[MUD-Dev] How much is enough? Communication design

[Miroslav Silovic]

Ron Gabbard wrote:

> Hehe, I like the 'range' idea a lot.  However, the target audience
> you are trying to frustrate with this mechanism is the
> powergamer... and they will not be denied!  How long do you think
> it would be before people took a bag full of 'very good' weapons
> out to the field and started running tests and posting the results
> to the fan sites?  Quantitative values for items would probably be
> well-known and posted before the game went Gold (assuming no
> conflict with the non-disclosure).  This increases the 'power'
> gulf between the powergamer that dissects the fan sites and the
> casual gamer whose primary experience is in-game.

Actually, this only goes to prove that powergaming prevention is a
systemic issue, not just a matter of isolated 'don't give 'em
numbers' hacks.

What you just described could be easily prevented if battles are
non-reproducible.  For instance:

  - Make daytime, weather and season affect the player's combat
  capability (ever tried to run in a full chainmail during summer?)

  - Make each monster unique and variable. Make their power vary
  with tribe and group, and globally vary them between spawns (if
  you have spawns).

  - Add attributes to the player that go up and down, in semi-long
  term. Ideas could be morale, mood, wakefulness, fatigue, hunger,
  thirst, etc. If you make these affect the to-hit chance and
  damage, well, any result of the experiment would be pretty much
  useless.

        Miro

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