[MUD-Dev] The Best Guy on the Mud Thing

[Eli Stevens {KiZurich}]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ilya, Game Commandos
> Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 1999 6:39 PM
>
> Well, I guess Ola and I will just waltz off on our own little tangent
> here (blush).

I have been thinking about this as well.  :)

I think that a related aspect is how to limit the powergamers.  The
talker/RPer/social types are not the ones that will be maxing out whatever
levels/skill trees/etc. that your mud implements.

I do not think that spare time alone should decide the "elite" of a mud.
However, I think it would be more productive to limit the effectiveness of
the *playstyles* of powergamers, not to penalize players being online.  Just
MHO.

Note that I am aiming toward a RP based PvP MUD (define PvP however you
want, I don't feel up to providing an exhaustive definition :P ).  Skill
increase would be tied mostly to use (not levels, or getting exp by killing
mobs to improve your basketweaving).

What I have been considering doing is implementing a system where every
skill has a "frequency" value.  The frequency would be a rough estimate of
how often a skill could be considered for advancement/improvement.  If a
skill has a value of one minute, and the player uses it, then it is
basically "frozen" for that minute.  No matter how often in that minute they
use the skill, it will never increase.  Also, for every time they do use the
skill, the unfreeze time gets pushed back another minute.

Or, if they have less than the frequency time limit left, the time left just
doubles (with 5 seconds left, a skill use would set the clock to 10
seconds).  Or, any one of a million other variations...

Ex: A player "hides" once in a room, moves and hides again quickly.  Hide
has a frequency of one minute.  The second hide is not considered for
improvement.  Two minutes after the first hide, the player hides again, four
times fairly quickly.  Only the first of the four is considered for
improvement, and it will be at least four more minutes before the player has
a chance to improve it more.

Spamming a skill (or bot-like repetitive behavior) will have an effect
opposite the desired.  If someone hides 60 times in a row, it will be at
least an hour before they could hope to improve it again.  The system would
favor players who use a skill, then let it sit, and use it again later.  Of
course, if players are told the details of the system, it could still be
abused, but only once a minute.  :)  And also of course, complications and
details would make the system more feasible in a given setting.

At first glance it seems unrealistic - if you practice something, you should
get better, right?  Well, I don't think that filling out your multiplication
tables twenty times makes you much better at math, just like hiding twenty
times in one room does not makes you a beatter sneak-thief.  Those actions
just make you better at filling out multiplication tables and concealing
yourself in that one shadow.

If, instead, you fill out a multiplicataion table, prove a theorem, work on
some goemetry and so on, that makes you better at math (basic math, but math
:).  Same for the rest...

...  But I have no idea how it might work out with real players.  Ones who
have the spare time to figure out how to exploit the system...  :)

Silence is spamming his two cents
Eli - mailto:c718157 at showme.missouri.edu




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