[MUD-Dev] Re: Introduction

[J C Lawrence]

On Tue, 08 Dec 1998 23:55:08 -0800 
Caliban Tiresias Darklock<caliban at darklock.com> wrote:

> If you have a choice, don't ever take on a project that's been
> moldering in the corner for five years. The only saving grace to
> this is that I *knew* I would have to start from scratch anyway...

Were I to recommend a codebase to start from for anyone doing a
from-scratch server effort, or at least a new-design server effort,
I wouldn't hesitate a millisecond to recommend Stephen White's
CoolMUD.  Its a elegant, concise (which is quite important for
from-scratch/learning efforts), has a clean moderately well
documented design which shows the benefit of many of the lessons
learned from MOO and the Tiny-* clan as well as faint traces of
LP/LPC, and it even has the grace to work once you build it.

> You might note that several MUDs have a beach, along which you may
> wander aimlessly while seagulls fly overhead. While they don't
> crap on you, to my recollection, I'm quite sure someone is working
> on it.

To quote a friend:

  "The highest purpose in the universe is to create an effect."

Corollary:

  How do you *really* kill someone?  Convince them that they cannot
create an effect.

If you have small kids, just try pretending that you can't see or
hear them for a while, all the while saying that you don't know
where they are etc.  It will be fun for the first few minutes and
they'll laugh and play hide-em games, and then, very suddenly, it
won't be any fun at all.

You are telling them that they can't even create the effect of being
perceptable on you.  True horror.

We've discussed this previously regarding motivating players by
setting and delivering rewards in the guise of "cool created
effects" when players do things we want them to.  

  ObThought: Keep a sin stat for your player characters, ala Island
if need be (see prior threads with Keegan on this).  However, add a
special fillip: as the sin stat grows, increasingly gray the colour
palette used for the game client display.  If they become
sufficiently sinful (where sin is gained by play activities the game
designers would prefer not happen), then their game display would
become entirely monochromatic if not a washed out pale gray with
barely distinguishable features and controls.  As they become
increasingly "good", then start increasing the colour palette size
and range.

  Note: This is really only effective as a penalty.  There are few
good comparable rewards I can think of for increasing levels of
"goodness".  Increased sound volume?  More music?  Pyrotechnic
reactions to even minor acts?  There's not a whole lot of scaling
room there which doesn't end up drowning your signal in FX.

RL tends to de-emphasise the effects we create, especially compared
with games.  Seagulls do shit on people, but rarely with
particularly humorous accompanying descriptions or with the
possibility of effectively dicing the gulls with a handy war axe
(you try catching a seagull some time).  Certainly driving a car on
the daily commute to work is typically a lot less exciting (much
lower visible effect threshold) than the spinning pedestrain
splattering wipe-outs surrounded by adoring big-tit bouncing
cheerleaders common in many car driving games.  RL in fact tends to
seem a little dull, if only by order of repetition and lower silicon
enhancement quotient.

A whole lot of testosterone overload is based on the joy of creating
an effect.  A whole lot of supposed maturation (esp in the western
hemisphere) is really convincing the kid that he really can settle
for creating small mundane effects and that such mediocrity is a
Good Thing.

  Ever notice that all pulp villains are attempting to take over the
world?  They're never trying to pay for their kids school bills, or
the ex-wife's alimony payments.  No, they're out to create the grand
big picture earth shaking effect:  Take Over the Whole World!

In a game, when confronted with a button labled, "Destroy world in
spectacular fashion!", would you push it just to see what happened?
If the game world did detonate in a neat manner (ie we created a
neat effect), would you push it again, and again and again?  If you
were a mage in a MUD with a spell that could waste towns, would you
try it out more than a few times?  How many of you have save points
in the various games you play just prior to some particularly neat
effect (eg the BigBoss level)?

As game designers we can use such effects to both attract and
distract attention from salient points in our games.  You want to
de-emphasize killing and violence, but are unwilling to remove the
actual fact of combat?

  > l
  Bubba is here.
  > kill bubba
  You strangle Bubba.  Bubba is dead.
  You are severely scratched and bruised about the face 
  and neck and need immediate medical attention.
  > ...

Hardly exciting or rewarding, tho surprisingly close to the use of
the gun in the original Habitats (knoecked the target player onto
their arse, killed after three shots, and caused them to drop all
carried objects).  There of course the value was in the upset
created and the ability to steal their EQ.

  > l
  Bubba is here.
  > kill bubba
  You strangle Bubba.  Bubba is dead.
  You are severely scratched and bruised about the face 
  and neck and need immediate medical attention.
  > l
  Bubba's corpse is here.
  > l at bubba
  He has puked over his clothes and stinks to high heaven -- or
  perhaps that's because he also shit his britches when he died?
  > search bubba
  You carefully pick thru the vomit covered clothing and find a few
  urine soaked small bills and a feaces covered watch on a chain.
  > get all
  You take the yellow-dripping money and the smelly watch.
  Your hands are now covered with puke and shit.
  ...

I'll leave the rest to your imaginations.  Handling the social
impacts and values is of course a whole different matter.  There's a
lot of value in hearing the victims scream, and a whole lot more
value in hearing them bitch afterwards.

  ObThought:  Kill a player and you have a percentage chance
(perhaps goverened by sin stat) of being cursed by the deity or a
reflection from the killed player such that the killer can no longer 
see or hear the ex-victim, and in general can't create any further
effects on that player...

<<Arrgh, time to go home, and I've wandered far enough away from my
original point that I've no chance of rescueing it now>>

--
J C Lawrence                              Internet: claw at kanga.nu
(Contractor)                             Internet: coder at kanga.nu
---------(*)                    Internet: claw at under.engr.sgi.com
...Honorary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...