[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] Interactive fiction equation

[Mike Rozak]

On Thu, 11 Jan 2007 10:51:01 +0000, "cruise" <cruise at casual-tempest.net>
said:
> Generally, however, how do you see this being used? With so many of the
> terms being subjective, and varying per player, I can't see it being used
> in any formal way, which is what I'd expect to be able to do with an
> equation...

Technicalities! :-)

I see it as a first step. It's a 1st order approximation to a very
complicated equation. I don't expect that the complex equation will ever be
solved, but at some point more detail might be added.

I also like stating the obvious because people often intuitively know the
obvious, but not consciously. This causes sitations where something is built
and the designer comes along and says, "I don't like that. It just doesn't
feel right."

Even listing the terms of an undefined equation can help designers identify
techniques they might use. One technique that physicists use is that they
know the inputs to a physical effect, and the units, they can make a guess
as to the equation.