[MUD-Dev] Re:Time Theory

[Talies the Wanderer]

At 12:02 AM 3/14/02 -0800, David C.Z. Wacks wrote:

> I have been playing with Time and Events and wanted to get some
> usage and thoughts from the group. I am soliciting as much input
> as possible as this make a huge playability difference.

Yes - by all means, Time is one of the foundations of any world
code.  Most text muds pay little attention to time at all, and very
few games make any serious game alterations based on time.  It's
great to have some sort of connection between time and gameplay -
but only in as much as it isn't an inconvenience.  Simu's
Dragonrealms has some limitations / bonuses based on phases of the
moon, but nothing that cripples a player.  Everquest has a few
spells that are time-limited, and a few zones that change character
during different time periods, but again, nothing that stops even
the most casual of players from having fun (unless you're a newbie
halfling trying to get to Freeport *chuckles*).  The key to
effective time management, is to be aware that the vast majority of
your individual players will be of the casual variety - not the
hard-core, marathon gamers.  Many of these casual players log in at
the same time every day (ie, when they get home from school or work,
or that hour between classes in the computer lab), and if mud-time
were tied directly to real-world time, then they would be logging in
at the same game-world time every time they played.  Perhaps not an
issue for most - unless they happen to be logging in after "shops
are closed" time.

So how do your provide an effective day/night cycle that gives
people adequate time to perform day / night functions, while not
preventing them from ever accessing the other side of the day /
night cycle, if they are a casual gamer?

There are two possibilities, depending on your desires:

  1) Provide a short enough day / night cycle so that even casual
  gamers generally see both during a typical session.  2 real-time
  hours : 1 game day seems to be a good value for that, but still
  results in casual gamers constantly logging in during the typical
  session.  This is not necessarily a drawback - your players may
  appreciate the consistency.

  2) Provide an odd-numbered day / night cycle so that casual gamers
  can see both, but are not always logging in at the same time.  3.5
  hours would be good for this, and if nothing else, would result in
  a calendar corresponding to real-weeks.  i.e. 3.5 real hours = 1
  game day, and 1 real week = 48 game days.

It definitely depends on what you plan on doing during the day /
night cycles.  If your plans do not significantly impact game play,
then it's probably not all that important, and you can do what you
want.  On the other hand, if you have players who play (for example)
vampires, you may want to consider longer day / night cycles to give
them more play time.

Talies the Wanderer

P.S. Anyone in need of one slightly used Customer Support Call
Center manager?  Houston is suffering some serious layoffs.

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