[MUD-Dev] Questions about my MUD design

[eric leaf]

Christer Enfors wrote:

>   2) As is probably obvious to most of you, this is one of those
>   over-ambitions projects that are never finished. I know, I've
>   been there before. What can I do to overcome this obstacle? One
>   thing I will probably do is aim for an early public alpha, when
>   only the most basic features are implemented. If I get even just
>   a few players into the MUD, I think their feedback will help
>   keep me motivated. Or would that be a bad idea? Will I just make
>   a poor first impression by allowing players into a half-finished
>   MUD?

This no doubt varies per individual, however if you are looking at a
community effort or open source project early alphas are the only
(most likely) way it will survive. Personally I would wait until its
playable at some level, and then keep it playable all the time
during the developement process (from alpha on).

>   3) Can you see any glaring problems in my design, as outlined
>   above? I'd rather not start implementing something that has
>   obvious problems in its design that I just haven't spotted
>   myself.

Alot of what you are talking about I'd classify as difficult. You
talked of road building as if it would already exist in the world,
yet you say it as if no roads will already exist. This troubles me
in the sense that it seems an artificial barrier, or something akin
to busy-work for the players. If you have road technology why isn't
it already in use?  Now if you plan to have a main settlement where
players will start and then they must build their own devices to
settle a player run town thats a little different. Also along those
lines this talk of mayor for each town and player made town, unless
your town creation process involves a registration process I don't
see how you'd control that, or even want to control it.  Maybe a
clan of highwaymen settle an area, most likely they have a leader
that is closer to a dictator than mayor.

Some other things are difficult, like the farmer model you
proposed. Are my crops an active part of the world? Do I need and
build tools to compete or is it in some period? (Ox drawn plow?) If
the crops are not an active part of the world, you dodge some of the
issues. (ie Crop theft) But then is it a farm simulation at all or
just a device to simulate a local economy? If farming is really no
different than blacksmithing (ie get raw material, type "make
thing", wait few seconds, get thing and use it, sell it, etc) than
the only drive to farm will be some artificial economic incentive,
like its more profitable than making swords. And then that opens a
new can of worms. The modern day farm is a product of
industrialization, which is far more advanced than most periods in
MUDs. And most references to current in-game town building are land
based (ie only available land) not community based (close to water,
ariable land, etc). In other words, in UO, player run towns were
built around already present crossroads in the static world, and it
had very little to do with location in the sense of building a
community. A new blacksmith if far more likely to move to a town and
stay there if there is no other blacksmith there, where his skills
would be the most valuable. However, ignoring all of that for a
moment I believe that farming is the main driving force in any sort
of town building, at least in human history. But on the same token
its all for nothing unless food actually has a power in the world,
you mention stat reduction, you obviously won't be getting taste
involved, so will that be enough to motivate people to farm?


HTH and is not completely gibberish to you.

-eric




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