[MUD-Dev] Modelling combat

[J C Lawrence]

On Mon, 17 Jul 2000 13:24:17 -0400 
Travis Casey <efindel at earthlink.net> wrote:

> Comment: movie combats are not a good place to look to see how
> real combat works.  

Movie combat also has a large problem which are also their strength:
Movie combats are scripted and choreographed to be interesting in
regard to the hero.  Its all about the movie's hero, his survival,
and what he overcomes, which is excellent from a MUD perspective in
that many/most PvP players are their own heros and love
opportunities to seem heroic, but also falls down for PK where
they're both trying to be the hero against each other.

How do you script a fight where all sides, including the losers,
appear heroic?  

One crude approach could be to unbind the IO to the players so that
messages on effects on self are always downgraded in severity and
messages on effects on others are always upgrade to be more extreme.
eg:

Viewpoint of Bubba:

  > who am i
  You are Bubba.
  > l
  Boffo is here.
  > hit boffo
  You splatter his face.  His nose is now a ruined mess.
  Boffo taps you lightly on the side of the head.

Viewpoint of Boffo:

  > who am i
  You are Boffo.
  > l
  Bubba is here.
  Bubba swings at your head and missses, ruffling your hair.
  > hit bubba
  You smack Bubba upside the head.  He looks nearly unconcious,

<shudder>

Thing is, I've played MUDs which did this in the extreme.

> Now, for a mud, you're probably more interested in making it "seem
> right" than *be* right, so movie combats can be good examples...

They're certainly familiar to the player base.  

--
J C Lawrence                                 Home: claw at kanga.nu
---------(*)                               Other: coder at kanga.nu
http://www.kanga.nu/~claw/        Keys etc: finger claw at kanga.nu
--=| A man is as sane as he is dangerous to his environment |=--


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