-100000 at saul4.u.washington.edu>,
> on 09/05/97 
>    at 04:49 PM, Dan Shiovitz <scythe at u.washington.edu> said:
> 
> >On Thu, 4 Sep 1997 clawrenc at cup.hp.com wrote:
> >> In <199708312324.3515400 at bedford.net>, on 08/31/97 
[..] 
> >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. 
> 
> The spear hits its target after the player drops it.

Shoot, why didn't I think of that? 

[..]
> >Or maybe I just shouldn't have any always- items in the
> >game :)
> 
> I'd say this is a good suggestion.

The problem wih just not having them is that the concept I'm thinking of
is one where always- items are very apppropriate, if rare (eg, Macbeth,
who could not be slain by any man born of woman -- so he got knocked off
by a guy ripped forth from his mother's womb who was not technically
"born"). On the fourth hand, it might be best just to handle these few
items as special cases; it's entirely possible for  mountains to tremble
and the seas to boil when the Invincible Warrior Karnak battles Dargba the
always-victiorious.

> >I'm not quite clear on why spoofs are a good idea, though. It seems 
> >like replacing the entire object just to modify its hitroll (or
> >whatever) is a bit excessive; can't you just have a list of affects
> >on the object and ask each of them if they modify its hitroll, and
> >have queries about the object's hitroll receive a consolidation of
> >all that information?
> 
> A spoof is expensive if all you are doing is touching up a hitroll. 
> They are really built for more complex and object-incasive cases where
> entire methods are replaced or altered, or the entire behaviour of the
> object is transformed, such as:

Hmm, I guess. I can see for cases where you transform a slug into a dog,
it would be easiest just to spoof it.  (Well, actually, I'd swap the
slug's mind into another body and put the old body into storage, but there
you are).  On the other hand, for stuff like the elven forest scenario, I
would personally give everything in castle krak a permanent affect that
alters their "draw magic" or "use magic" skills.  The sort of affects I'm
visualizing can have functions attached to determine their effects, so
it's no problem to give them something like "if the scepter is in the
forest, set draw_magic skill to -999, else don't change it". I dunno. This
way seems more sensible to me .. but perhaps I'm not clear on how you plan
to actually implement the spoofs?

>   The Elven Forest/Sceptre/Castle Crak scenario oft discussed here. 
> Much simplified: If the sceptre is in the elven forest, all magic
> ceases to operate in Castle Krak.  Magic instantly resumes operating
> when the scpetre leaves the Elven Forest.
> or:
> 
>   The old Great God GooGoo and his holy relics scenario.  (I'll repost
> on request).

It's pretty obvious there's months and months of serious debate on this
stuff that I've missed. I have the vague idea this list is archived .. how
can I get at the archives?

> -- 
> J C Lawrence                           Internet: claw at null.net
--
Dan Shiovitz :: scythe at u.washington.edu :: shiov at cs.washington.edu
..................................................................
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