[MUD-Dev] Usability and interface

[Caliban Tiresias Darklock]

On Thu, 25 Sep 1997 20:40:41 PST8PDT, "Travis Casey"
<efindel at polaris.net> wrote:

>Caliban Tiresias Darklock <caliban at darklock.com>
>>On Wednesday, September 24, 1997 5:03 AM, Adam Wiggins
>>[SMTP:nightfall at user2.inficad.com] wrote:
>>>
>>
>>I don't want an all powerful character. I want a character capable of
>>playing the game as long as *I* want to play it. Period. Not as long as
>>people let me. Not as long as I haven't solved every quest. Not as long as
>>I'm not level 50. As long as I want to play, be that a day, a month, a
>>year, or even a decade. I always want someplace else to go, and I don't
>>want any dork anywhere able to *stop* me. Slow me up, yeah; inconvenience
>>me, annoy me, make my life hell? Yeah, go for it, but not *stop* me. ;)
>
>I hope you didn't mean what you said there... after all, in order to be able
>to play the game as long as *you* want to play it, irrespective of anything
>else, your character would have to only be able to die if you wanted it to.
>("The dragon killed me because I'm only first level?  But I still want to
>play!")

I think it should be rather obvious that from my preferences, I don't
like permanent death. Removing permanent death as a game requirement
opens up a tremendous number of things which I consider unacceptable on
a permadeath MUD. 

>A more reasonable version might be, "I want a character that I can continue
>to play as long as I'm reasonably cautious."

I think it's perfectly reasonable to expect that I can be completely
reckless, and still keep playing as long as I like. 

>Hostile can be *very* good if done right.  Some of the best games I've
>played
>in have involved having the PCs in environments best described as hostile --
>for example, as resistance fighters behind enemy lines.

Actually, that's still just something I consider 'dangerous'. Hostile
and dangerous can be separated as whether the lion's share of the world
is actively seeking to do you harm. While your scenario may describe the
environment in a hostile fashion, the scenario is only really hostile if
when you put yourself in a reasonably safe location the opposition
actively hunts you down to kill you.

>Something I've thought about off and on is a fantasy mud where "dead"
>characters go to the celestial realms to be reincarnated -- i.e., to redo
>the character with the possibility of changing race, etc.  The reincarnated
>characters would be better than a normal starting character, according to
>how successful they'd been in previous lives.

Like for example, you just cut a few points off major statistics and
allow the player to reassign where they are and choose new
race/class/skills/whatever? I like that... particularly if you can just
hit the go button and keep all the same assignments, except for the loss
of those few points.

>The instructor is still holding back, however -- if he hadn't been holding
>back, but had been acting like a truly hostile opponent would, you wouldn't
>be around to exchange these messages with us. Further, a good teacher doesn't
>try to teach advanced techniques until after the students have learned the
>basics.

The way things usually worked...

	"All right Bob, I'm going to hit you. Stop me."
	"Okay."
	*WHUMP*
	"OWW!"
	"You're too damn slow, Bob. Try it again."
	"Wait a min..." *WHUMP*
	"OWWW!"
	"Wait? What do you mean 'wait'?"
	"I wasn't ready!"
	"Get your ass up, you little girl..."

Effective, basic, and I don't really call it holding back. You learned
real fast this way; of course, the instructor was insane, and there's a
good possibility he would have gotten in real trouble had we gotten
together and filed a complaint. But you just don't *do* that, you know?
;)

With weaponry, you just (as you said) use nonlethal weapons. (Sort of
tough with archery, although that generally doesn't involve person to
person exchanges.) You still get some vicious welts and bruises, though,
and it still kicks in the necessary self-protection instincts.

=+[caliban at darklock.com]=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=[http://www.darklock.com/]+=
"It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more 
doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a 
new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by 
the preservation of the old institution, and merely lukewarm defenders in 
those who would gain by the new one."                      -- Machiavelli
=+=+=+[We are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams]+=+=+=+=