Hi all,
At first : *gives a big applause*
We at Imagica MUD have been fighting with this for some time now,
but I refuse to make such lame restrictions due to the lack of reality.
I am pushing the builders to carefully design their zones, and to make
sure heavy equipment is distributed over other stats like strength and
race/class combinations etc. . There as so much combinations possible to
make fairly strong items which can only be used to their fullest
capacity by only a few combinations. I have also just implemented
weapon practices, but this was more to prevent magic users to use large
swords effectively instead of just making them unable to wield them.
Also another try at Imagica is to force some feeling of responsibility
upon high level so it is policy wise considered a 'crime' to hand heavy
equipment to lower levels without them doing something for it. Note the
'doing something for it'. Why should you limit the usability of objects
while a player has realy gone through much efford to gain this hard to
get item ?
No, level restrictions are the lamest excuse to force some gamebalance
and it will never 'repair' an unbalanced MUD. Design and common sense
is the key, not hard limits. It's hard, but that's MUD.
Aragorn, implementor of Imagica MUD
Try : imagica.net 4000 or 119
See : www.imagica.net
PS: Thanks Tony, I thought I was fighting a lone battle ;)
> Today, Tony Maro <tony@maro.net> spake thus:
>
> Well, that certainly doesn't make me like level restrictions any more. It
> does make me dislike poor game design that much more, though. Face it,
> level restrictions are a band-aid meant to cover up a festering wound in
> EverQuest's and a plenitude of other muds' (graphical or otherwise) low
> level designs. Why are all of these high level players able to get so
> much good equipment? None of this, "Well, they're high level, they need a
> Super Killer Magical Glowing Sword of Death, Doom, Peril, and
> Irrecoverable Debt," BS.
>
> Mud designers are too quick to rationalize poor design decisions by saying
> it's what the players want. And they pretend that reducing the friction
> with their players makes the game more enjoyable for all. Players are
> ruled too much by their Id - they think it'd be cool if they had this, and
> that, and if they can get to level 600 so fast, but the lack of challenge
> soon sends them packing. People tend to leave the game when they've
> reached the highest level, got the best equipment, and there's no more
> challenge left; the game is "finished."
>
> It's not a different problem from the one that is patched over with level
> restrictions. It's the same hydra. You tell me honestly why there are as
> many Zeus's thunderbolts as there are the number of times Zeus is killed.
> Why are these weapons that are supposed to be so powerful so common?
> Create realistic limitations about these high powered items. Give high
> level players something to do, make tougher mobiles with fewer rewards.
> Don't sacrifice actual challenge for giving players short term thrills.
>
> And, by the way, the problem you describe isn't new and isn't specific to
> EverQuest. It has existed for as long as Muds have and persists because
> people are all too willing to go right back over the same stupid mistakes
> people have made before them. Just because a badly designed game is
> having the same problem that a lot of better designed and much more
> entertaining muds have doesn't change how I perceive these sorts of
> kludges.
>
> -dak : Sorry for the clipped tone, just a bit irritated. :)
>
--
---
Wind*ws95, n:
32 bit extensions and a graphical shell for a 16 bit patch to an
8 bit operating system originally coded for a 4 bit microprocessor,
written by a 2 bit company that can't stand 1 bit of competition.
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