[MUD-Dev] Re: Mules (was something different)

[Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt]

On Fri, 15 Jan 1999, J C Lawrence wrote:

> On Fri, 15 Jan 1999 20:51:22 +0000 (GMT)=20
>
> > I think the most striking example of that is the cleric in the
> > standard mud.  Most of the time their only role in a group is to
> > cast sanctuary and healing on the other players.  They are
> > supposed to be healers but in reality there is not that much to
> > heal.  In some other message it was mentioned 'why bother dragging
> > a cleric along if you can get all the experience alone and yell
> > for help?' =20
>=20
> If you are going to have interdependence (such as the standard
> need-clerics-to-heal), you have to make sure that the level of
> interdependence is equivalent among all nodes.  If you have one node
> which depends on the other nodes less than they depend on it (or
> each other) you have created an unstable arbitrage situation such as
> you describe.
>=20
...
>=20
> <nod> Mostly a sign of game imbalance.
>=20

Yes, if you want clerics that are interresting to play, you need to make
them vital to the everyday adventuring/life of the game. Seen at the
perspective of hack/and slash games, you need to make wounds begin to
fester, and healing be generally slow and painfull if you have experience=
d
combat. Unhealed wounds be a serious drag on you 'health points', or=20
ability to perform in general, etc. Sickness both temporary and cronic
should also be prevalent. "Dont go out in the swamps, youll catch
malaria!" (which incidentally means 'bad air' since it was thought that
it was the foul smelling air of swamps that caused it). When the cleric=20
spends the evening caring for the returning fevers of the party magician,
and the broken leg of your knight, then you would have balanced the game
better. What i have experienced, mostly clerics act as 'health point
boosters', and not much else. I doubt that you will overcome the practice
of some players to create the player types that most strongly depend of
each other, and play them together. That will always be a solution in suc=
h
a game design.

Hans Henrik St=E6rfeldt         | =20
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Student of Computer Science   | Scientific programmer at Center for
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  at University of Copenhagen |   Technical University of Denmark.