<!-- MHonArc v2.4.4 --> <!--X-Subject: [MUD-Dev] Re: Current Projects --> <!--X-From-R13: [vpunry.IvyyrlNnoanzeb.pbz --> <!--X-Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 09:17:18 -0700 --> <!--X-Message-Id: 8625669C.0058CA31.00#usmta03,itsc.na.abnamro.com --> <!--X-Content-Type: text/plain --> <!--X-Head-End--> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <html> <head> <title>MUD-Dev message, [MUD-Dev] Re: Current Projects</title> <!-- meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" --> <link rev="made" href="mailto:Michael.Willey#abnamro,com"> </head> <body background="/backgrounds/paperback.gif" bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" alink="#FF0000" vlink="#006000"> <font size="+4" color="#804040"> <strong><em>MUD-Dev<br>mailing list archive</em></strong> </font> <br> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] <br clear=all><hr> <!--X-Body-Begin--> <!--X-User-Header--> <!--X-User-Header-End--> <!--X-TopPNI--> Date: [ <a href="msg00174.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00176.html">Next</a> ] Thread: [ <a href="msg00174.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00230.html">Next</a> ] Index: [ <A HREF="author.html#00175">Author</A> | <A HREF="#00175">Date</A> | <A HREF="thread.html#00175">Thread</A> ] <!--X-TopPNI-End--> <!--X-MsgBody--> <!--X-Subject-Header-Begin--> <H1>[MUD-Dev] Re: Current Projects</H1> <HR> <!--X-Subject-Header-End--> <!--X-Head-of-Message--> <UL> <LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI> <LI><em>Subject</em>: [MUD-Dev] Re: Current Projects</LI> <LI><em>From</em>: <A HREF="mailto:Michael.Willey#abnamro,com">Michael.Willey#abnamro,com</A></LI> <LI><em>Date</em>: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 12:18:55 -0500</LI> <LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI> </UL> <!--X-Head-of-Message-End--> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-Begin--> <HR> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-End--> <!--X-Body-of-Message--> <PRE> Alex Stewart wrote: >What are your current projects? For those of us >out here pushing the technological envelope (or >just hacking around), what are we up to, anyway? My ongoing project is Dreamshadow, an LP-Mud we've been hacking around on since '91. We started with LP 3.1.4, eventually moved to MudOS, and have managed to rewrite every scrap of mudlib code at least twice. At least part of our team has been on since the very beginning, and the game has evolved along with our changing ideas of what it should be. As you can imagine, by now it's becoming an overwhelming mess. Tangled webs of legacy code and long forgotten functionality have stagnated new development and frightened off much of our building talent. So I'm also working on a new project: Dreamshadow II. Essentially we're rewriting the game, refining all of the tried and true concepts that have worked for us for so many years and working in all the new concepts and features we've wanted, but would have broken the old mud. The development watchwords are simplicity and modularity. We're building a pretty simple and open framework, and people who want nifty feature-of-the-month X can work it in themselves. >In particular: > * What kind of software are you working on? (MUD >driver, MUD client, etc?) Original game concepts built on top of pre-packaged MudOS driver and (probably) stripped down Lima mudlib. > * Why? Unlike much of the community, we have no interest in developing new servers, administration tools, communication protocols, security schemes, or whatever. We're world builders. We want a package that provides that "unimportant" stuff, that we're familiar with, and that doesn't get in the way. > * What are its features? > * What does it do (will it do) differently than >other things do? > * Any neat concepts involved? > * Any boring concepts being used in neat ways? Ok, here goes... Dreamshadow is based on the idea that each "area" is a separate universe with it own physical/metaphysical laws and identity. The mechanics for interaction between universes (also called "cosms") is based on some of the basic ideas from WEG's Torg game. If you're not familiar with that source, I'll explain quickly. Each world has a set of three axioms that dictate it's potential in three areas: technological progress(TECH), magical power(MAGIC), and spiritual influence(SPIRIT). Each object, power, ability, or whathaveyou is rated on these scales. If the world you are in doesn't support the required axioms of what you're trying to do, it doesn't work. If you take a laser pistol from some space opera world and venture to the land of the dinosaurs, don't expect it to still fire laser beams. In fact, it won't even be recognizable as a laser pistol - It'll be a "shiny stick" or something akin. "Darn", you say, but it prevents the vision of the designer of the land of the dinosaurs from being disrupted by people hauling around shoulder-launched missiles. ("Storm Knights", you say if you're familiar with Torg. We don't have them.) That's the whole point - we want to encourage people to build individual worlds based on different concepts, without worrying that it's not powerful enough to compete with players who've armed themselves up in the Quake cosm or that it doesn't mesh with the theme of the baseworld. Most of the other