[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc - Combat

[Kristen Koster]

At 8:52 PM 1/6/99, James Wilson wrote:
>On Tue, 05 Jan 1999, Nathan F Yospe wrote:
>
>[JCL's original quote snipped]
>
>>On Tue, 5 Jan 1999, James Wilson wrote:
>
>>:I'm curious - has anyone implemented a system allowing variable levels of
>>:combat detail ('brief-mode' vs 'verbose-mode', for instance)?
>
>[snip]
[even more snipped]
>
>I should have been more clear... I know that many muds allow different levels
>of detail in DISPLAYING combat (several people have already piped up saying
>that their muds do this) but what I was interested in was JCL's original
>problem, namely that some players would like to have a great deal of detailed
>control over combat. This is a problem not only in that providing that
>detailed,
>interesting combat system is naturally difficult, but also in that many players
>aren't interested in the details of combat and WOULD like to type 'kill
>Bob' and be done with it.
>
>James

One of those "ooh wouldn't this be cool, but when are we going to find time
to do it" ideas that we've had for LegendMUD is a "spatial" combat system
for lack of a better descriptive name. In the spec for that system, you
could move in, out, circle, and other such things that we were gleaming
from Toshinden's 3d fighting style. Pretty ambitious to make work in text
mud, huh? Probably why it's still on the "that'd be cool" list.

Anyway, it was to be an "overlay" system so if Bubba wanted to just type
'kill Bob' he could and be done with it. However, if Bob really got into he
could probably literally fight circles around Bubba.

We've also currently got a "clear input buffer" command that allows you to
rethink your strategy if you change your mind about your "pretyped"
commands.

-Kristen Koster
Kaige at LegendMUD