[MUD-Dev] Death among Friends

[Michael Tresca]

Jon Morrow posted on Wednesday, August 01, 2001 9:05 PM

> Hmm.  I may have to come for a visit.  :)

Any time!

> Even if they hate the random events, have you measured your player
> turnover?  And what about the events do players hate?  What do
> they love?

This is largely anecdotal, but the players who gripe are still here.
We have had one player quit when his castle was wiped out by
thieves.  Of course, we originally had PCs do the thieving, and
thievery was much more rampant an uncontrolled -- people quit
constantly back then.

The players love the events when they're prepared for them.  If the
forces of hell come swooping down upon them, the paladins are happy
if they can band together to defeat the head infernal prince and
send the demons packing.  They don't love it if they're not
prepared.  Or if they're in the middle of a party doing something
else.

Of course, this is the nature of the events.  They aren't planned.
They happen at inopportune moments.

They loathe the thief event moment, but ironically, that fear
organizes them.  Thieves provide a very real threat to their
possessions, so they make a concerted effort to immediately stop the
roving bands, even if they were preoccupied with something else.

We have quite a few events now.  Everything from invading demons,
invading angels, knights of balance, goblin hordes, an orc invasion,
an undead invasion, etc.  But we also have other events that don't
involve slaughtering everybody: Eros arrives and leaves candy hearts
for those he likes, firing arrows of love or hate on the unmarried.
A gypsy tells fortunes, changing PCs luck. A gigantic lizard walks
around stomping castles.  Tornadoes, killer plants, mosquitoes,
solar flares, eclipses...the list goes on and on.

> Excellent observations, and in a different direction than I was
> thinking. Do you concentrate on making your NPCs and events
> challenging and interesting?

Well, yeah. :)

> If the game is in a state of constant decay, how is it repaired?
> By NPCs?  Players?  Automatically?  How does it impact the player?
> Are they forced to perform boring tasks to keep their favorite
> castle from collapsing?

The merchant and alchemist guilds are responsible for maintaining
homes.  PCs who leave the game for a year are likely to find their
home gutted if not flattened.  The tasks aren't boring (it doesn't
take long to keep the castle up), but it does require vigilance and
for a PC to play.  Players who leave for vacation or lose access
bequeath their homes to others until they can come back.  Some PCs
rent homes from each other.

When a dwelling decays enough, it can be claimed by anybody just
before it collapses. We have real estate barons who horde land.

> Yes, it's always great for everyone to be given an opportunity to
> participate.  Do you think it would be wrong to give players
> warning signs, such as seeing a fleet of ships on the horizon if
> they walk by the ocean?

There is about a 1 minute warning before each event.  We finally
decided to limit events to once every 24 hours.  Events have a
limited duration -- if the PCs do not perform the required task to
the end the event, it ends itself.

> Cooperation certainly seems to be a foundation concept for MUDs.
> From what you say, random events is an excellent reason to
> cooperate.  But how can we capitalize on the concept in other
> areas without forcing players into it?  I've found most people
> resent being forced to cooperate.

It's not easy. As the previous examples in posts prior indicated,
the situations that were exciting were BECAUSE we were forced into
something we didn't expect.  It was fun because we were empowered to
deal with the challenge.

It's not fun when you get smooshed by an event that's meant for high
level PCs and you're not one of them.  The challenge is in making
sure PCs are equal to the task -- most would probably enjoy the
challenge, even if unexpected, as long as they had a decent chance
of surviving.  But with a multitude of power levels, this is
difficult to achieve.  We usually have any kind of combat event
ignore PCs below their level.  Newbies act as scouts for highbies
(since they're not attacked by the event), and thus contributing in
a non-combat way that makes them feel like they accomplished
something.

Mike "Talien" Tresca
RetroMUD Administrator
<http://www.retromud.org/talien>


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