[MUD-Dev] The MLI Project

[Andrew C.M. McClintock]

>On Mon, 23 Feb 1998, Chris Gray wrote:
>> [Chris L:]
>
>[snipped]
>
>> :Want something a little more "normal".  Boffo now has "magic-vision" which
>> :displays the magical potentials of all objects in such strength and
>> :overwhelming detail that their mere visual characteristics are effectively
>> :lost.
>
>[snipped]
>
>> This suggests, however, that having multiple graphics output windows might
>> be interesting. That way, you could show a magical field strength, as
>> seen by Boffo, as well as his infra-red view. Similar to previous
>> discussions as to focal point, you could choose one of the window's to
>> be clearly redrawn, while the other is less so, because the player does
>> not have Boffo concentrating on that aspect.
>
>I don't have that much to say about this...
>
>By displaying information regarding a single 'thing' across several
>windows (specially as above) would require the player to process the
>information and spent some time as a detective.  Piecing things from
>different parts of the spectrum to get the big picture.
>
>This seems silly coz a computer should do this all for you.  So perhaps a
>layering system where you can switch off layers.  If any of the other
>senses is very strong, it can spill over.
>
>I suppose this can be followed back to trying to figure out what the user
>wants to know.
>
>  |    Ling Lo of Remora (Top Banana)
>_O_O_  Elec Eng Dept, Loughborough University, UK.     kllo at iee.org

It seems to me that doing all this, even layers, would be more work than is
at all necessary. If a creature has grown up with infravision, or sonar,
then they will label an item the same as some one used to human vision.
E.G. a dog will be recognized as a dog no matter what senses used to
identify it, because that person is _used_ to recognizing it. Forcing the
RL player to decipher a picture or representation that they are not used to
will only take away from gameplay, and wont add anything worthwhile (imo).
If a player has a device that allows him to see different ranges in the
spectrum, then perhaps it would be worth it, but i doubt unless it was very
well done that it would add any to game play.