[MUD-Dev] Depth of realism

[Mik Clarke]

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.
 
> 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.  

>  Well feasibly this could be dealt with by
> allowing characters to persist after a player logs out.  But to take another
> example, what of sleep? Characters hardly ever sleep while being played and
> then, only when wounded, totally regardless to the time of day it is. How
> does one deal with this?

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.
 
Mik



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