[MUD-Dev] People were talking about resets..

[Michael Tresca]

On Tuesday, May 14, 2002 11:48 AM Anderson, David posted

> Well, I'm also trying to figure out a way to encourage people to
> not focus as much on killing mobs.  I've tried a few other muds
> which have a basic mining & tailor & forging & fishing system
> which allows people to get experience from tasks other than
> killing.  I figure if you add enough tasks that could help your
> character (gathering gold from a mountain while getting experience
> could be useful), then perhaps a lower % of characters would be
> killing creatures.  But you're right, I know one large character
> generally can clean an area in 10-15 minutes at worst, so it would
> still be difficult to have them realistically spawn fast enough
> for a group of a few people who are bored.

Spawning is not the answer.  Spawning isn't even the problem.  There
could be a million monsters cloning in your MUD -- the problem is
that killing them is the "best" path to advance (best being fastest,
easiest, most productive, etc.).

Therefore, the only way you can make comparable gaming paths is to
reward in the same fashion.

So what does the Achiever get for killing a monster? Exp and gold.

What should a Socializer get for talking to a monster?  Exp and
gold.  On RetroMUD, merchants are the best hagglers -- by
interacting with NPCs, they get better deals on everything and can
avoid taxes. Socializers also get role-playing points that they can
use to further develop their characters.

What should an Explorer get for exploring his way to a monster?  Exp
and gold.  On RetroMUD, players get exp for exploring (so long as
they are moving slowly and reading the descriptions). There's also a
"top explorer" and "top questor" category that Explorers can reach
as they explore the Retroverse.

What should a Killer get for killing another PC?  Exp and gold.  If
you want that other style -- that's probably covered by the fact
that at least one of the other PCs are Achievers and thus have exp
and gold.

I'm oversimplifying here.  The definition of what counts as
Experience Points could be "anything that advances the character's
power" and the definition of Gold could be "anything that allows the
character to purchase an in-game object" -- by that definition, it
doesn't all have to be Exp and GP.

As Rayzam has already stated, RetroMUD's slayer code forces some
level of rotation.  But now we've just got players methodically
killing in different areas rather than the same area.  In other
words, the Achievers are still being rewarded for killing things and
that's not going to change because the monsters react differently.
It does add diversity and avoid depopulating an area however.

We're okay with that.  RetroMUD involves, on some level, hacking and
slashing.  But we want the other styles of play to at least be as
equally valid.

All this talk about creating a means of resetting a monster (spawn
points, population pressures, etc.) is largely a game developer's
vanity.  We may think it's keen -- but players likely don't care how
the monster came to be.  They're being rewarded to kill it -- if you
want to them to diversify their playing styles, reward them more for
other playing styles and reward them less for killing critters.

Mike "Talien" Tresca
RetroMUD Administrator
http://www.retromud.org/talien


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