[MUD-Dev] On socialization and convenience

[J C Lawrence]

On Thu, 28 Jun 2001 03:43:14 -0400 
grafx  <grafx at innovativestudios.com> wrote:

> We are designing our games to cater to the needs of a "cluster"
> group... as opposed to a traditional MMORPG where all entities
> crawl throughout the realm on the same ticking of the same clock.

> I draw a parallel in real life.... in times of extreme adrenal
> activity, time can (and maybe even does) slow to a crawl, whether
> the person's mind is simply hyper-aware at the time so it seems
> slower, or otherwise, so too should the interactions be between
> player groups.  

I did some experiments with this in regard to combat.  The basic
model was that there was a base clock on which most thing
ran/synchronised in terms of even rates, but characters in combat
scenarios entered a specialised time mode where even rates were
slowed by near an order of magnitude.  A side effect of this was
that some commands/actions were unavailable in fast-time as they
implicitly crossed the fast/slow time border.  In recompense various
other (combat/fast-time specific) commands were added to maintain a
reasonable level of expresiveness. 

In the end I dropped it as a failed experiment.  I was modelling on
arbitrary anonymous groups determined behaviourally by the server
(combat-like behaviour or scenarios engaged fast time) didn't work
as my game world definition actively encouraged combat through
indirect second and third order effects, making determination of
combat mode hugely faulty and impractical.

See the list archive for details.

> Rather than a massive clock ticking the moves of hundreds of
> players, we are attempting to create a time bubble around a
> campaign group, moderated by a single, attentive GameMaster that
> is escorting the group throughout the adventure.

Aye, critical difference there.  I had no group definitions and
instead had the server attempting to predict and determine cases
that required combat mode.

--
J C Lawrence                                       claw at kanga.nu
---------(*)                          http://www.kanga.nu/~claw/
The pressure to survive and rhetoric may make strange bedfellows
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