[MUD-Dev] Permadeath or Not?

[rayzam]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Marian Griffith" <gryphon at iaehv.nl>
To: "Mud Dev Mailing list" <mud-dev at kanga.nu>
Sent: Friday, December 15, 2000 6:43 AM
Subject: Re: [MUD-Dev] Permadeath or Not?


> In <URL:/archives/meow?group+local.muddev> on Thu 14 Dec, J. Eric Townsend wrote:
> > Jeff Freeman <skeptack at antisocial.com> writes:
>
> > > Here's a zone with bears and wolves wandering around in it.  You
> > > want players to wander around in it hunting for bears and
> > > wolves.  But you put a freakishly HARD mob (or two, or three)
> > > out there in the zone wandering around with the bears and the
> > > wolves.
>
> > I'm going to show my ignorance here (I've never designed a zone or
> > level, and my pencil-and-paper days were a decade ago) and ask why on
> > earth anyone would put together such a zone/dungeon/level?
>
> Because it was supposed to provide a thrill of danger?  To prevent the
> game to dissolve into tiny groups each oriented towards areas suitable
> for their level?  To encourage groups of different levels?

Or for realism. I designed a world ecology, where in the different
terrains, there are various creatures. In a food chain, some are going
to be harder and eat others. An easy area with only bunny rabbits has
some inherent problems. 1) in my opinion, it talks down to new
players, who are just weaker characters, not weaker minds. 2) all
these bunnies, nothing to eat them? wouldn't that cause denuding of
the ground cover? 3) it feels like a set-up. It's a series of monsters
to be farmed by a specific power level.  4) It's 1- or 2-dimensional

When you add some other NPCs on either side of the food chain, you
turn it into a 3dimensional, more real world, with more depth to
it. If you're going into a woods to hunt deer, you have to be aware
that you may run into a bear, and know what to do if that happens. So
having a few harder monsters in the area should add to the game. Hunt
deer. Bear arrives, run! :)

Rayzam
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