[MUD-Dev] Realistic travel times/virtual terrain

[Matthew Mihaly]

On Fri, 6 Oct 2000, Richard Tew wrote:

> I've been developing my mud for years now and not being contrained by some
> strange idea that the players have to have it easy (or that I ever care if
> my mud has any players in the end) I plan to implement realistic travel
> times.

I'd say you aren't really developing a mud as the fundamental aspect that
makes a mud different from a single player game is other players. But,
that's another discussion I suppose.

  
> Have you ever played a mud where travelling across a vast desert was the
> same
> number of moves or perhaps even way less than travelling through a city?  Or
> along the same lines, travelling through a city took about the same number
> of
> moves as travelling from the edge of that city to a whole nother city?
> Basically, muds that use playable travel times rather than realistic ones.
>  
> My question is, has anyone actually implemented a mud where the travel times
> are proportionate?  Where the distance travelled in the mud world is
> directly proportional to the time it takes the player.  What do your players
> think?  Do they like or dislike it?

I think you should just look at all other forms of fiction and ask
yourself if anyone likes them in those forms of fiction? Does anyone
except for the most ridiculous Tolkien-geek (hi Dan!) want to read about
every step of Frodo's journey from Hobbiton to Mordor? Does anyone want to
sit there watching as the Starship Enterprise spends most of its time
doing nothing exciting? NO! 

Now, as much as I think the idea of 'realistic' travel times (and you
don't actually mean realistic, but proportional I'm assuming, as I can't
imagine anyone who is capable of using a computer would think that it'd be
a good idea to make players spend real-time months crossing an in-game
desert once), distance obviously is important, or at least,
inaccessibility (which can be created by other means than distance
obviously). 

I think it's very much a balancing act. You want to have a world with some
sense of scope, but at the same time, you don't want to make travelling as
tedious as it is 'in real life.' (particularly if you're doing the sort of
game where 747s or transwarp-capable Borg starships are not too common).
--matt
 




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