[MUD-Dev] Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games

[David Johansson]

> Michael Hartman wrote:

>> I would be interested to see if this was a question any other
>> developers wrestled with, and if so what did you decide (and how
>> did you decide it) ?

Eventhough elderly ways of measuring length or weight tend to give a
better "atmosphere" I always felt it complicates things a little,
however, I have to confess that I tend to use mideval, or older ways
of measuring length or weight when displayed to the player, however
in the code its all based on the metric system and then translated
into other systems.

Items are displayed as "Very heavy" or "Light" and the only way to
find the correct weight would be to buy a pint of ale and compare it
=)

In many MUDs that use a similair system, i found that the players
compares the weight to one of the lightest items available, for
example: "Full Plate Armor weighs 34 bottles which is too much for
my elf"

About distance its all in "leagues" or "feet" but in the code its
all metric due to the simplicity of chunks of 10s and when it comes
to characters they are all "Very short", "Tall", "Towering" etc, but
they still have a real length in centimeters which is checked in
certain areas if the character will have to "crawl" or "crouch" (And
loose attack/defense skills)

There are many possibilities, but I would suggest a metric system in
the code, and display whatever you think would fit with your world
or simply just go against the stream and smash it out in hard, cold
metric numbers - All depending on how many numbers you wish to
display to the players.

I am with Gandalf however: "Keep it secret, keep it safe!"
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