On Tue, 30 Aug 1994, Jeff Teker Fink wrote: > > "Mr. Wizard" <jsbarrow@fas.harvard.edu> writes: > > 1. Removing the numbers side to the game. > > > > 21+ Godlike > ... > > 1- 4 Poor > > Unfortunately, this doesn't really remove the numbers side from the > game, it just replaces the numbers with words. I don''t think PCs > should ever seen their ability stats, numbers, words, colors, or whatever. Well the reason I think this is a happy medium is because the words describe a relative range which players should be able to determine. After all you can tell when someone is average vs. poor vs. outstanding in a certain ability. You can definitely tell this information about yourself. I don't think you could be so precise as to narrow it down to a specific number on a scale, thus I think a word describing a range is a nice compromise. > > For HP, Mana and Moves you could use a table like this to describe things: > > HP Mana Moves > > 100% Healthy Burning Fine > ... > > 0% Dead Frozen Exhausted > > This sounds better than the stats. Interesting. I view the sysmtes to be practically the same. > > 2. Take out global communication. > > This really depends on what kind of MUD you're interested in running. > If you're going for straight realism (take out the spells! ;-) The word realism is deceptive in this sense. I would say I am going for a realistic fantasy setting. (Now is that a contradiction in terms or what!) I want to have a setting where spells and supernatural powers are present, but which still has its roots in reality as we know it. Basically anything that is a far cry from total realism I would want to see done by magical means (spells, portals, potions, etc.). Having players being able to gossip across the planet sounds magical to me! > and want > a less social environment, taking out global communication may be ok. > But if you're interested in creating a social society, removing global > communication can kill the amount of player interactions. Well I was hoping it would have the reverse effect. I would think it would have players group more often so they could interact easier, and would make towns and cities more social places because players might conglomerate there and gather there to interact socially. However, since I haven't tested this out with real users, I can only hypothesize on what would happen. > > 4. Incorporate a trophy system into the experience system. > > > > Far too often people find mobs which are the easiest to kill for the most > > experience and then kill them over and over and over and over and...well > > you get the picture. I trophy system keeps track of the number of kills > > for each mobile and reduces experience awarded after a certain number of > > kills. The percentage doesn't have to fall from 100% to 0%. It can be > > reduced incrementally. > > > > This seems realistic to me. How much experience can you gain after > > killing a giant for the fiftieth time? Should it become old hat after a > > while? > > Are you keeping track of number of kills per mobile per person? I can > see this getting out of hand if you keep track on a per player basis > (just the memory alone), and some mobs you want people to kill over and > over... like fidos and other easy first level mobs. Well this actually doesn't take up that much as far as memory requirements go. It is a minor addition to the player file. This has been done quite successfully on several MUDs and I think is a feature of the stndard Merc source now. You can see it in action on MUME (128.178.77.5 4242). At least I think that's the address. As far as having some first level mobs to kill over and over again. I don't think that is a real problem. Creating low level mobs is very easy. Having a nice diverse population of mobs level 1-5 is simple. Most MUDs do this with animals. If you use animals like rabbits, foxes, boars, squirrels, dogs, cats, birds, fish,, bears, badgers, deer, etc. you can create literally hundreds of low level mobs for people to hunt. For level 1-5 players this is a means of getting experience, and a trophy system forces them to actually get out and explore instead of killing 500 fido's in your town. High level players also use these mobs as a food source when they are away from towns. The first place I saw the trophy system in action was MUME. Since then I have seen it several places. It also makes a new command pretty simple to make. A 'trophy' comand which lists out all your kills. Its pretty nice to see this list after you've gotten up there in level. :) > -Jeff > ##=====================###================================================## || Joshua Sky Barrow ||| Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Science || ##=====================###================================================## || 19 Central St., #28 ||| "If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. || || Somerville, MA ||| If you can dream it, you can become it." || || 02143-3832 ||| Unknown || ##=====================###================================================## || (617) 666-0859 ||| E-mail: jsbarrow@fas.harvard.edu || ##=====================###================================================##
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : 12/07/00 PST