[MUD-Dev] Re: Leaving characters in play

[Travis S. Casey]

On Tuesday, 19 May 98, J C Lawrence <claw at under.engr.sgi.com> wrote:
> Travis S Casey<efindel at io.com> wrote:

[much cut]

> The problem is that it is still dependant on a "combat state".  I have
> utterly failed to determine any sort of pattern which can be used to
> determine when a combat state actually should be incepted, which
> actions pertain to combat and which don't, and when a combat state
> should be closed.  It gets even messier for multi-character and
> multi-ranged (Bubba is firing arrows from the other side of the river,
> Boffo is hacking with a sword, and Bernie is doing his thing with the
> fireballs thru the magical portal) combats.  

Not really... the way I've described it, there is a combat state, but
there's no reason why one has to exist.  Rounds could be used *all the
time* -- the only thing that changes is what the default action is.
In most situations, the default action is to do nothing.  When someone
is attacking you, the default action is to attack back.  Many other
default actions could be possible -- for example, if a character is in
deep water, the default action could be to tread water.

>> There may be easier ways to do this... for example, how about a
>> damage system which works like this:

[details of system cut]

> I like this.  It removes the logic by adding a curve who far end (the
> insta-kill) is almost asymptotic.  it would take little to make it
> very nearly asymptotic to infinity.

> Cute.  Adopted.  Thanks.

Thank you.  Having come up with it for your problem, I'm thinking of
using a variation of it in a paper RPG system I'm working on.

--
       |\      _,,,---,,_        Travis S. Casey  <efindel at io.com>
 ZZzz  /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_   No one agrees with me.  Not even me.
      |,4-  ) )-,_..;\ (  `'-'
     '---''(_/--'  `-'\_)