[MUD-Dev] Moving away from the level based system

[Hulbert]

<EdNote: Duplicate HTML copy removed>

-----Original Message-----
From: John Buehler [mailto:johnbue at msn.com]
Sent: Friday, December 29, 2000 9:24 PM

> Forging a sword should be the same way.
>
> How many times should the metal be folded, assuming the technique of
> folding is known?  How long should the tang be?  How long should the
> blade be?  How wide?  Where should the balance point be?  And so on.
> These things will come out as the player directs his character to
> strike the metal here or there, to fold it another time, to apply
> this treatment or that, to cool the metal in oil or water, or any of
> a number of treatments.  These are the decisions that an afficianado
> of sword making enjoys.  Hearing the ring of the hammer, the
> quenching of the heated metal, the pump of the bellows, etc.
> Mistakes will be made by less-skilled characters and the player must
> decide on a path of correction - just as a new twist in a combat
> scenario forced the player to make decisions.

The trouble I have with this is that the player then needs to acquire
the skill of forging, at least within the confines of the MUD skill
system.  Not the character, the player.  I would love the idea of
playing a skillful smith, and managing resources to get proper quality
I can agree with.  But I am not prepared to learn where, when and how
to strike the metal just to play my character.  My smith should know
these things, I do not.  I want to be able to tell my smith to forge a
sword with X materials, and he will do it to the best of his ability.
Combat(and many other skills) are run this way...I do not know how to
properly swing a sword to kill something, or pick a lock, but my
characters do.
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