[MUD-Dev] A Founding Father Forgotten

[John Robert Arras]

On Sat, 5 Apr 2003, Paul Schwanz wrote:

> OK, but why create a fantasy MMORPG that closely mimics levels,
> hit points, armor class, etc. in the first place?  I'd sooner
> closely mimic what I imagine to be real regarding advancing or
> gaining power, recieving wounds, and wearing protective armor in a
> virtual fantasy world.  In my opinion, D&D doesn't do such a good
> job in this regard, so why would I want to mimic it?

But it's a simple baseline, and the language is used by people to
describe things becuse it is so simple. I'm curious how your wound,
advancement, and armor systems work. The best way to advance a field
is to know what's been done and then figure out better ways to do
things.

Levels are simplifications, but if characters have any numbers that
say what the characters can or can't do and those numbers are
changed through playing the game, then there's a level-based system.

Hit points are not supposed to represent a boolean alive/dead
value. They are supposed to represent being able to defend yourself
until the opponent gets in the blow that kills you. If a damage
system has any kind of numbers that increase or decrease until a
point that a killing blow on a person or a body part causes the
person or body part to shutdown, then it's a hp-based system.

Armor should represent the ability to absorb damage, but I assume
that it was too hard to calculate 23% of 7 points of damage on a
orc, so they just said that armor makes it harder to hit you. It has
a similar effect over the long haul, but it's less computationally
intensive.

I think of it as understanding how lawnmower engines work before
attempting to understand a complicated modern car engine.

John


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