[MUD-Dev] Planes of existance

[Caliban Tiresias Darklock]

On 09:53 AM 5/14/99 +0100, I personally witnessed Greg Munt jumping up to say:
>> [Quzah]
>>
>> While talking of death and what to do with folk when they
>> expire, I thought of implementing planes of existance and
>> thought some of you folk may like to kick the idea around
>> a bit.
>
>Don't do this without thinking for a while. The above implies that not
>having anywhere for dead players to 'go' is a problem. 

Dead PLAYERS? 

You have dead people playing your game? ;)

>Don't even *think* about getting me
>started on how instantaneous reincarnation can kill a well thought-out
>world. 

Instantaneous reincarnation is Bad because it turns "death" into
"teleport". As such, death is no longer as big a deal. Death needs to be a
pain in the ass -- otherwise it's not so important to avoid it.

Or at least that's how I see it. What's your perspective?

>I think you need to avoid thinking in terms of how to implement this thing.
>The first thing you need to do is to decide if your reason for wanting
>multiple existence planes is a Good Thing(tm).
>For example, 'because the players don't like having to start all over again
>when they die', 'it would be, like.. COOL, man' and 'it would be fun to
>code' are all BAD reasons. (No, this *isn't* flamebait. Really! *koff*)

I think the first one is a GOOD reason. This is why my concept of "death"
is a little different from most. Here's how I handle it.

The player himself is the character. Ostensibly, he is also the captain of
a spaceborne warship. This warship is controlled remotely by computer. (I'm
so inordinately pleased at how appropriate this is with respect to
suspension of disbelief -- unlike your average game where you're supposed
to be physically there, your in-game situation in my system is identical to
your RL situation: you're sitting at an obsolete terminal, using an
inadequate command set!) 

Therefore, the captain doesn't go down with the ship -- he just loses the
ship. Since the ship is a military vessel, it has been subsidised by the
government. If you are very very successful and do a very very good job,
you can acquire multiple ships. When you have more than one ship, the loss
of a ship is nothing more than a nasty setback; you just connect to your
other ship. When you don't, well, now you need to appeal to the government
to provide you with another ship. This is just fine with them... but...
it's a bureaucracy, man. You want a new ship? Let's see... no, wait, we
have an ongoing investigation into the loss of your last one. Please come
back later, when we've had a chance to clear up the paperwork. The term
"later", in the game's context, means "tomorrow". Death is permanent for 24
hours, but after that you can continue to use the same login and password. 

As I see it, this makes death an inconvenience, which can be offset by a
proper contingency plan. Failure to have a plan makes it a much larger
inconvenience. However, many of the REAL inconveniences of death go away --
well, NOW this means I need a new login, and a new password, and a new
character... and chargen is so boring... nope! Not here! Same login, same
password -- and there *is* no chargen. You enter one command, and if you
"qualify" (i.e. you haven't died in the past 24 hours, the government has a
ship, and you don't have a ship) you get handed a new ship. Every ship is
the same -- it is modified and customised by each individual captain during
the course of the game. Since you already know your way around, you don't
have to start over again, and this is actually normal in the game context;
unlike other systems, where each character is a new individual who
theoretically knows nothing about his surroundings, in this system a new
"character" (ship) is controlled by someone who MAY actually know his
surroundings. 

>Greg, who is forgetting how to lurk - this may, or may not, be a good
>thing...

I think it's a good thing. Speak up, say stuff, we're listening. ;)

-----
| 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=- 


_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev maillist  -  MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
http://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev