Two Tiers

[Ling]

On Fri, 9 Jan 1998, Stephen Zepp wrote:
> JC Lawrence wrote:
> > On Tue, 6 Jan 1998 16:27:51 PST8PDT
> > Ling <K.L.Lo-94 at student.lboro.ac.uk> wrote:
> > 
> > > Final note, ever considered adding an extra tier to your mud?  Let's
> > > take the PBeM approach. :*) The PBeM players would control a nation
> > > and submit turns in weekly without ever realising it is based in a
> > > mud.  They can advertise for a scout to make a recce into enemy
> > > territory and a player would take up the job, do the biz and write
> > > up the report (well, fill in the blanks).  As usual, there is the
> > > problem of synching the two tiers and certain design problems...
> 
> Umm, this is inherently what my design does, without the "two tiered"
> concept.  Players that are heavily into the "Sim Mud" concept do just
> that..hire other npcs or players to gather their information, _or_,
> alternatively, go get it themselves, but that takes time and effort. I
> personally feel that some of the RP feeling of both running and
> belonging to a political entity ( an estate )  is lost if you isolate
> them.

My original thought was to have the 'big picture' controlled by AIs to
present an environment which is constantly changing but most of the change
is outside of the players' hands.  Then I figured the upper level could be
implemented as a game unto itself.  The fact that the upper management
knows bugger all about the real world could be simulated with this
distinct separation of layers. :)  Asides, I thought players who pop onto
a mud would be interested in just the personal aspect of it with no care
for economic sims.

Naturally the two layers can affect each other, albeit only with lots of
effort from the lower tier.

> > One problem is ensuring that neither side finds out about the other
> > (balance and collusion problems), or that both sides always know about
> > each other and so does everybody else.  Its a system where the control
> > of who data on who owns the power is actually much more valuable than
> > the power itself.  You either need to ensure that everybody knows,
> > thereby devalueing the data, or nobody knows, thereby rendering its
> > value moot.

I must admit to not thinking about it too indepth coz it's another one of
my theoretical game designs, condemned to the back of envelopes.  I was
thinking of making the upper tier appeal to the PBeM lot who probably
don't have time to muck around on a mud (bit of a stupid thing to depend
on in retrospect).  I suppose a better design would allow everyone to know
whom everyone else is (so as to not depend on factors external to the game).

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