[MUD-Dev] Condsiders

[John Buehler]

Klyde Beattie writes:

> I have thought a bit about taking the rogue class to the next level
> and I'll share my ideas
>
> The default game mode should be 1st person so you can't see the
> theives sneak up on you with the magical direct satalite uplink.
>
> You should have a surround sound environment where the thief actualy
> walks sielently and the player has to pay attention to hear him.
>
> All players will have an alert button where if they push it, there
> character will stop moving and look around ( and if you use DnD like
> backstab rules he will be ammune) same stuff with thieving and
> probably other features like certain reaction based traps.

I agree with your goals.  I disagree with your approach.  I do not want
player perceptions to be at issue.  I want character perceptions to be.

I would tend to rely on a third person view, but where the objects in the
world are presented according to the character's perceptions.  Where the
character is looking, the player would be presented with a full color,
detailed view of the area, with the actual viewing frustrum clearly
demarked.  As we transition from the foveal area of the character's field of
view into the peripheral areas, the objects start to lower in polygon count
and the colors might wash out.  As we go beyond even the peripheral view,
objects are only displayed when they make a sound and are presented as grey
lumps.  Noises that your character makes can mask noises around it.  So if
you are walking down a country road singing a song, it means that a bandit
might be able to sneak up behind you and club you.

Character perceptions are key to interesting play and entertaining
scenarios.

As characters acquire new skills, they will acquire new perceptions to
accompany those skills.  These will be aids to the player in deploying those
skills.  A classic one would be the archery perception skill.  When the
player is ready to line up a shot, the character perception tool pops up.
It lets the player indicate the target and see the arc that the shot will
take.  It will do other things such as indicate the rough area where the
arrow will land, consider range, ambient conditions, equipment used,
character skills, etc.  As the player maintains the aiming without firing,
that area will tend to start to shrink.  The higher the skill, the more
accurage the shot, so the target area may drop to almost a pinpoint.

Many perceptions that are acquired will simply be appraisal skills.  As the
character is wandering about, it can be told by the player to keep an eye
out for high quality longswords.  The character has that perception because
it has some corresponding skill, such as swordsmithing or some form of
advanced swordfighting.  Because the character perceptions are involved, the
player doesn't have to know what a high quality longsword looks like.  The
internal systems know the character's perceptions and it knows the
attributes of objects.  It figures out if the character 'notices' things and
then it gets the client application to notify the player.  In the case of a
graphical client and the longsword, the client might actually draw in the
longsword at another character's hip and flash it in red.  When the player
clicks on it or just presses a button to ask about the currently 'noticed'
item, the client tells the player that it matches a perception query that
the player had set up.  The 'high quality longsword' query.

The only reason that I would provide a first person view for my players
would be so that they could admire panoramic views or simply experience
things through the eyes of their character.  This can be handy when doing
things like playing card games, socializing with friends, reading in-game
documents, etc.  When in first person view, it means that peripheral vision
cues and what-not are sacrificed to some degree.

JB


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