[MUD-Dev] Re: Marian's Tailor Problem

[Damion Schubert]

-----Original Message-----
From: Brandon Cline <brandon at sedona.net>
>I'm not totally sure (feel free to correct me Marian), but I think one of
>Marian's problems with the current online games is that there is no way to
>advance in the game without being involved in some type of combat...  I
know
>this is true of most muds/diku/circle/etc, not sure about M59, or UOL
>though.  Then another concern, I guess, would be that even if you could
>advance totally without combat, what would keep the combat type players
from
>seeing you as easy pickings...

Meridian and UO both are 'use-based' systems, where every time
you use a skill or spell (spells are Meridian only), you have a small
chance to advance.  So you *could* advance your tailoring in UO
simply by making clothes - in fact, there is no other way.  In retrospect,
on Meridian, this was a gross mistake.

It's worth noting that Meridian 59 you pretty much had to engage in
combat with either monsters or player because, in truth, that's all
 the game that we had the time and money to implement.  When
faced with the choice between adding crafting skills and PvP
games and scenarios, I chose the latter, partially because our
largest competition, UO, was focusing on the former, and also
partially because I felt that PvP conflict, lethal or not, was a good
way to provide new, fresh challenges with a limited budget. =)

>  Death is either perminant (possibly hard to achieve) or very light in
>effect (no actual death at all).


I'll go out on a limb here and say that I think that very light death
have the opposite from desired effect.  Your killers will care
even less when they die.  However, your good players will care
almost as much.  It's not the loss of stats and stuff that makes
death traumatic and frustrating for the player, but rather the sense
of powerlessness and defeat.

--damion