[MUD-Dev] Re: Using HTML for a Mud character generator

[John Bertoglio]

-----Original Message-----
From: Vadim Tkachenko <vt at freehold.crocodile.org>
To: mud-dev at kanga.nu <mud-dev at kanga.nu>
Date: Sunday, May 24, 1998 10:04 PM
Subject: [MUD-Dev] Re: Using HTML for a Mud character generator


>John Bertoglio wrote:
>>
>> From: Vadim Tkachenko <vt at freehold.crocodile.org>
>> To: mud-dev at kanga.nu <mud-dev at kanga.nu>
>> Date: Monday, May 18, 1998 6:46 PM
>>
>> >John Bertoglio wrote:
>> >>
>> >> In reading the archives, I noted some interest using a web-based
system
>> for
>> >> generating characters. Given the web-based nature of my project, it
is a
>> >> natural for me to explore this method. I have put a sample of a
portion
>> of
>> >> the character generator for AR on my demo site
( www.paper.net/mud/ ).
>> >
>> >Looks too technical. What I was dreaming about was a constraint-based
>> >fractal-like visualization, which you can manipulate without any
numbers
>> >at all (though, in this particular case numbers are significant).
>>
>> Now I know I have fallen down the rabbit hole.
>
>Can you please mail me the explanation? My idiomatic English is still
>limited...


Forgive the obliqueness. It is a reference to Alice In Wonderland, A
childrens book written in England. In the book, Alice, a young girl falls
down a rabbit whole into a world where everything is crazy with odd
creatures. The world is reputed to have been inspired by the authors
smoking of opium. In Wonderland nothing was like it seemed. My somewhat
silly point was that you were talking about much more advanced technical
concepts (fractals) and my humble excercise was basic math (though I am
proud of getting the JavaScript to work. Those {} are pesky critters for us
progammers with limited skills.)


>> My modest system uses a
>> little arithmatic to do some basic spreadsheets. Vadim is talking about
>> "constraint-based
>> fractal-like visualization"...and my stuff is too technical?
>
>What I meant was it looks (okay, _may_ look) too technical for a person
>on the other side of a screen, the user. I admit, the stuff I was
>talking about may be more technical in implementation, but may be
>simpler to use - I can illustrate it as a difference between the manual
>and automatic transmission.


Point taken and understood. You are correct. The interface is confusing and
will get more so as the character creation process is fleshed out. However,
what you see will not be the only method of entering the game. I will
develop character templates (classes, for all intents and purposes) which
will allow instant entry to the world. Taking over various NPC characters
will allow the players to try out various approaches.

The web template is for those folks who what to fully customize a
character, the kind of person who likes to balance the numbers. This is the
only place in the game where this will be possible, so I figure, expose all
the math and let them have at it.

>
>What I may come up with (given enough patience :-) is some snowflake
>with different segments corresponding to different properties (stats)
>and draggable nodes.

If I had the talent, it would be possible to build active X controls which
would download. These could be multidimentional graphics with draggable
points which would accomplish your goal. Perhaps in V3.0. Would be cool,
though.

>> In general I believe in supressing stats. Damage adjetives should
reflect a
>> randomized value of the potential for that kind of attack, etc. I
wrestled
>> with the notion of not allowing it during char gen but decided that
>> character tweeking is too important a part of the for a lot of people.
>
>Exactly the point I was trying to make. No numbers, just the look and
>feel of an abstract snowflake changing appearance and colors of its
>segments - with some experience, the user will make a sense out of it.
>Also, it should be relative to the user's own 100% status - not in your
>example, though; say, as a status display.

Interesting point.

>> We use bar graphs for stat display with different colors describing base
>> and current stats. A player who really cares can look at the html source
>> and work back to get reasonably accurate ratios...but in general the
stats
>> are masked. When looking at another character, your various assesment
and
>> perception skills produce a picture of what you think their stats are.
This
>> will never be exactly accurate (except by accident) and with the
deviation
>> based on skill level.
>
>This is a good idea - you have to have some clue about what is skill X,
>for example, to estimate other person's skill X level.

And then, all you get is a graphic representation. For many skills the
assesment will be so error prone as to have almost no value.

>> John Bertoglio
>
>--
>Still alive and smile stays on,
>Vadim Tkachenko <vt at freehold.crocodile.org>
>--
>UNIX _is_ user friendly, he's just very picky about who his friends are

BTW, This tag line is a very subtle bit of english language humor...I have
poached it in several conversations and gotten major laughs with it.
>


John Bertoglio

>--
>MUD-Dev: Advancing an unrealised future.
>