Re: The PerfectMUD? Just an opinion

From: Skylar (skylar@ifconfig.intserv.com)
Date: 10/31/96


On Thu, 31 Oct 1996, Takis Kalogiratos wrote:

First, I'd just say that Circle is already the Perfect Mud.  Its the perfect
place to start with your own ideas of what a mud should be.  It couldn't be
easier to code on, everything is clear and simple - It's probably THE most
readable 'C' code I've ever seen in my life.  Thats the whole point, I think,
of Circle, and Jeremy has done a good job of it.

I think you're going to run into a lot of trouble deciding what these nifty
features which "everyone" wants in a stock mud are.  I really can't think
of a single thing which everyone, or even a majority of people would want
to see pre-implemented in their mud other than what's already there. 
(barring saved aliases, which I believe is a bug and slated to be fixed in
the next release...).

Some basic stuff comes to mind...

Multi-Attacks:  Mosts muds have it, but I think there's been a general trend
lately with the more advanced muds to go with a "roundless" combat system.
Yet there are still tons of muds using rounds and happilly having people take
3-6 attacks in a row... How do you please both factions?  Toss locational 
hits into the mix and you've got even more of a problem trying to decide what
should be "stock". 
Answer -  Let everyone choose and code their own method - as it is now.

Scan: I've seen it implemented differently on tons of muds; most common is
the scan that lets you see a list of mobs in all the ajoining rooms for
several rooms deep.  I think this is cheezy myself.  My idea (and code) for
scan lets you check the room you're in for invisible and/or hiding things.
If you want to look into ajoining rooms, you just "look north" and can see
(depending on sector, weather and perception abil) a number of rooms in
that direction.  IMNSHO this is THE to do it, and any other method is just
plain cheeze - how to reconcile differences of opinion on how to implement
things like this?
---

>  The only pieces of code which are not coded as options are things we see in
> EVERY CircleMUD running on the net (even many of those include options by
> themselves (such as informative and the ALL-POPULAR Auction command)).

Aiiiigh!  I don't want an auction channel.  In fact, I wouldnt PLAY on a mud
with auction, gossip, or any other global channel.  I have none of them, and
I think its great.  The closest thing to a global channel is shout, which
can be heard 5-10 rooms out from the shouter (depending on sector and other
impediments).

Basically, what I'm saying here is; everyone has their own ideas of what
should be "standard" on a mud - I don't believe that there are any new
features which everyone could agree would be worthy of being "stock".

Here's my own opinion of what a good mud should *start* out with:
-No Levels (completely skill based)
-No Classes
-No Global Channels
-No Armor Class (skill based combat with locational damage)
-No Alignment (its just too much of a philosophical argument)
-No Combat Rounds
-Cube Style World, with the ability to go in any direction unless something
 like a tree or rock or building is blocking it, including several levels up 
 of air rooms and several levels down into underground rooms.
-Rooms which change descriptions depending on light levels, visibility,
 folliage and moisture.
-Objects which you can "get" from the room description i.e. "get leaves"
-Objects having matieral elements which determines their stats, etc.
-Event Based command interpreter
-Mobs which attack or help NPC and PC alike according to clan/race/allegance
-blah blah blah lots of other stuff...

For me, all this stuff is a MUST, but I doubt everyone, or even many would
want this/share my ideas.  I think you'll find that everyone has not only
a different set of ideas of what "should be" and even the ones which share
similar ideas will have their own ideas of how it should be done...

-Sky









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