[MUD-Dev] Item Distribution in Areas

[Vincent Archer]

According to Brian Hook:

> Another alternative is to broker in an intermediate currency.  This
> is an extreme way of doing things, but it has its advantages.  For
> example, mobs almost never drop items, but drop gold/tokens that can
> be exchanged for high quality items at various merchants.  Balancing
> is easier, and the choice of reward is given to the player.  The
> downside is that there's no such thing as a story behind an
> item/encounter and you also lose the motivation behind certain
> encounters (e.g. why kill Nagafen for 100000 gold when it's easier
> to kill 100 fire giants with 1000 gold each).

That's of course the problem when you get an interchangeable
all-purpose currency. Well, it solves other problems. But there's no
reason why a dreadland's cockatrice should hold some pieces of
platinum.

The answer, which many MMOG seem to take now, is to use intermediate
multi-purpose rewards. Not 'all-purpose', like cash, but multiple.

So, now, attacking a treant would yield a treant wood splinter, which
could be fashioned in a bow, or a mage staff, or the frame for a
shield, while Nagafen the red dragon yields red dragon scales, which
can be used to make dragonscale armor (for fighters), or cut and
carved and made into a fetish for magic powers. And so on.

--
Vincent Archer                                         Email: archer at nevrax.com

Nevrax France.                              Off on the yellow brick road we go!
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