[MUD-Dev] Games vs. simulations

[Brad Roberts]

On Tue, 20 Jun 2000, J C Lawrence wrote:

> On Tue, 20 Jun 2000 13:26:47 -0400 
> Travis Casey <efindel at earthlink.net> wrote:
> 
> > SWmud also uses a 3D coordinate system for space battles.  Which I
> > thought was pretty odd, since the Star Wars movies style of space
> > combat doesn't really seem to fit with the "Ok... I rotate to this
> > direction and fire my thrusters" model, but what do I know?
> 
> Tron uses a 2D coordinate system IIRC (emulates the lightcycles from
> the movie "Tron").  I'm also told that most BattleTech MUSHes use
> coordinate systems.  Certainly many of their web pages spend
> significant time on explaining their coordinate interface.

Yes, internally the battletech code stores things as x,y,z coordinates and
during presentation time maps these coordinates onto a hex map.  As far as
the user is concerned, they're working with a hex system.  Some unit types
can jump or fly and the terrain is not flat, so the various distance and
collision routines take altitude into account as well.  However, that's
the extend of the 3d-ness to the game.. its basically 2d at heart, just
like the table top game the online version is based upon.

Its been a very long time since I worked with the code, but I can probably
still answer questions about it if there's any interest in the details
under the hood.

Later,
Brad




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