[MUD-Dev] Dynamic Descriptions

[Douglas Goodall]

Bernard Graham wrote:

> Has anyone ever created a workable dynamic description-solution
> for their muds.  I am delving into this and would like to get some
> pointers and ideas.

> Things I have started to think about include having weather, time
> of day and seasons affect the description.  Also, how would you
> properly implement smells and even things like the size of a room,
> for example, if you are in a small room it might feel
> claustrophobic, whereas if you are on a road inside a town it
> might feel "open".

> If anybody has any interesting ideas I would like to hear about
> it.

The only time I tried to write a MUD, I had a system like
this. There wasn't any trick to it, really. I just made the world
consist of objects which contained text about their existence and
state. The collection of objects in a particular room would generate
the description. If there was no description, each object would
output what I called it's "announcement" or it's basic
description. If there was a room description, the objects would fill
in variables. Some objects would be in a "background" description
while others were in a foreground or more pro-active description
which changed more frequently.

Depending on the state of these objects, a description which looks
like this:

  "You are in %zone%. %forest_state%. %stream_state% through the
  %forest_state_2%.

(for each foreground object)

  %foreground_announce%. %foreground_state%."

Might become this:

  "You are in The Southern Marches. Majestic trees stand tall and
  healthy all around you. A small stream trickles through the
  forest.

  You see an Orc. He does not seem to notice you."

Or this:

  "You are in The Southern Marches. The husks of dead, burnt trees
  lie scattered as far as you can see. A mud-choked stream pushes
  it's way through the ashes."

  You see an Orc. He turns towards you and snarls."

Although the system worked well enough, I'm not sure I could
recommend it. I designed it to save myself some work, since I wanted
a more "dynamic" world but didn't want to have to write ten thousand
descriptions for each room. The system didn't require worst-case
work, but it was still alot more work than writing a single, good
description for each room (and, obviously, I gave up on it). To make
it work (or rather, make it work with a reasonable amount of effort)
I had to make the descriptions generic and straight to the point,
which gave them little style.

It might be useful in more limited cases, but I'd be surprised if
someone else hasn't already solved this better than I did back in
1995 or so.
_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev