> At worst, number hiding can be to RP's detriment. I have a better sense
> of how healthy I am than I do of how others are. So why, then, should the
> character I'm playing be described in the same vague terms that some other
> character is? You could describe, in better detail, my character's
> health, but this type of description takes more time to read, generally
> isn't of the quality you'd find in a decent fantasy book, and eventually
> grows stale (no matter how good it is). So packing all of the information
> into text has little reward compared to the amount of time/effort spent on
> reading, especially given the short shelf-life of the text.
>
> Has anyone seen number hiding put in use or, better, used it (as either a
> player or implementor)? Did it work towards enhancing role immersion?
>
>
I've seen number hiding, and while I thought it may make the game
more challenging (aka, no auto-flee, etc) I strongly disagreed with the
concept that it would improve flaming roleplaying. In fact, it tended to
not have any effect on the game, unless the current population was already
well-used to the numeric system (in which case there is alot of whining).
Keep in mind that the average flaming roleplayer admin wants a MUD
that is as much like a MUSH as possible except that they can't figure out
how to also then control the players from making anything they want.
That, and they realize that they don't get many 'actors' (aka, players),
if they don't provide a game instead of a stage.
Really, if you want to make your system less hack and slash prone
- at least to the point of having to think about what you're fighting in
more realistic terms, I find it's best to make 'flee' a very infreqent
command. Most hard core hack and slash mudders usually depend on flee via
scripts/built in wimpy setting/etc to get them through each battle.
Combine this with the fact that death usually has little punishment aside
from effective lost playing time, and you have reduced combat to a gamble,
fixed for the player ->
"You wanna go clear Hell?"
"Yeah, it'll take me a couple of rest cycles, but we can wear
Hades down eventually. He's worth almost a full level of xp."
Hopefully, something like inability to run from battle will also
make mob stats stay in the realm of reasonable. Course, that's just one
of my pet peeves.
PjD
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