[MUD-Dev] Wilderness

[Nathan F. Yospe]

Madrona Tree <madronatree at hotmail.com> said:
>> From: "Freeman, Jeff" <jfreeman at verant.com> 

>> Not just speed of travel and size of the world, but also because
>> people quite literally had very little concept of where things
>> were in relation to other things.  They knew if they traveled
>> from "A" to "B" to "C" then they could get to "D".  They didn't
>> know where "D" was in relation to "A".

> *snip*

>> The idea that something might happen to "C" or "B" and therefore
>> necessitate the discovery of a new route is something I hadn't
>> considered, but I like it.

> Practical Use ought to be discussed in here somewhere.  I mean -
> randomly generating terrain is a neat theory and everything, but
> if it isn't implemented well, all you've got is a big pile of
> randomly generated terrain, and that's no fun.  :P

What, having a staging ground to plan strategies or tactics on, with
the need for scouts and secure bases and supply routes, because
those others with the bigger population and smaller guns that you're
up against won't be neglecting the same concerns, isn't fun?  If the
terrain always keeps consistant behavior (Dig in at the dirt cliff
over there.  Don't forget, if you don't reinforce, it'll cave in on
you!) and has variety (Over the next ridge is a broad valley with a
deep, slow river running through the center.  We can get supplies up
the river, and place gun mounts on those mountain ridges.  The
Skarth don't climb well, so when they come in, the only approach
they'll have is by air.  We'll need anti aircraft missiles mounted
here and here...) and logic (Why the heck do we have a bare rock
plateau jutting out of the middle of a rainforest, uneroded?  I
think it might be a disguized enemy base...) some people will find
it *very* fun.

> The first thing I thought about was Teleportation.  When we are
> discussing terrain we are actually discussing Travel (casue what
> good is terrain if nobody travels on it? :)) It occurred to me
> while I was reading this, that we were discussing in EQ /gu the
> other day how Teleporters have a mussed-up view of geography.  To
> me, who plays a druid, Point X is only as far away as the nearest
> Druid Circle.  Somtimes -- a lot of times, actually, since I
> cancelled before both expansions before and resubscribed (and got
> my already-teleporting-everywhere druid back) after Kunark and
> Velious came out, the only route to Point X *is* the druid-circle
> route.

This seems more a problem in transit than generation of terrain.  If
the terrain were generated by hand, would there be any difference?
To place it in perspective, would you prefer a thirty mile stretch
with identical terrain features every fifty yards, but set there by
hand, or a complex, varied, challenging trek across wilderness?  You
can script the first, I assume, but does that make it a good thing?
A lot of your problems were derived from saving-at-a-safe-point, and
a dynamic terrain that wouldn't conveniently allow this.  So,
identify the problem correctly.

No human author could write a puzzle challenging enough to hook me
while still flexible enough to change for every player, allowing
multiplaying.  So, autogenerate the puzzles as well.  Huh?  Well,
no.  Autogenerate the scenarios which prompt the players to
accidentally generate puzzles.  If someone steals the passcodes for
the ruliash homeship, someone else will have to solve the theft and
recover them.  If someone plans an attack on the city of Regal,
someone from the other side will have to oversee that city's
defense.  Plan for PVP, on a mass scale.  World vs world, species vs
species, alliance vs empire.  Players play both sides, issues both
of language and location keep them seperated...

In my fantasy scenario I have 8 species with very little ability to
send information between them, and with appearances that show up as
monsters, except to players of the same species.

--
Nathan F. Yospe - Physicist, Artist, Programmer, Writer, JOAT with a SAK


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