[MUD-Dev] Balancing Addicts

[Ling]

On Sun, 15 Mar 1998, Justin McKinnerney wrote:

This caught my attention...

[snippered]

> The first, and most common for any out-of-the-box mud, is to make some of
> the areas level restricted.

[snipped]

For a mud with levels, I really don't like area restrictions.  Much
preferring a mix of ridiculously hard npcs mixed in with weenies. 
Alternatively, instead of using an artificial 'hard' enforcement.  The
exp/coinage/equip worth from creatures could be lowered according to some
formula (even down to zero).  This 'soft' enforcement would prompt players
to find more worthy pastures.  (I have a friend who got to some really
high level from killing 3 different monsters....)

> The second, and my favorite, but not very practical for any of the
> out-of-the-box systems I know, is to make game balance work so that player's
> skills increase but their 'power' does not. The easiest example of this I
> could give an example of is Magic the Gathering. One player could easily
> play hours every day of the week, while another may only play a single hour
> a week. However, this does not mean the first player would beat the second
> at all. Even if the first has bought more cards than the second, the second
> could be more cunning in devising the deck out of the cards they have.

I've always fancied the idea of a system where there was simply no
physical character advancement, including skills/abilities.  The only
'advancement' of sorts was in contacts.  Simply by playing, running
around, talking to npcs might create helper npcs willing assist out of
tight spots.  For example, a player might know that the garage mechanics
are impartial to some whiskey and dropping some off would put his car at
the front of the queue.  Sorta like life.  It's not what you know but who
you know.

I do have a leaning for sci-fi and the above would very likely not work
for fantasy genres.

I don't have a clue how this would come together but if I ever wanna make
a mud again, this is the system I'd pick.  I also got hit with rubber
mallets for suggesting this system to someone... (prolly coz it's so
alien)

Note:  Addicts have two fold advantage.  Apart from the highly advanced
characters, also have intimate knowledge of the gameworld and contacts in
the form of other players.

  |    Ling Lo of Remora (Top Banana)
_O_O_  Elec Eng Dept, Loughborough University, UK.     kllo at iee.org