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<H1>Re: [MUD-Dev] "short" Introductory Message (fwd)</H1>
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<LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#null,net">mud-dev#null,net</A></LI>
<LI><em>Subject</em>: Re: [MUD-Dev] "short" Introductory Message (fwd)</LI>
<LI><em>From</em>: <A HREF="mailto:coder#ibm,net">coder#ibm,net</A></LI>
<LI><em>Date</em>: Sat, 07 Jun 97 19:18:21 -0700</LI>
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<PRE>
On 06/06/97 at 07:42 PM, Martin Keegan <martin#cam,sri.com> said:
>I've been asked by Chris to write a "short" introductory message,
>which I've completely failed to do as this introduction runs to more
>than a hundred lines.
This list has long been the recipient of "short" posts which
challenged the Discordia for size.
>Anyway, a few notes on Island, what I'm doing now, and miscellaneous
>ideas of mine ...
Will Island ever arise again? It would be a great loss to have it
dissappear. It did too may things far too well to lose, (and enough
things far too stupidly to tolerate its loss as an example).
>...Island did this through the
>introduction of a harsh regime of compulsory quests. The quests
>tended to be quite elaborate, and provoked fierce competition. It
>took me more than six months to complete them all.
And were for the uninitiated, utterly superb. <I bow in their general
direction>
>Eventually, it became apparent that the quest-oriented nature of the
>game was driving players away. Crucially, it was driving away the
>idiots and powerlevellers. "Strong in Spades", is how Island was
>described in the light of Bartle's HCDS paper. (Spades being the
>"Explorer" types). Every year or so, the quests would be updated, and
>made more numerous, and (we hoped) more intellectually challenging.
<cheers>
>At the moment I'm writing a mud (from scratch, unsurprisingly) which
>allows building at a proportional cost to the player, rather than
>being based on rank. (Or letting everyone build, or no-one at all).
How do you intend to scale the cost of construction? I've been
thinking about this one a lot and have yet to arrive at a decent
model. Best idea to date:
All newly created objects inherit by default from $NEW_OBJECT
All $NEW_OBJECTs have a definite life span before the system deletes
them.
The more a $NEW_OBJECT is used, and the longer its list of users.
the longer a $NEW_OBJECT will stave off deletion.
This of course does not limit the rate of production, just the
persistance.
>More interesting to the design people is that the system incorporates
>a language called 'E', which looks a bit like Inform.
Would you describe in more detail? Examples?
>To the end of making sure the text is not repetitive, I've designed a
>system for randomised generation of non-boring text, which got an
>airing in rec.games.mud.admin in a thread about creating consistent
>names for newborn NPCs.
Descriptions, definitions, or just names?
>Named "EricGeneric", it has been described as
>everything from "An invention more significant and useful than time
>travel" to "Prolog for Poofters" (really!)
I recall the thread (sound of binary digging). Oh yeah -- got the
macro file too. But that was specific to building character names per
a template of sorts. Has it changed?
--
J C Lawrence Internet: claw#null,net
----------(*) Internet: coder#ibm,net
...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...
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<UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> Martin Keegan <martin#cam,sri.com></LI></UL></LI>
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<ul><li>Thread context:
<BLOCKQUOTE><UL>
<LI><STRONG>Re: [MUD-Dev] The laws of probability</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM>
<ul compact>
<ul compact>
<LI><strong><A NAME="01297" HREF="msg01297.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] The laws of probability</A></strong>,
clawrenc <a href="mailto:clawrenc#cup,hp.com">clawrenc#cup,hp.com</a>, Thu 12 Jun 1997, 03:00 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="01309" HREF="msg01309.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] The laws of probability</A></strong>,
clawrenc <a href="mailto:clawrenc#cup,hp.com">clawrenc#cup,hp.com</a>, Fri 13 Jun 1997, 01:04 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</ul>
</ul>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="01245" HREF="msg01245.html">"short" Introductory Message (fwd)</A></strong>,
Martin Keegan <a href="mailto:martin#cam,sri.com">martin#cam,sri.com</a>, Sat 07 Jun 1997, 09:37 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="01249" HREF="msg01249.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] "short" Introductory Message (fwd)</A></strong>,
Caliban Tiresias Darklock <a href="mailto:caliban#darklock,com">caliban#darklock,com</a>, Sun 08 Jun 1997, 02:52 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="01258" HREF="msg01258.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] "short" Introductory Message (fwd)</A></strong>,
coder <a href="mailto:coder#ibm,net">coder#ibm,net</a>, Mon 09 Jun 1997, 00:03 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="01242" HREF="msg01242.html">[WotC TSR buyout] WotC Survey</A></strong>,
Jeff Kesselman <a href="mailto:jeffk#tenetwork,com">jeffk#tenetwork,com</a>, Sat 07 Jun 1997, 05:30 GMT
<LI><strong><A NAME="01327" HREF="msg01327.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] RP=MUSH/PG=MUD</A></strong>,
Martin Keegan <a href="mailto:martin#cam,sri.com">martin#cam,sri.com</a>, Sat 07 Jun 1997, 03:14 GMT
<UL>
<li><Possible follow-up(s)><br>
<LI><strong><A NAME="01342" HREF="msg01342.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] RP=MUSH/PG=MUD</A></strong>,
Caliban Tiresias Darklock <a href="mailto:caliban#darklock,com">caliban#darklock,com</a>, Wed 18 Jun 1997, 12:31 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="01356" HREF="msg01356.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] RP=MUSH/PG=MUD</A></strong>,
Adam Wiggins <a href="mailto:nightfall#inficad,com">nightfall#inficad,com</a>, Thu 19 Jun 1997, 17:22 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</UL></BLOCKQUOTE>
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