[MUD-Dev] Re: combat

[J C Lawrence]

On Tue, 26 Jan 1999 14:50:32 -0800 (PST) 
diablo <diablo at best.com> wrote:

> On Tue, 26 Jan 1999, Holly Sommer wrote:
>> On Mon, 25 Jan 1999 diablo at best.com wrote:
>> 
>> > With all due respect, your paragraph illustrates one of my major
>> > complaints with combat on virtually every mud I've ever
>> played. Why is > just doing damage so important?
>> 
>> *ding* *ding* *ding* :) Wouldn't it be a far greater challenge to
>> _subdue_ your opponent? I mean really... you don't shoot a wild
>> horse, you "break" it :)

> In fact, no. The difference is that what you are trying to do in
> combat on a mud (at least what I was always trying to do) when
> killing someone was break their spirit. 

And one wonders why I like permadeath systems...

> Death in a mud (at least in the ones I'm interested in) is not
> permanent like real life. Killing someone repeatedly is analogous to
> 'breaking' a wild horse. You heap death upon death on someone,
> repeatedly strip them of everything they own, and never let them
> walk the land without constant fear of You. 

In a permadeath game this is equivalent to repeatedly attacking them
and either bringing them close to death, or making your threat of
death very real.  The mechanics are the same, its just that death is
no longer a waystation or counting statistic along the process.
Instead the metric is, "How often did he get me in a position where I
was at direct risk of dieing?"

> Eventually, if they do not quit the game (acceptable losses), you
> can show them a little bit of kindness (give the horse a sugar cube)
> and then their soul is yours.  

I have yet to see this work.  More typically I see, "See how cool I
am, I can really kick your arse!"  Followed by, "I helped you a whole
bunch, so I'm not really a Bad Guy!"  There's a fair frequency of the
initial victim then returning the favour by using the skills learned
(often from his initial attacker) to drive his initial attacker from
the game (revenge).

Revenge relationships tend to be much more tenuous and vastly more
indirect in permadeath games.

--
J C Lawrence                              Internet: claw at kanga.nu
----------(*)                            Internet: coder at kanga.nu
...Honorary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...