[MUD-Dev] Re: Introducing the background hook

[Ling]

On Sun, 13 Sep 1998, J C Lawrence wrote:
> On Sun, 13 Sep 1998 19:22:44 +0100 (BST) 
> Ling <K.L.Lo-94 at student.lboro.ac.uk> wrote:
> 
> > Unlike fantasy muds that can assume some cliches are universal, eg:
> > dwarves are short, elves have pointy ears, I have a sci-fi mud which
> > has a huge unknown factor.  Absolutely nothing can be assumed so
> > somehow, I must introduce an almost entirely different universe to
> > the players.
> 
> I have the same problem.

No offence but you were the last person I expected to get a reply from,
pleasantly surprised and kinda unsurprised considering your gameworld. :)

> > Does anyone have any suggestions?

[snip example Guide from HHGTTG)
 
> The advantage of this approach is that the data is not forced on the
> player but made available upon request, with the format and
> requirements for that request being utterly reasonable in a game world
> context and constant across the game space (ie sort of a universal
> HELP command, but for IC issues instead of OOC issues).

Good suggestion but doesn't quite fit into my gameworld, unfortunately.  I
don't plan on having numerous solar systems, it's going to be quite
confined, to have newbies enter play with a guide would seem unfitting, as
well as being marked.  Against all current thinking I don't mind using
methods that isn't IC, I'm pitching more to educate the player than the
character as I feel the character should know quite a lot.

> Another possibility is to retain a set of flags, either on the
> character or account, which record whether that character/account has
> ever done XXX (unusual thing) before.  If no, the first attempt
> (successful or not, your choice) generates an extra text highlighting
> some of the differences from likely expectation and providing pointers
> to more in-depth data.

I like!

[snipped a bunch]

Current thoughts have led me to think I'd *really*really*really* like a
decent mud client.  Something that can be proactive, download a little
picture about Doodah and a funky button that says: "More..." on it so the
player can chase up information on anything that looks interesting.  I
wanna fill the player in on stuff he doesn't necessarily had to have
encountered yet.  It's definitely going to have to be pictures coz a new
sentence appearing in a corner doesn't have any impact on the player's
attention.

  |    Ling Lo (fish)
_O_O_  Elec Eng Dept, Loughborough University, UK.     kllo at iee.org