[MUD-Dev] Wilderness

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad <olag@ifi.uio.no>]

John Buehler wrote:

> I disagree.  I don't find hand-built content all that intriguing.
> It's limited and it tends to be arbitrary.  This works, that
> doesn't.  There's a pin in the corner of this room, but that table
> won't move.  Hand-built content tends to be interacted with in the
> generally-linear structure that the designers have in mind.

Well, designers try to pump up frame rate and limit bandwidth and
server load => static content.  With moveable content you
unfortunately also leave the game world open for newbie-bashing
strategies.  For instance, I distinctly remember being blocked by
massive amounts of chairs in UO Beta.  And I got killed too.  One
might think that movable chairs would be a rather innocent design
choice with no negative consequences...

Unfortunately with players like PiMP and fUQ having anything
resembling bricks is creating danger for those romantic players that
would like to go on excursions into the wilderness. :)

> I suppose it all depends on your expectations.  I like the idea of
> getting into a world and fooling around in it, using my
> imagination to come up with entertaining things to do.  As opposed
> to trying to figure out what the designers' imaginations came up
> with as entertaining things to do.

Yeah, I love that too. Love playing with ice, snow, sand and water.
In a multi-player game things become a little bit more complicated
given that "multi" is the characteristic of these systems.  And it
doesn't quite sound like you would want a fractal world. (Stateless)
algorithmic design is still limited by the designer's imagination.
Sounds more like you are in for a simulationist world. (Lots of
stuff on this in the archives around 1997)

--
Ola  -  http://www.notam.uio.no/~olagr/


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