[MUD-Dev] Acting casual about casual gamers

[Malcolm Valentine]

On Wed, Jun 28, 2000, Charles Hughes wrote:
<snipped funny UO chicken joke>
> So what's the difference?  Whether a player is told that the dragons look 
> like
> chickens, or the dragons have the stats of a chicken, it's the same thing.
> It doesn't take long to figure out that dragons have chicken stats, and 
> then
> when the newbie finds this out later on, he's embarrassed to be gloating 
> about
> killing a dragon as a newbie.

  Well I think the representation of mobs is the whole problem. A "dragon"
should present the same threat to a new character as a seasoned hand. The
seasoned character (and the seasoned player behind them) should be better
equipped to handle them through their equipment, skills and knowledge.

  Merely piling on hitpoints and extra attacks to make a "stronger" mob is
bound to fail. Contrast these two scenarios;

1) Characters encounter a sleeping orc, not liking orcs, one of them creeps
   up to it and slits it throat. End of orc, beginning of orc corpse.

2) As above, but thief makes 2.133456 attacks causing 64.24455 points of
   damage to the orc's left nostril. Orc wakes up, long spammy battle ensues.

  With a human DM it is easy to decide which of the two is called for, most
muds however enforce the second option. Yes, there are lots of game balance
issues, but they already there, simply unaddressed. 

  For "heroic fantasy" (cute term), players should feel right from the start
that they "could" go out and kill dragons, but that doing so will entail 
risks, some of which can be minimised by engaging in other activities first.



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