[MUD-Dev] Re: On tanks...

[Ling]

On Mon, 11 May 1998, J C Lawrence wrote:

> Masamune Shirow on Tanks
> 
> ...with a little help from Toren Smith.

[snip]

[Ignoring all the 'difficult essay' like bits]

> So instead we move to the opposite extreme, and produce the "mini-tank",
> able to use every building and wall in the city as extra armour. These
> are the tactics of the mini-tank, and they could have come straight from
> a SWAT handbook:
> 
> o  The minute you show yourself is the minute you get shot.
> o  Always have someone covering you.
> o  Move only when the enemy can't attack.
> o  So long as your under fire, stay in the shelter of the closest bit of
>    effective cover.
> 
> That's the way the mini-tanks in Dominion are designed to fight. In
> fact, a kind of combat vehicle that springs from the same concept - the
> combination of a light vehicle and heavy firepower - is already in use
> today: put a missile launcher on a jeep, have it pop in and out like a
> gopher. And if it gets blown away, no big loss - it's cheap.

[snip]

> I don't like bloodshed. With the incredible destructive capabilities of
> modern offensive weaponry, the best defence is never getting hit in the
> first place. If opponents are equipped with the same sensory array and
> the same range, then the smaller the tank, the harder it is to hit and
> the easier to conceal.

This is both a feature and a problem in Vague.  As opposed to the usual
games orientated around bloodshed where exchanges are slow slugging
matches, often at close range with the opponent clearly visible, I'm
hoping Vague to be ridiculously quick and deadly in comparison.  It's
drifting towards tactical espionage: players run around with their teams
playing hide and seek with each other.  Any poor character that gets
targetted is good as dead and probably won't get to figure out where the
shot came from but I'm going to have to lighten it up a bit for gameplay
reasons.

Does anyone have experience/opinions on this sort of thing?  I'm not too
fussed for player team trying to take out a base, npc slaughter is fine by
me.  For PvP, it's a different matter: How would a player feel after
meandering around with his squad then seeing them picked off one by one?
Then again, it could be regarded as a Good Thing...

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


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MUD-Dev: Advancing an unrealised future.