[MUD-Dev] Re: [iggamedes] WAKE UP! :) Tomb Raider style games?

[J C Lawrence]

Many combat oriented MUDs have the idea of a "consider" command
which reports some sense of how tough the named mob/player would be
as an opponent.  What I haven't seen however is consider applied
as a general investigation/exploration tool for all possible
situations in the game world.  

------- Forwarded Message
From: "Russell Lewis" <russelll at us.ibm.com>
Subject: Re: [iggamedes] WAKE UP! :) Tomb Raider style games?
To: gamedesign at incagold.com
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 13:40:56 -0700

...deletia...

In that case, I would suggest some sort of visual aid to give players a gut
feeling of what will be the consequence of doing certain things.

I'm kind of seeing ghostly images doing things (like the character
"imagining" what he is planning) before the player actually tries things.
Like the player considers jumping, and he sees a ghostly image do the jump.
But how does the character tell you that he's considering doing that?

Just brainstorming here....maybe if the character is idle for a couple of
seconds, ghostly images appear.  You could have them doing various
interesting things, or you could place them in representative locations,
with symbols showing what controls to press to get there.  So if the
character with great jumping ability stands still on the platform, he sees
a translucent image appear on an upper platform, with a "jump" symbol.
You'd have to move the camera so he could see.

Or maybe you could have a special key, SHIFT perhaps, which means
"consider"...the player hits SHIFT-jump, and then "watches" the ghostly
image do the jump.

The key in anything like this is to allow the player to explore the
character's capabilities without making it a tedious "try all possible
controls, take a step, repeat" cycle.
------- End of Forwarded Message

Consider:

  > look
  You are standing by a chasm.  A rotting rope bridge crosses the chasm.
  > consider jump chasm
  It is too wide to jump safely.  
  > consider cross bridge
  The bridge looks very weak.  You can see several places where the
  rope appears almost rotten.  Touching the rope near you leaves
  large slimy chunks of it coming off in your hands.
  > consider down chasm
  The sides of the chasm appear to be made out of smooth rock, there
  is no way you could hang on and not fall.
  > l at chasm  # No comments on atrocious puzzle design please
  There is a long pole leaning against the side of the chasm.  The
  bottom end appears lodged in the jagged rocks at the boot of the
  chasm, and the top end is slightly above your head.
  > consider pole-vaulting chasm
  The pole looks very slimy and slippery.  You might not be able to
  hang on.
  > clean pole with rag.
  The pole cleans up nicely, revealing a strong clean grain to the wood.
  > consider vaulting chasm
  It might be a little difficult to get enough of a running start,
  but it looks like you could make it across.

The idea of having the character view his word and report what his
in game thoughts and conclusions are regarding could be interesting.

<<Adapting this to a graphical world presentation, be it it forst
person or third person, is left as an excercise for the reader>>

--
J C Lawrence                                       claw at kanga.nu
---------(*)                          http://www.kanga.nu/~claw/
--=| A man is as sane as he is dangerous to his environment |=--
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