[MUD-Dev] The MLI Project

[Caliban Tiresias Darklock]

At 09:24 PM 2/16/98 +0000, coder at ibm.net wrote:
>
>On 16/02/98 at 02:31 AM, Ling <K.L.Lo-94 at student.lboro.ac.uk> said: 
>
>>If I want
>>to act like a robot and 'trigger' on some movement/colour change, I stare
>>off centre to the target.  This staring into nothing in particular, apart
>>from less eyestrain, let's me switch off and flinch.  
>
>Bingo.  Its a common technique, and havily used by most heavy arcade
>gamers.  

And part of military combat training. When watching a doorway from cover,
for example, we're taught to aim the weapon naturally at the door and then
watch a spot about three feet from it. 

And on the subject of first-person shooters... the thing that's done me
more good than anything in Quake is the general wisdom passed along by my
range instructor during basic: it's always better to take two seconds to
aim than it is to jump out like a maniac and blindly squeeze off rounds in
the general direction of the target. One good shot outdoes a hundred bad
ones every time. 

I would think, however, what makes peripheral vision more noticeable is the
lack of resolution. I can't read the word "Camel" on the cigarette pack
next to my monitor, for example, nor can I read the keypad on the phone at
the other side... but if either of them moved, I'd notice immediately.
(This sometimes happens, since I have a cat in the house. And now that I
think about it, I can see my cat lying on the floor out of the corner of my
eye, but I have no idea which direction he's facing -- he's facing either
the mirror or the door, but I can't tell which.)

>>In any case, take a look at the game Dungeon Keeper and take control of a
>>beetle.  You end up viewing the world with a goldfish lense.  Different
>>creatures have different vision.  It's quite cool until you start to
>>think you really are a beetle.
>

><kof>
>
>Latent RP?

I found Dungeon Keeper to be an excellent game, and I still enjoy playing
it... even though it got really boring after a while in terms of the
victory conditions. The differing perspectives, when in first-person view,
were fascinating... although taking control of a vampire was a pain with
the red tinge to everything.