[MUD-Dev] Re: after the plague: mud report

[Ling]

On Sat, 8 Aug 1998, quzah wrote:
> From: S. Patrick Gallaty <choke at sirius.com>
> 
> >Well, someone here referred me to "After the Plague" at atp.deltav.hu port
> 3000,

[snip stuff about various features]

I do suggest taking a look at DartMUD which is in the FAQ.  Although the
game never did reach 'critical mass' and take-off, it is probably still
one of _the_ reference muds.  It's also years old and dead buggy but
that's besides the point. :P

If you can't wait for the FAQ: <URL:telnet://dartmud.com:2525>

With respect to After the Plague:

> [snip]
> >The most interesting thing there is their 'party' system, where players
> >(and monsters) can put themselves into 'front' and 'back' ranks so that
> >fighters defend and mages/archers/thieves can throw spells and knives and
> >whatnot from the back rank.  I've escorted people who were in danger
> >of being pkilled and bodyguarded them by being in the front rank in their
> >'party.'

A similar system is implemented in DartMUD which uses 'rows'.  Characters
within a party may select a row.  Only two characters may occupy a row at
a time, the rest you can extrapolate. 

> >It's an excellent mechanic, and I am surprised I haven't seen it elsewhere
> >before.

Amazing isn't it?  It's such a logical outgrowth to the party concept yet
it took several years to appear.

> A note on that aspect, or rather a question. It sounds rather interesting,
> but I was wondering if they had a 'direction of travel' or rather, 'group
> facing' for the party? The reason I ask, is if there is front and back rank
> it would seem logical for me to hide in the brush, and wait until they walk
> past, then shoot the mage in the back with an arrow, or drop from a tree so
> that I'm behind the mage, thus reversing the facing of the group when they
> turn around, resulting in the mages and archers being in the front, and the
> warriors being in the back.

Not for DartMUD.  Such a system is far more work than simply adding
'positions' within a party.  I also suspect the 'feel' of the system
would breakdown in the event of a rumble with more than 3 parties.

In any case, how would you define a party?  Surely, it's just a group of
kids in a loose knit formation?  Instead of joining a party, a character
could opt to follow Bubba and try to stay 5 metres behind and left..... 
This is providing you don't use parties as some sort of joint exp
accumulation machine.

[features snipped]

'After the Plague'?  Hmm....   When organics die, it doesn't have the
corpses exploding into a puff of spores does it?  (a la DartMUD :)

  |    Ling Lo of Remora (Top Banana)
_O_O_  Elec Eng Dept, Loughborough University, UK.     kllo at iee.org