[MUD-Dev] Logical MUD Areas

[Derek Licciardi]

Friday, May 04, 2001 5:24 PM, Kevin Littlejohn wrote:

> Random creation of treasure has it's perks, but I truly believe you
> do need the collectibles also.  Not even in role-playing, IMO, do
> you put aside material things.  It's based on how you role-play and
> what you consider a collectible as that character.  You could be the
> scholar who acquires old books or the gnome mute who gets
> googly-eyed at shiny glass.  Angband type games have something much
> more attractive (or addicting) to the general public, again, in my
> opinion.  Those collectibles, unique gear, unique creatures and even
> more attractive when they range from rare to super rare.  That at
> any moment the next creature you kill may just drop the artifact you
> have been hoping for.  That you can provide hundreds of good items
> so that every player isn't walking around with the same "best" EQ.
> And THE best equipment isn't based on getting a large group to kill
> the biggest mob, but on your individual OR group successes, failures
> and luck.  And the same applies to the standard and unique
> creatures.

I'm going to jump in here midstream before I finish reading this, so
if this has been mentioned then I apologize in advance.  Wouldn't the
above system undermine the efforts of immortals/wizards from crafting
an ongoing plot with a rich history and a diverse background.  If my
memory serves me, the most fantastic thing about Excalibur was the
tale that surrounded the swords existance and not the fact that it
would protect from evil and had minor healing powers.  Randomly
generated artifacts reduces a potential story telling mechanism into a
set of slightly more powerful numbers that players can min-max with.
If collectability is what you're after then it seems to me that you
could make even a minor stat sword amazing if it were discovered in
context and recognized(i.e. has gameplay implications) for its story
line.  Besides not creating artifact based object inflation, you would
add depth to your world and increase the feel of immersion.

That being said everyday swords do not need to be all alike, therefore
it should be possible that randomly generated effects can be applied
to generated loot such that you simulate the varying conditions that
those items could be created under.  While the Diablo system has its
merits and Lord only knows I have played hours upon end 'waiting' for
that next piece to drop to complete my set armor, I think you give up
a tremendous tool to entertain your customers/players by randomly
generating anything more than a moderate level of magical item.

Derek


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