[MUD-Dev] Re: You think users won't number crunch and statis

[Adam Wiggins]

On Tue, 14 Jul 1998, Holly Sommer wrote:
> On Tue, 14 Jul 1998, Adam Wiggins wrote:
> > Fairly typical on diku and LP muds, if you're not familiar with them.
> 
> Age-related attribute affects are typical of Dikus? Not that I've seen.
> I've been wishing more used them, along with lifespans.

Of course when I say 'typical', I'm not counting all those merc/circle
out-of-the-box specials, since those are all the same anyways.

> > PK-enable muds which offer the "haste" spell are particularly nasty - on
> > Arctic a favorite way to screw someone over *really* badly is to paralyze
> > them, then cast haste on them until they are so old they can barely move.
> 
> Yikes. This is a different use of the "haste" spell than I am familiar 
> with (which was basically a means of temporarily increasing your number 
> of attacks per round, depleting your stamina in the process).

Yes.  The haste spell comes straight from D&D, where the effect was (I
believe) to increase your number of attacks per round by one for a certain
amount of time depending on the level of the caster, and aging you one
year in the process.  Thus it was very useful, but expensive to use
frequently.  Muds that attempt to be faithful to D&D usually have it work
this same way, except I suppose those that deem the age penalty as too
harsh.

> > Even more harsh was Shadowdale, where as you got older your regen fell off
> > until finally it was actually negative, and thus sitting around doing
> > nothing would eventually result in you "dying of old age".  One fellow, a
> 
> Heh, nod. I've got one char who is losing permanent hps to age. What an 
> indignant way to go ;)

Yup.  Another cool effect is that usually there's an ideal age for magic
user types, since your mana regen goes up as you get older (to a certain
point).  Thus mages usually want to haste themselves to 60 or so in order
to maximize their regen, but generally this results in cutting their
hitpoints down by an order of 30% or more.  Then as they continue to age,
their hitpoints slowly drain away until the character becomes extremely
difficult to play.  IMO this is a cool effect - at a certain age you just
have to 'retire' and resign yourself to sitting around in the tavern
telling stories of your days of glory.

Adam