features are side effects of this underlying concept - Over the years we've worked in damage type flags to differentiate between a kevlar vest stopping a bullet and a magic shield protecting against dragon breath, a skill tree system that tries to cover everything from starship piloting to spellcasting, a economic system that allows for differing currencies in each world and a changing relationship between their values, and player races in differing sizes and shapes from the norm. The new project's goal is to keep this spirit, but design for it from the beginning. We're designing a very basic framework for interactions between objects, and leaving room for future builders to expand within their creations without having to rewrite the basic system to handle their special cases. (The reward here is getting to write up our own favorite special cases and immortalize them in a library of useful extras. Many of the great ideas being passed around here will show up in that library.) My current stage in the DS2 project is writing up a new game mechanic system, since we've become very dissatisfied with the balance of the system we're using now. I'm eliminating experience points in favor of pure advancement through use (we currently use a system with both), re-scaling the skill system (I recently discussed a logarithmic progression, where chance to advance from X to X+1 is 1 in e^X per use), revising a lot of the game concepts, and converting the base probability checking mechanisms from a combination of linear and bell curve probabilities to a recursive die rolling function ala Torg or Shadowrun (roll(): x=rand(0..MAX), if (x=MAX) x=x+roll()). I like the way each of these systems levels out at the high ends without ever completely stopping progress. </PRE> <!--X-Body-of-Message-End--> <!--X-MsgBody-End--> <!--X-Follow-Ups--> <HR> <!--X-Follow-Ups-End--> <!--X-References--> <!--X-References-End--> <!--X-BotPNI--> <UL> <LI>Prev by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00174.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Current Projects</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00176.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Current Projects</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00174.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Current Projects</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00230.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Current Projects</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="index.html#00175"><STRONG>Date</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thread.html#00175"><STRONG>Thread</STRONG></A></LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> <!--X-BotPNI-End--> <!--X-User-Footer--> <!--X-User-Footer-End--> <ul><li>Thread context: <BLOCKQUOTE><UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00131" HREF="msg00131.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Current Projects</A></strong>, Robert Woods <a href="mailto:rwoods#honors,unr.edu">rwoods#honors,unr.edu</a>, Fri 09 Oct 1998, 09:42 GMT <UL> <li><Possible follow-up(s)><br> <LI><strong><A NAME="00133" HREF="msg00133.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Current Projects</A></strong>, Peck, Matthew x96724c1 <a href="mailto:x96724#exmail,usma.army.mil">x96724#exmail,usma.army.mil</a>, Fri 09 Oct 1998, 12:06 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00138" HREF="msg00138.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Current Projects</A></strong>, Robert Woods <a href="mailto:rwoods#honors,unr.edu">rwoods#honors,unr.edu</a>, Fri 09 Oct 1998, 19:57 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00174" HREF="msg00174.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Current Projects</A></strong>, Wilburn, E.J. <a href="mailto:WilburnE#kochind,com">WilburnE#kochind,com</a>, Tue 13 Oct 1998, 13:04 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00175" HREF="msg00175.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Current Projects</A></strong>, Michael.Willey <a href="mailto:Michael.Willey#abnamro,com">Michael.Willey#abnamro,com</a>, Tue 13 Oct 1998, 16:17 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00230" HREF="msg00230.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Current Projects</A></strong>, Scatter <a href="mailto:scatter#thevortex,com">scatter#thevortex,com</a>, Fri 16 Oct 1998, 19:28 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00244" HREF="msg00244.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Current Projects</A></strong>, Michael.Willey <a href="mailto:Michael.Willey#abnamro,com">Michael.Willey#abnamro,com</a>, Mon 19 Oct 1998, 13:50 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00128" HREF="msg00128.html">[MUD-Dev] Current Projects</A></strong>, Alex Stewart <a href="mailto:riche#crl,com">riche#crl,com</a>, Fri 09 Oct 1998, 06:56 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00129" HREF="msg00129.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Current Projects</A></strong>, Caliban Tiresias Darklock <a href="mailto:caliban#darklock,com">caliban#darklock,com</a>, Fri 09 Oct 1998, 07:54 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL></BLOCKQUOTE> </ul> <hr> <center> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] </center> <hr> </body> </html>