[MUD-Dev] Depth of realism

[Matthew Mihaly]

On Thu, 18 Nov 1999, Mik Clarke wrote:
 
> Joe Kingry wrote:
> > 
> > Most modern M*'s strive towards some greater achievement of realism then
> > their predecessors.  There are arguments to what is the "right" degree of
> > realism.  Too much realism gets in the way of what one would think (I at
> > least anyhow) MUD's purpose were, that as a source of escapist
> > entertainment/mental exploration etc.
> 
> Yes, but for certain generes, certain types of realism are required.
> The typical AD&D/Diku isn't that bothered about food - I've met many
> where it has been disabled.  In CthulhuMud I extended it, because one
> of the 'dangers' of the mythos is being stranded somewhere without
> food and water.  Success requires planning, bad planning means disaster.

Yeah, I like having to plan. You don't have to plan much in Achaea
currently, but I've designed a fairly thorough ship and ocean system where
planning will be essential. You'll need to crew your ship, ensure enough
fresh water and food for them on the journey, as well as citrus fruit or
sauerkraut to ward off scurvy. (sauerkraut will, of course, lower crew
morale, as that stuff is nasty.)

>  
> > I mean if the time on a said MUD progresses at 30 times faster then RL, then
> > one couldn't expect players to log on for 4 hours everyday to make the cross
> > oceanic journey they are on.
> 
> Ummm. Guilty of this to, although no for 4 hours yet.  Our longest
> crossing
> to date is one game day (about 36 minutes) and happens once every 4
> days.
> Players have to wait for the boat, get one it and ride across.  We have
> put some mobs onboard to give them something to do.  A longer oceanic
> crossing we're planning will have a full blown adventure on board the
> crossing.  The ships are (will be) set up as self contained worlds.  If
> a player dies on one, they respawn back on the ship, with thier body in
> the ships morgue.  

Our ocean system will, in fact, require massive journeys to sail around
the world (players will be in control of the ships, setting the sails to
catch the prevailing wind, or using oars. In any case, to travel at any
speed (ie via wind), you won't be able to just "sail east". Your
direction of travel will be the result of various factors (how your
sails are set, what the wind is like, what the current is like, if there 
is one, etc). I fully intend to make players take 10 hours or so to sail
around the world, if not more. The idea is to eventually make another
continent and keep the two major continents seperate, aside from the odd
big ocean journey to visit the other one. In this way, I hope to create a
feeling of real distance.


> Easy. Like anywhere else in Diku land, the ship is a collection of
> rooms.
> Players return to the room they were in when they logged out.  This
> means
> that they will be returning to the ship several game days (or even
> weeks)
> later, so it's position along its route will be somewhat randomized.  I
> have deliberatly set the timescale so that if you log in at the same
> real
> world time every day you won't be on the same day of the week/month game
> time.  
> 
> For the technically curious, this is done by changing the rooms exit
> (and
> description) based upon game time (generally mod x days).  The ship
> never
> actually sails anywhere.

Hmm, why not do ships on a grid system? Make a massive grid to represent
the "world" and then slap land-masses onto coordinates of that grid. Just
make your ship rooms point to what grid lcoation it's at. In that way, you
can print out nice ascii maps of the surroundings that would include other
ships, land masses, etc. Grids work well for oceans in ways they do not
work well for land (ie land is quite different, whereas ocean surfaces
look very similar, and can easily be put onto grids, using maybe 20 or so
standard descriptions). Grids for ships also make it nice and clean when
dealing with wind speed and direction, etc. They can be used to easily
simulate someone being lost (the direction a player is actually sailing
will be able to be different from the direction he thinks he is
sailing..reflecting the lack of proper nagivational techniques).
--matt




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