[MUD-Dev] Too much magic?

[cruise]

Brian Hook wrote:
> On Tue, 10 Feb 2004 14:54:26 +0000, cruise wrote:

>> I've been thinking much the same lately, and indeed limit the
>> number of magic items in the world and that players can wear. The
>> former is a simple case of making "unique" items truly unique -
>> there will be only one of that item in the entire gameworld.

> THAT is a tough sell (for reasons discussed often in the past,
> specifically hoarding), but I agree, it's definitely a direction.

Well, such items will be lootable on death. And anyone who owns the
weapon will have that added to their title, eg: Karak,
Weaponsmaster, Wielder of Tyr. So hoarding should be pretty
difficult :P

>> For the latter, each magical item slows the healing/recovery
>> process depending on its power.

> The effect I'm leaning towards is "magical allergies" -- it's
> almost a direct analogy of human allergies.  Some people are
> naturally prone to allergic reactions, others are not, and
> sometimes it depends on how much you're exposed to something.

This is very similar, in a way - we both add detrimental effects to
counter the benefits of magical items. Just the "explanation" behind
it differs. Though your way does provide more entertaining
possibilities, I admit :P

I liked another poster's suggestion about combinations of magic
items having "interesting" effects, if rival magic schools are
mixed. Something like that could become quite complicated, however,
unless you want to hard-code the results of combination. Though one
of my goals for this MUD is a proper "meta-physics engine" that
create magical effects in sensible ways. Though that's another
thread (not MUD specific, but probably of interst to many on this
list - would it be OT to discuss just a magic system on this list?
I'm new on this list, so I'm not sure yet...)

>> To compensate for this, the amount of non-magical equipment is
>> greatly increased

> This is something I feel most on-line worlds completely lack.  I
> have always felt that it's best to make item drops act as source
> material for a lot of high quality crafted materials --
> encouraging a player economy -- and true magical items are
> extremely rare.  And item drops that aren't raw materials would be
> generally of lower quality than crafted items at a similar level.

>   dropped < store_bought < crafted < unique_magical

Agreed. All my NPC shopkeepers will be practicing extortioners :P
not too excessive that equipment is unavailable, but sufficiently
overpriced to make buying from players preferable, whatever the
quality of the item.

The more MMOG's I play, the more I see this problem. Everyone of a
given level is running around in almost exactly the same
clothing/equipment, simply because it's the "best". Anything with
RPG elements is presumably intended to allow people choice and
freedom of expression - it seems rather self-defeating to then limit
that choice.

--
[ cruise / casual-tempest.net / transference.org ]
   "quantam sufficit"
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