[MUD-Dev] Usability and interface

[Marian Griffith]

On Fri 26 Sep, Broly wrote:

> On Thu, 25 Sep 1997, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:

> > On Thu, 25 Sep 1997 09:06:01 PST8PDT, Maddy <maddy at fysh.org> wrote:

> > >There is a whole lot of difference between brandishing a weapon and having
> > >it in your holster.

> > Not in the eyes of the law, actually... walking out in the street with a
> > holstered weapon is indeed considered 'brandishing'. But this is a
> > legalistic term, in any case, and what you might also want to consider
> > is that the social standards on a MUD are significantly different with
> > regard to weaponry, as you can logically expect each and every person
> > you see on a MUD to be armed at all times and rather experienced in
> > combat.

> Remember that most of us are designing muds that are a bit more dangerous
> than real life(excluding New York), and the denziens have grown accustomed
> to armed adventurers.  Imagine how out of place a soldier _without_ a gun
> would look in the middle of a warzone.

You can't compare mud worlds to medieval worlds of course. But it  would
make sense that mud cities would have the same restriction as many towns
in the american west used to have. Strangers are to hand over their guns
to the sheriff before entering the town, or at least before entering the
local bar.
People in a mud world would expect travellers to carry weapons,  or come
with an armed escort, but they would not particularly want them to bring
those weapons into town.  Drawing a weapon bigger than a eating knife in
town would probably be a serious offense  -because-  all adventurers are
armed and experience in combat.

> > >> Yeah, you'll just have areas that don't look tough but actually are, so
> > >> the low-power characters will get killed more easily. 

> > >Low-power _stupid_ characters will get killed more easily.  A tough
> > >area will obviously give plenty of warnings.  Large numbers of well
> > >chewed bones, signs warning of great evil, neighbouring villages full
> > >of frightened villages with scary stories to tell.

I only like the idea of neighbouring villages,  but then not many areas
are that detailed and extensive that an entire (harmless) town is build
to warn players for the actual area.
The biggest problem is  that there is a case of relative dangers.  To a
level 2 character that goblin cave filled with level 5 goblins is quite
dangerous and fully warrants the entire array of warning signs.  To the
level 10 experienced adventurer  those signs are overkill.  There is no
right or wrong here, just a difference in perspective.

> > Excuse me, but this is a bad assumption. I've been in level 5-15 areas
> > on MUDs and taken one step too far east to find myself in a level 35-50
> > area. 

This is sloppy building. And a poor design of the game. I would prefer
that low level players can hide more succesfully than high level power
houses.  If only because they do not carry with them all that jingling
armour. That way low level players can scout more easily than high le-
vels, they are not locked out of most of the game  and they can play a
role in groups of higher levels. This also requires that there is less
separation in areas for each level.

> I was always under the impression that if you picked up an item, the item
> would also disappear, so the witness would see the item vanish (if they
> were watching), but would not see the person who picked it up.  Even if
> someone watched you cast the spell, that doesn't give them (in most
> designs) the ability to see you.  Now you may still have a shadow, or you
> may be smelly, or noisy, but you'd still be invisible.  Personally I don't
> like auto-appearing for combat.  There's nothing to get the adrenaline
> pumping like being attacked by some invisible creature, and relying on
> reflexes to defend yourself...

The best rationale for an invisibility spell I've ever seen is that it
does not make you actually invisible.  It only instantly  makes people
forget they have seen you. Things that have no mind to be affected and
things that have a stronger mental power  than the caster of the spell
are not affected by it.

Marian
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey