[MUD-Dev] trade skill idea

[Phillip Lenhardt]

On Thu, Oct 05, 2000 at 09:42:30AM -0700, John Buehler wrote:

> I find it humorous that only the result of a trade skill can be
> 'used'.  The tools of a trade were made by a blacksmith, so I can
> 'use' them in that trade.  The bottom line is that any trade should
> be structured for enthusiasts of that trade.  Blacksmithing should
> involve many steps and many decisions along the way for the player.
> Analagously, consider combat.  The enthusiasts want different
> weapons, different opponents, varying skill levels, ranged and melee
> weapons, and so on.  You want repetition?  How about EverQuest?  You
> do the same thing over and over again, employing the same simple
> trade.  Seems like it would be pretty boring to me, but the combat
> and magic enthusiasts eat it up.  What if combat were treated the
> same as a trade is treated in these games.  You would see an
> opponent, go near him, push a button and one of you would fall dead.
> Whee!  What fun.  It's not what a combat enthusiast wants, yet for
> somebody who plays a game focusing on blacksmithing, that might be
> the way that the blacksmith-minded game designers try to present
> combat.

I strongly disagree with your statement that, "any trade should be
structured for enthusiasts".  Instead, I would say that every trade
should be structured for _many_ levels of enthusiasm.  For an
enthusiast blacksmith, combat should be pushbutton and blacksmithing
should be a detailed process; for an enthusiast swordsman,
blacksmithing should be pushbutton and combat a detailed process.
When a blacksmith gets into a fight with a swordsman, the backsmith
should be able to type "kill swordsman" and then sit back and watch
the text while at the same time the swordsman is busy attempting
feints, choosing hit locations, etc.  The reverse should be true if
the swordsman challenges the blacksmith to a sword-making competition.
And the level of detail in executing a trade/skill _should not_ depend
on the user's skill-level.  The blacksmith could be a much better
fighter than the swordsman and still just push a button.  The future
level of detail demanded by a skill for a particular user should be a
function of how often that user has used the optional elements of the
current level of detail.
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