[MUD-Dev] The Player Wimping Guidebook

[Val Trullinger]

Nathan Clemons wrote:

>
> Another reason for wiping is for those on a themed MUD. For instance, the
> Wheel of Time series. I have seen wipes occur several times on these, and
> they serve two purposes: letting the RP reset (allowing players to truly
> RP out 'The Final Battle') and also introducing major code changes as
> well.

On themed MUDs and player wipes:

At The Two Towers, we chose to have the mud be set on one day: March 15, the
day of the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. (though it does kind of throw a
thematic kink in things to have Gandalf carry out his dialogue with the Witch
King every day.)

We reboot the MUD to implement code changes and reset the world state  every
3-4 days, keeping player data files intact. This system has worked fairly well
for us. It provides for redistribution of items amongst players, it lets us
put in code changes frequently, and it's become a convention that the players
see as fair: so what if you didn't get the Fang of Sauron last time around?
you'll have another chance in just a few days!

We handle RP wars by having a few admin play the main characters (Gandalf,
Aragorn, Mouth of Sauron), and then they 'enlist' the players, who agree not
to report each other for playerkilling for the RP battle. We give out medals
afterward, which are highly coveted. And yes, there are often glitches in the
RP wars and death is highly likely, but it's taken in good humor (the last war
was named 'Bloodbath at the Black Gate' after an admin (well, okay, it was me)
accidentally cloned too many high-level npcs for the players to fight).

It's not a perfect system by any means, but it's worked for us.

val




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