<!-- MHonArc v2.4.4 --> <!--X-Subject: [MUD-Dev] Re: Re[2]:[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc (long) --> <!--X-From-R13: "Qnyvona Fverfvnf Rnexybpx" <pnyvonaNqnexybpx.pbz> --> <!--X-Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1998 12:53:52 -0800 --> <!--X-Message-Id: 00ef01be2dee$d813df80$55e5edd0@dev-18.chilisoft.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: Re[2]:[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc (long)</title> <!-- meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" --> <link rev="made" href="mailto:caliban#darklock,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="msg01042.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg01044.html">Next</a> ] Thread: [ <a href="msg01026.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg01011.html">Next</a> ] Index: [ <A HREF="author.html#01043">Author</A> | <A HREF="#01043">Date</A> | <A HREF="thread.html#01043">Thread</A> ] <!--X-TopPNI-End--> <!--X-MsgBody--> <!--X-Subject-Header-Begin--> <H1>[MUD-Dev] Re: Re[2]:[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc (long)</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: Re[2]:[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc (long) </LI> <LI><em>From</em>: "Caliban Tiresias Darklock" <<A HREF="mailto:caliban#darklock,com">caliban#darklock,com</A>></LI> <LI><em>Date</em>: Tue, 22 Dec 1998 13:05:06 -0800</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> -----Original Message----- From: J C Lawrence <claw#under,engr.sgi.com> To: mud-dev#kanga,nu <mud-dev#kanga,nu> Date: Monday, December 21, 1998 3:56 PM Subject: [MUD-Dev] Re: Re[2]:[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc (long) >Excellant. I like. A lot. I wish I could take full credit for it, but the game system itself was created by someone else in the late 80's. In conversations both here and elsewhere, I became more and more acutely aware that what I really wanted was not some new MUD server, but *this* game on a net-accessible box. It passes all seven "addictive game" razors, and there really is nothing else like it... so I hunted down the author and acquired the rights. There are still some minor IP issues we're hashing out, but these are trivial. Now I'm crawling through a meg and a half of the ugliest source I've ever seen, all Borland Turbo-specific and nonportable, much of it badly implemented by modern standards, none of it ever intended to be scaled beyond a hundred players, and assuming a full shutdown and restart at least every 24 hours. I am trying to port this source from DOS modem-based executables to a monolithic Linux server daemon. It's not a trivial task by any stretch of the imagination, especially since I want this to run under Win2K as well. (I have scrapped plans to run under 98, mainly because 98 is not long for this world anyway.) >I specifically want human player skills to be more important than >game-character skills. As do I, but I see this as a potential trap wherein you can make the game so hostile to the new player that no new players arrive. Inevitably, your old players leave slowly, and you eventually have no players. I am attempting to deal with this in various fashions, including documentation, online help facilities, and in-game structures to discourage newbie-bashing. Some of these already exist; you are fined heavily for attacking players who are new to the game under the current configuration, but the fine isn't all that big a deal once you get really powerful. I am tempted to include something I think makes a lot of sense, specifically the statement of fines as a percentage and not an absolute -- so when you get fined, instead of having some arbitrary value, you get hit for X percent of your current worth. I am also contemplating auto-seizure of assets, just in case someone thinks they can run around and not pay their fines... a common strategy for avoiding this problem in the older versions was to maintain your holdings in a commodity format, and liquidate only when cash was needed. Since I can easily determine what you own and what it's worth, I may as well take it if you owe the government money anyway. Eminent domain and all that. The initial goal of the game (as stated by the author) was to create a world so flexible and rich in possibilities that the designer could compete against other people on a reasonably level playing field -- i.e. knowledge of the internals and game logic is not a significant advantage. I am attempting to build a corollary goal in which a *lack* of knowledge about the game's systems and structures is not a significant *disadvantage*. I may not achieve this to any reasonable degree, but I still intend to try. ;) I'm tempted to write a full description of the game and how it operates, but I don't know if anyone would be interested. If people would like to hear about the general concepts involved and how it was implemented under DOS, along with my initial thoughts on how to migrate it, let me know. | Caliban Tiresias Darklock caliban#darklock,com | Darklock Communications <A HREF="http://www.darklock.com/">http://www.darklock.com/</A> | U L T I M A T E U N I V E R S E I S N O T D E A D | 774577496C6C6E457645727355626D4974H -=CABAL::3146=- </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="msg01042.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: [DevMUD] Re: Database module</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg01044.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: [DevMUD] Re: Database module</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg01026.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Re[2]:[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc (long)</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg01011.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: More Laws, was Re: DIS: Client-Server vs Peer-to-Peer</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="index.html#01043"><STRONG>Date</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thread.html#01043"><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>[MUD-Dev] Re: Re[2]:[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc (long)</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM> <ul compact> <LI><strong><A NAME="01034" HREF="msg01034.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Re[2]:[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc (long)</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Mon 21 Dec 1998, 23:49 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="01019" HREF="msg01019.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Re[2]:[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc (long)</A></strong>, quzah [softhome] <a href="mailto:quzah#softhome,net">quzah#softhome,net</a>, Sat 19 Dec 1998, 14:47 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="01020" HREF="msg01020.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Re[2]:[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc (long)</A></strong>, quzah [softhome] <a href="mailto:quzah#softhome,net">quzah#softhome,net</a>, Sat 19 Dec 1998, 14:55 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="01026" HREF="msg01026.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Re[2]:[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc (long)</A></strong>, David Bennett <a href="mailto:ddt#discworld,imaginary.com">ddt#discworld,imaginary.com</a>, Mon 21 Dec 1998, 20:43 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="01043" HREF="msg01043.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Re[2]:[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc (long)</A></strong>, Caliban Tiresias Darklock <a href="mailto:caliban#darklock,com">caliban#darklock,com</a>, Tue 22 Dec 1998, 20:53 GMT </LI> </ul> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="01011" HREF="msg01011.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: More Laws, was Re: DIS: Client-Server vs Peer-to-Peer</A></strong>, Koster, Raph <a href="mailto:rkoster#origin,ea.com">rkoster#origin,ea.com</a>, Sat 19 Dec 1998, 01:21 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="01033" HREF="msg01033.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: More Laws, was Re: DIS: Client-Server vs Peer-t o-Peer</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Mon 21 Dec 1998, 23:41 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="01006" HREF="msg01006.html">[MUD-Dev] Re[2]:[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc (long)</A></strong>, Michael Willey <a href="mailto:Michael.Willey#abnamro,com">Michael.Willey#abnamro,com</a>, Fri 18 Dec 1998, 23:32 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="01008" HREF="msg01008.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Re[2]:[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD Design doc (long)</A></strong>, Sunny Gulati <a href="mailto:sunnywiz#radiks,net">sunnywiz#radiks,net</a>, Sat 19 Dec 1998, 00:30 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>