[MUD-Dev] Recursive look

[Ling]

Rehash of an old idea.

I've called this 'recursive look' coz that's exactly what it is.  Best
done with an example.  Character enters a room.  She will get a short
description of the room, say, 2 lines.  Every 2 seconds, another two lines
will appear detailing an aspect of the room/environment/objects within.
And so on.  Eventually, it'll stop spamming the character, there's only so
much you can examine.  Log example:  (forgive my inability to write)

  > enter door
  You enter a light room full of computers.  The far wall windows flood
  the room with light.  The air is dry.
  [2 secs]
  The banks of computers to your left and right are Sun machines.  They
  all display the famaliar login screen.  In front of each machine are
  two operator chairs.
  [2 secs]
  The grey carpet is plastered with blue Sun logos.  To your left is a
  shelf of folders.

Eventually, it'll stop coz this can't go on forever.  Looking at various
items will shift the focus elsewhere.  The idea of the above is that the
character looks around at eye-level, down then eventually up.  Having a
coord system helps.  Coz some players live on the twitch syndrome, any
text that suddenly appears without having hit return = event therefore
must twitch, the descs should appear in either a separate window or
coloured differently.

Side effects?  Well, people zooming thru areas will probably not be able
to scrollback and read where they went.  Certain people like me who can't
read an entire passage of text gets it in small bitesize chunks.
Particularly perceptive characters will probably get more descriptions and
are able to react to the environment quicker.

Comments?

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.

  |    Ling Lo (cod)
_O_O_  kllo at iee.org