[MUD-Dev] Striving for originality

[shren]

On Thu, 6 Jun 2002, John Buehler wrote:
> shren writes:
>> On Tue, 4 Jun 2002 szii at sziisoft.com wrote:

> Hear hear.  Keep all the various systems orthogonal to a large
> degree.  And this type of thinking has led me to consider that
> magic should be a 'scenario modifier'.  It should be used to do a
> variety of things that change the tactical situation.  Throw a
> muffling spell on the guard.  Throw a slippery floor spell in
> front of the charging guards.  Cast a flash spell at night.  Throw
> a 'bad smell' spell into a crowded room.

> This all assumes that characters care about the smell of things,
> that they can slip and fall to their detriment, that night vision
> can be ruined by bright lights and that guards yelling actually
> accomplish something.

Well, I'm not sure I'm all that fond of the idea of micromanaging
enviornment conditions when determining what spell to cast.  "Let's
see.  It's dusk in a plains area with mild humidity and a light
wind, with 3 european swallows flying overhead.  Time for spell
72151.  Wait, 72141, the wind shifted."  But I can definately see
the mage as an alterer of tactical situations.

> If you want to do damage, get a sword.

But this is a very dangerous road, from the design perspecitve.
It's a total rewrite.  You almost have to have a classless design,
and having multiple ways to do flat damage is almost completely
integrated into both the game systems and the fiction of muds.

Consider healing.  MUDs hand out damage like candy, generally, and
have 700 ways to heal it.  Since you're going to have only one way
of healing, you're going to have to rethink damage.  You're going to
have to rethink every game mechanic in the world just to integrate
orthagonality of skills.

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