[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc (long)

[Caliban Tiresias Darklock]

On 08:16 PM 1/4/99 -0700, I personally witnessed Chris Gray jumping up to say:
>[Caliban Tiresias Darklock:]
>
> >(This also creates the idea of being able to infect some
> >other player's macro computer with a virus or trojan somehow.)
>
>Sounds like CoreWars meets MUD!
[...]
>Your
>audience might be a bit restricted - those who are into both MUDs and
>CoreWars type things!

Not really. See, in most MUDs, people who have a programmable client have
an advantage; people who don't, are at something of a disadvantage.
Likewise, those who can program the computer in the pseudo-assembly
language will have an advantage; those who can't can still program in the
old macro language (which I will enhance to some degree); those who do
neither can program their client. 

Those who use raw telnet are still at a disadvantage... but actually *less*
of one than in the early versions of the game, when the average server
restricted any user to ONE HOUR of online time daily -- giving a
*significant* advantage to those with faster modems and better-optimised
macros. (The game, as it currently stands, maintains a bounded "time limit"
configuration value which cannot exceed four hours. I intend to kick that
squarely in the ass, knock it out of the config, and never mourn its
passing... although this will also take some game balance analysis.) 

Since the game itself handles two scripting facilities, however, the raw
telnet user can STILL enjoy the power of scripting... and no matter where
you telnet in from, your scripts are always there. Those with scriptable
clients can script the client *and* the game, enjoying some level of added
power, but actually not much more than they would enjoy otherwise since
some of the keys they normally have available for client-side macros would
be needed for server-side macros.

We all know the law that your game will be scripted, no matter what you do
to prevent it. Prevent it? Hell, I want to *encourage* it. I want to put
POWERFUL scripting right into the hands of each and every player, and
actually COUNT on the probability that anyone and everyone will abuse the
hell out of it. I think this will work better in the end than any sort of
false security that anti-scripting or anti-PK measures will provide. ;)


-----
| Caliban Tiresias Darklock            caliban at darklock.com 
| Darklock Communications          http://www.darklock.com/ 
| U L T I M A T E   U N I V E R S E   I S   N O T   D E A D 
| 774577496C6C6E457645727355626D4974H       -=CABAL::3146=-