[MUD-Dev] Better Combat

[Amanda Walker]

On Aug 3, 2004, at 10:04 AM, John Buehler wrote:

> Micromanagement does NOT encourage socialization.  Current games
> keep players involved by presenting them with the dilemma of
> carefully controlling everything that their character does - or
> else.  I can be in the middle of sending a message to another
> player when my character is suddenly attacked.  My character won't
> so much as defend itself unless I tell it to, and I have to
> discard what I was saying to another player in order to get the
> character to defend itself.

Indeed.  I find this indescribably annoying.  Here's my character, a
master whatever-fighter with The +5 Magic Sword of Smackdownitude
who doesn't know enough to be able to hit back when attacked, or
follow the road back to town that she's traveled hundreds of times
while killing bunnies to make enough xp to qualify to buy something
besides rags to wear.

Not exactly immersive or fun.

I'm even a lifelong RPGer--while my major interest (from a technical
standpoint) is virtual environment building, and my major gaming
goals are usually socializing and exploring, I don't mind a combat
if it's interesting-- After an annoying day at work, I slot DOA3 or
HALO into my Xbox.  I played the original D&D in high school (which
was way too may years ago at this point), AD&D Rolemaster in
college, and so forth. However, in a GM'd game, we always skipped
over some of the parts:

  "Whew, that was close.  OK, we head back to town."

  (GM rolls dice a couple times) "OK, nothing bothers you on the way
  back.  You're back at the tavern."

Or maybe we have some sort of encounter on the way back--but in
either case there was none of this driving around every little turn
in the road.  "OK, I turn left exactly 3.5 degrees, because if I
turn 4 degrees, I'll get hung up on that fencepost every time..."

I think this is one reason that portaling and recalling (or mounts
and vehicles) are so popular in MMORPGs.  Even the micromanagers (of
which there are plenty in the RPG universe, I'll admit) get bored
with running around.  EQ: "Got SoW?" 'nuff said :-).

> Returning to the flight simulator, note that there is nothing
> random about the behavior of a flight simulator.  It's all very
> straightforward calculations - but entirely based on environment,
> the characteristics of the vehicle and the imprecise control of
> the pilot.  That is what makes it engaging.

It's also based on actual skill, not time spent "leveling".  People
without good spatial skills hate flight sims because they always
crash.

Amanda Walker
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