[MUD-Dev] Geometric content generation

[Nip]

> 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.

That didn't happen to one of the members of my open source development
project.  It could be argued, however, that maintaining proficiency both as
a surgeon and as a programmer and network admin significantly reduced his
constitution since he recently died of a heart attack.  (Considering the
hours programmers keep are only slightly less insane than those surgeon's
keep, it's a wonder he didn't drop from exhaustion years ago.)

Personally, I like the idea of opposing skill families.  I see your point
being that if you do it, there should be some form of weight assigned to
individual skills so that the negative effects of some are less than those
of others (if not eliminated altogether).  We could then define a negative
negative effect, allowing some skills to actually enhance others.

On useful side-effect of using skill families and opposing weights is that
it makes the sub-system more susceptible to direct analysis, independent of
other sub-systems in the game.  One could then monitor skill use and effect
to combat some of the effects of min-maxing.  The theory is if virtually
"everyone is using the binding wounds skill" then even those who do not have
the skill actually have it to some extent and the effect of the skill for
those who do have it is reduced (i.e.., "binding wounds" to the skilled
player has a smaller effect since the game is assuming everyone binds wounds
to some extent), its negative effect upon opposing (or unrelated) skill
families is increased, or a cross-over effect to another sub-system (in this
case combat damage) occurs.  This idea is well covered elsewhere ... (but I
don't remember where).


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