[MUD-Dev] Re: Recursive look

[Nathan F Yospe]

On Wed, 21 Oct 1998, Matthew R. Sheahan wrote:

:Ling propagated a meme to the effect of:
:> Out of interest, how do people feel about mundane messages like arrival
:> being 'spiced up'.  Instead of:

:>   Bubba arrives from the east.

:> It becomes:

:>   Bubba walks in from the east.
:>   Bubba strolls in from the east.

:> And so on.  Would this become annoying?  I think the chances are it'll
:> probably be an overwhelming yes.

:why would it be annoying?  because it's more difficult to script triggers
:for?

:on Lost Souls, we use a movement verb appropriate to the actual mode of
:locomotion in use.

:  Bubba walks in from the east.
:  Bubba flies in from the east.
:  Bubba swims in from the east.
:  Bubba hobbles in from the east.  (Bubba is missing one or more feet.)
:  Bubba crawls in from the east.  (Bubba is missing one or more legs.)

:saying things like "Bubba leaves west" and "Bubba arrives from the east"
:just seemed like presenting a much more abstract grade of information than
:is called for.  you're basically presenting a bare-bones statement of a
:change in containment relationships between objects; i really think it
:needs a little embellishment if it's going to promote immersion.

:we don't let people designate whatever verb they want to use like a MUSH
:would because we're into some degree of consistency between effects; if
:someone "jets west on a massive column of flame", i want to know why the
:piece of paper on the ground didn't ignite.

:i kind of think there are two big schools of thought there: the throwing
:around whatever character strings we like school, and the phenomena
:modelling school.

Back when I was running Singularity, I had things like this (mode/mood)
for exits and entrances, but allowed override by the room, so that a
given room might force all walkers to crawl through the muck in order to
leave (just as a string, not as a real effect), and show this to both
the leaver and the witnesses. A room would also control the messages
seen on the far side... this to allow a different message depending on
how they arrived. It was nice, and occasionally genuinely useful. Seems
a bit primitive in retrospect, but then, I don't even have rooms, and a
movement is *always* interpreted in that manner now, no matter what it
is... Ah, well... it was nice, back then, to think I'd done something
magnificent.
--

Nathan F. Yospe - Born in the year of the tiger, riding it forever after
University of Hawaii at Manoa, Dept of Physics, second year senior (joy)
(On Call) Associate Algorithm Developer, Textron Systems Corp, Maui Ops.
yospe#hawaii.edu http://www2.hawaii.edu/~yospe Non commercial email only