[MUD-Dev] Re: skill system

[Katrina McClelan]

On Fri, 12 Jun 1998, Richard Woolcock wrote:

> Now imagine that same 'business man', in his black three piece suit, wearing
> mirrored shades and carrying a large brief case, walking towards you along 
> a desolate street in the roughest part of town at midnight, his stride slow, 
> confident and silent, his face fixed straight ahead.
> 

Yeah, appearance isn't everything... but isn't that where experience and
confidence levels enter.  I suppose that really to a large extent,
intimidation by appearance is based on experience.  The above mirrored
glasses slow stride three piece suit guy is intimidating based on popular
culture, not in and of itself.  I was thinking more in terms of
instinctive stuff (like my that dragon has sharp teeth), as opposed to
learned behavior... unfortunatley I was rather lame and gave an example
contrary to the above because I hadn't really noted the difference in my
mind yet.

> Appearance can be more than just physical...but how would one code such a
> thing?

Well, in terms of a MUD, you do have some control over the social
structure and stereotypes enough to set an intimidation level based on
appearance for mobs (and even articles of clothing).  If a mob is a member
of the sadistic cult of necromancers, the Rhor-Zul, which is well known
for their distinguisable black robes with blood red sash, then he's going
to have some degree of intimidation when he wears such robes (an example
of clothing being the factor).  Meanwhile if the forest to the south is
home to the Chikawags, a race of doglike men known throughout the realm
for savage cruelty, then merely being a Chikawag is going to have some
degree of intimidation.  These are of course controlled by the world
design and easily evaluated by numerics.  In the case of it mattering how
a garment is worn, (the suit example) I'd just steer clear of that. 
Intimidation by appearance is largely learned behavior, and when designing
a mock culture you have a good degree of control of the common
stereo-types. 

-Kat