[list] Re: [MUD-Dev] Re: DGN: Why give the players all thenumbers?

[Scion Altera]

Wednesday, September 17, 2003, 11:21:38 AM, Rayzam wrote:

> Well, the character could compare them the same way one of us
> would in real life. You pick it up, swing it around, work through
> some routines with it, check its heft and balance, look at the
> sharpness, perhaps test the sharpness against something, check
> flexibility, etc. Do the same for both.

> Now in a text game, or in the graphical games available so far,
> that isn't possible. Which leads to 2 options:

>   1) a compare function that does all that and just responds in
>   relatives:

>     Sword 1 is better balanced than sword 2

>     Sword 1 is more flexible, less sharp, longer, heavier, etc,
>     than Sword 2.

>   2) relate a lot of those factors into a value, such as Weapon
>   Class [wc], that is used in many games. That's what we
>   use. Different weapon types [sword vs bludgeon vs dagger] have
>   different damage dice, critical hit chances and stun chances. WC
>   is a numerical measure of combat effectiveness of that weapon
>   within it's weapon type. So a WC 60 sword may do more damage
>   than a WC 80 dagger, but the WC 80 dagger may result in more
>   critical hits than the WC 60 sword.

> But if a game doesn't give a measure such as Weapon Class, it
> really should give the function as listed in (1).

Yeah. I think we're in agreement for the most part here. I certainly
wasn't trying to suggest that the player be given no way to compare
items. I just think that inventing a number from a formula and
giving that to a player is unrealistic when some of the data in the
formula are subjective. The combination of factors and their
interpretation by each character may vary with skill, experience,
and what the character is looking for in the item. I've always been
a fan of an accurate compare command that would take into account
all the features of the items being compared as well as the relevant
skill of the character and produce a simple statement that item A is
better than item B. In real life I have a basic idea of how to tell
if a sword is good or not, but I'm certainly no expert. I may be
easily fooled by a cheap knockoff. I also have no formula with which
to calculate a number like the "weapon class" you mentioned. For me,
this number makes it harder to suspend my disbelief. I'd far rather
have some kind of prosaic equivalent, especially if it's a bit more
"fuzzy" than the number, and maybe just a bit unreliable.

  Scion

                      --    scion at divineright.org    --
   ICQ: 1824934 || AIM: ScionAltera || MSN: ScionAltera || YIM: scionaltera
    == PGP Public Key: http://www.divineright.org/~scion/pete_key.txt ==
_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev