[MUD-Dev] Usability and interface

[Matt Chatterley]

On Mon, 29 Sep 1997, Marian Griffith wrote:

> On Mon 29 Sep, Broly wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, 26 Sep 1997, Marian Griffith wrote:

[Snip]

> > However, I've found that most players 'speedwalk' thru town, knowing
> > exactly which roads to take, and since there is nothing new to them there,
> > they really don't want to waste time when just passing thru.  I'd hate to
> > force them to remove their weapons everytime they wander by.  Inside the
> > various shops/homes within a town, I might actually make the guards and
> > merchants enforce a 'no weapons' policy...Probably in the form of orders
> > to remove followed by an attempted arrest.
> 
> In most cases I'm in favour of making such things happen automatically.
> E.g. the moment you cross the towngates  the guards order you to remove
> your weapon and you simply immediately do so.  What is the point of re-
> fusing after all?  You want to enter town for trading or something like
> that,  not to take on all guards at the gate  (who should realistically
> win any fight).

This is where you can hit problems - what if someone doesn't want to
remove a weapon? Its all these 'what if?'s that are troublesome! Mind you,
I am in an environment where someone may well want to directly attack the
guards (although it'd still be a bit of a daft thing to do). And guards
should not really 'realistically' win any fight, unless something
thematically depicts so. Infact, I'd put them at a disadvantage against
anyone with a greater reason than being paid some money, to fight! Just
for arguments sake, anyway. ;)
 
> > Also what about magic in these places?  Even though magic is commonplace
> > in a mud-world, I'd imagine that a mage casting any spell will be
> > suspicious in some towns...particularly those that have been attacked
> > magically in the past...
> 
> Most like the town's resident mages would be alerted by the presence of
> possibly dangerous competition. They would most certainly start to fol-
> low said mage with scrying spells and such.

Or the inhabitants of the town may openly distrust mages, and deal with
any who start casting in the middle of town appropriately. For instance,
by throwing rocks at him. :)

Regards,
	-Matt Chatterley
	http://user.itl.net/~neddy/index.html
"Smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics." -?