[MUD-Dev] Dynamically changing room descriptions

[Ben Greear]

Ronan Farrell wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I am considering implementing a system where the room descriptions
> and properties change according to the weather, time of year and day.
> For example, we've all seen street lamps in Midgard, and nothing
> changes from day to night, surely they come on at night.  Similarly
> the idea that in winter, mountain passes may not be passable due to
> snow and weather, but in summer they are.
> 
> I can think of several ways of doing this, but I am wondering if
> anyone has done anything similar, and whether people think it
> would be worth doing in the first place.
> 
> Ronan

I've always been leery of machine generated textual descriptions, but
static descriptions do leave something to be desired.  Basically, I
don't see any reason why you couldn't code this kind of thing with
a brute force approach (ie have to enter many different descriptions
for a room/obj/mob/etc for different conditions).  I have never seen
a description or algorithm that does it automagically....though I've
not seen everything by far :)

Acually, I think things like you talk about are best presented with graphics,
as they can be made to follow physical phenomena, and thus are more easily
modeled by computers.....

One thing I would not like:  More 'realistic' descriptions that do not flow
well or tell a story, versus 'static' descriptions which weave a seamless web
around you.  In a seamless web, I think you can make up your own details, but
otherwise the emersion is lost...

Enjoy,
Ben
> 
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--
Ben Greear (greear at cyberhighway.net)  http://www.primenet.com/~greear 
Author of ScryMUD:  mud.primenet.com 4444        (Released under GPL)
http://www.primenet.com/~greear/ScryMUD/scry.html


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