Re: Damage messages

From: Daniel Koepke (dkoepke@CALIFORNIA.COM)
Date: 08/16/97


On Sat, 16 Aug 1997, Jeremy Elson wrote:

-+So, I found myself with more free time than usual and decided to try
-+to finally crank out the next couple of patchlevels of Circle (it's
-+been more than a year...).

How'd that happen?!  I was pretty sure my secret government plan to delay
any further patchlevels had worked...Elvis, Tupac Shakur, and I worked hard
on that plan!  Erm, wait, perhaps I've said too much...Uhm, if anyone asks
about this message, it was a weather balloon.

-+I'm going to try to put up a list of known bugs on the web site
-+soemwhere with a form for adding new ones as they are found.  Also I'm
-+going to be incorporating some of the more popular patches,
-+e.g. George's web page full of bug fixes.

Woo-hoo (add your own level of enthuesiasm, create your own brilliant
expression, all it takes is a bit of soil and water, and TADA! you got a
homegrown expression that'll make your chia-pet green with envy).

-+One of the tweaks I've always meant to get around to doing but never
-+did was change the messages you receive when hitting (e.g., tickle,
-+massacre, etc.) so that the message relates to the number of HP taken
-+off the victim relative to their total HP, instead of based on the
-+absolute number of HP taken off.  Is the general consensus that such a
-+scheme is a Good Thing?

Generally, combat consists of three main factors,

  precision/skillfulness
  strength/energy from you
  damage translation to enemy

but there lacks a clear way to implement precision, or for that matter,
energy exerted in a blow (which is clearly different from strength; if you
use your entire body in harmony with a downward slash, it can be about
twice as hard as the same slash using only strength).  Of course, then
again, people have different styles of fighting with a sword, and for
different occassions, at that.  The problem with combat is that it is
hard to describe even outside of MUD form, because it often goes by in
a quick pace, with odd moments that seem slower, and then when you think
back on it, you only remember bits and pieces (and possably from a
spectator's point of view if you spoke with them).  In some ways, combat
is like a dream...or a nightmare if you loose.  When we can accurately
depict that feeling of chaos and lack of control, almost an entirely new
enviroment around a combatant (and this is why combat is usually so sloppy,
because people forget control), in any form (story, MUD, graphics) then
I'll be happy...:)  In the mean time, you make a good step towards it. :)

It's a Good Thing.


--
Daniel Koepke -:- dkoepke@california.com -:-  [Shadowlord/Nether]
Think.


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