[MUD-Dev] Geometric content generation

[Travis Nixon]

From: "Kwon Ekstrom" <justice at softhome.net>

> As for people who picked better at the start should have a better
> character or class for the rest... that's not an issue since you
> don't choose a class of any type, sort, whatever... all players
> are assigned some basic skills for each of the major knowledge
> spheres, and gain in knowledge through use.  What I don't see is
> why a player should reap benefits from bad decisions...  they
> should be able to recover from them, but not benefit from them
> other than the knowledge of it being a bad decision.

And I don't see why a player should be punished for making a bad
decision that they had no way of being able to determine was bad.

To say anything else is to say that you expect ALL your players to
do a very detailed min-max analysis before picking anything at all,
which is...well, it's just silly to expect them to do that. :)

Of course, there is another option, and that is to expect your
players to go to outside sources (fansites) to find out which skills
are good and which ones are worthless.  However, that option is even
more distasteful to me, being of the opinion that game information
should be found in game.  I never have been able to figure out why I
have to go to an external website to find out what a particular
spell does.  I mean, do we really have masters of magic teaching
spells when they don't have any idea what the spell does?  :)

> From: <Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com>

>> concept. Whilst perhaps logical in some limited instances,I see
>> no reason why learning first aid should negatively affect another
>> skill I may have already aquired. Of course it is a game, so I
>> don't think realism is an overriding priority - as opposed to
>> internal consistency which most certainly is.

> Well in reality, skills upon themselves don't negate other skills,
> although people do forget things over time... and the time
> necessary to develop and hone skills is limited.  I think that too
> many game development teams put too much stock in reality, it's a
> game.  There should be enough reality to make things recognisable,
> but most importantly it should be entertaining.  I agree
> consistency is the key to any system or suite of systems.

Another point to make here is that although learning basic first aid
is highly unlikely to cause any deterioration in my programming
skills, going to medical school and becoming a neurosurgeon just
might.  At the very least, it would slow the rate of advance of my
programming skills and cause stagnation.


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