Greater Mud discussions from another forum 2 of 2

[Evil]

DeathCow Dec 6th, 2005, 2:55am

CHOPPED STUFF ABOUT GUY HARASSING VITOC

Anyway, back to my current progress.

While playing a heated game of mario party 7 with my sister this evening I made a list of 'every' ability and ability scenerio I could think of.  Basically every unique action that takes place in the game of majormud..ie exit movement 0-9 remote actions, multiple remote actions, each possible textblock command, training, sneaking, combat, monster spells, robbing, arena rooms, lair rooms, NPC assigned rooms, NPC rgen times...yadayadayada and I'm gonna change the focus of my current work in content design to creating the perfect area for code testing.

Now this at first seemed like a small task to me, but it didnt occur to me exactly how much was involved in this.  I am aware that not 'everything' I listed is in full implementation in the code, so I can start with the basics and add areas quickly as Vitoc gets to that particular part of the code.

The best part is that with a structure like this the alpha testers will know exactly what kinda things to be looking for.  As I can name each room/area based on what it was made to stress test.  Should be grand.  Although most likely the 'most' boring way possible to perform testing.


abc Dec 6th, 2005, 3:36am

As I said, if you could somehow transfer your character around realms, that would be good. 


DeathCow Dec 6th, 2005, 3:46am

That would be rather easy to implement.  We'd have to have various sysop options for this however.  The standard option would of course be 'no character transfers'  And then there would need to be a whole bunch of various rules that the op could use to limit incoming characters.  I don't want to give sysops the tools to directly edit characters in the realm, for the same reasons metro removed such an ability from the game.  So there would need to be more ways to limit this function.  Stupid sysops shouldnt be handed the instruments of their own distruction.


Keep in mind that this game will have entirely different content than what is in majormud.  There of course will be limited items, but its also perfectly reasonable to have unlimited with low drop%'s be in the game as well.  Myself I'd like to make a monster ability that forces items to rgen based on % from the initial loading/reset of the bbs.


abc Dec 6th, 2005, 3:36am

Seems like mud can only handle int's as drop %'s, but if you allowed real numbers you could set limiteds to .05% which would be better. Let all the players get a chance at fun, instead of only the first 1. 


DeathCow Dec 6th, 2005, 3:46am

MajorMud, afaik, truncates every number.  Although that might not be the issue with item rgens, its effectively the same.  I can't see much use in .05% drops unless we are talking about normal scriptable monster without rgen timers.  Its very likely that an NPC with even a 10 minutes rgen timer would never drop a .05% item.


abc Dec 6th, 2005, 3:57am

Point is, that using real numbers instead of int's allows lower % drops, which should allow you to remove the 'limited' system (which sucks, imho). 


DeathCow Dec 6th, 2005, 3:57am
The limited system does have quite a bit of merit.  It shouldn't be nearly as big of a deal in a larger realm where it will be impossible for 1 person, or group to hit all the bosses themselves.

Although, maybe I'm not clearly understanding your dislike of lims.  I like them, its one of the few ways you can make your character unique in majormud.

abc Dec 6th, 2005, 4:17am

Yeah, uniqueness is definately a plus; but limiting items to first-come-only is not great. I'm sure for some types of chars (in the current mud), if there are another 2-3 above them, who will be put of playing their fav char, cause the items left will suck.

For uniqueness I'd love to see user-creatable items (combination system? a-la the spell creation from the gnome merchant and viper fang or whatever, but more varied).

Even varying stats on the same items would be nice.

"My longsword is better then your longsword."


DeathCow Dec 6th, 2005, 4:35am

Myself I enjoy the first-come-only part as it is what creates skilled players.  Learning fresh starts was the time in which I absorbed the most information about the game, and I'm sure many other players have had similar experiences.  I'd have to agree that in many cases the easy to get low level lims are very desirable and only lim-1, which can be frustrating to many players.  Not everyone has the time/skill to get these items.  Its a wierd idea to punish those that do, in order to make those who don't feel more adequate.  I know that letting other have the chance to get the same items doesn't make them any weaker, it does however marginalize the accomplishment.  I don't know how to appease both sides in this case, and since I'd argue to keep lims how they are, I can't see myself making a change.  Unless a idea comes up that addresses the both sides.


There is no reason why this has to be true.  Content, items, and abilities made for every level range would do alot to combat this issue.


This is in the works, although I will not add it to the game until I figure out a way to make it both fair, and not frustrating.  This could be very difficult to create in a way that won't just piss people off.  I dislike content that is so annoying that no-one wants to do it.  DaoLord anyone?


Although the ladies do seem highly impressed with my longsword I can't see that this has a place in a mud.  Its not that its not great to get an above average item, but it can really piss people off when they don't get such an item.  Although this might be interesting for a limited number of items, it would be silly to try to implement such a system on standard items.


abc Dec 6th, 2005, 4:56am

Oh well, I still think it would be nice if every weapon of the same name wasn't exactly the same. Could open up trading options, all sorts of things. 


Vitoc Dec 6th, 2005, 4:56am

Personally, I would love to see a system of higher quality and possibly deteriorating items, and in the future you can bet there will be an offshoot of this engine that will implement that.  I won't go into great detail here, but several months ago I was going to impement exactly that type of system into Greater MUD.  IMO it encourages people to come to the keys to repair their worn items, and opens up a whole new realm of possibilities (enchantments, craftsmanship, etc.).  However, this is all going to come later as an option.  The greatest thing about this engine is the ease with which we can customize major gameplay changes like this.  It's something Metro will never be able to do (even if some yahoo comes along and throws money at them) and for 3 major reasons:
1) Because they're not going to port it to a different language, and the language it is currently coded in requires a great deal of knowledge and effort to make even the smallest of changes, not to mention the existing codebase is seriously flawed.
2) They're not going to nix the requirement to run it under WG.
3) They literally just don't care about the game.

DeathCow Dec 6th, 2005, 8:49am

Yes-Yes!  This is infact something that I plan to work on.  Granted I don't have as much to work with as WoW does, but Uniqueness, it something i strive for in boss encounters.   


Draige Dec 6th, 2005, 6:28pm

I hate to ask a dumb question for those of use that work ALOT of hours in our personal life but, will this be compatable with megamud?   


DeathCow Dec 6th, 2005, 8:18pm

Yes, it will be.  There are a couple slight issues still involving logins, but they will be resolved.  Either way it takes very little effort to make megamud work correctly, even as we have it now.

[Gaiden]

hate to add another reply to a really old string but i'vebeen thinking about the limited items , limiteds are cool , make your player unique and make it worth being among the first getting your ass kicked and leaving dp's in new areas , but how about something along the lines of a couple of variables to each limited-ie the laen longsword my ranger carries would be different than one dropped for my bard-make the staffs , or one handed bs weapons or 2 handed blunt weapons unique , maybe one for each of the 2 or 3 classes that would best use that particular weapon

[DeathCow]

hate to add another reply to a really old string but i'vebeen thinking about the limited items , limiteds are cool , make your player unique and make it worth being among the first getting your ass kicked and leaving dp's in new areas , but how about something along the lines of a couple of variables to each limited-ie the laen longsword my ranger carries would be different than one dropped for my bard-make the staffs , or one handed bs weapons or 2 handed blunt weapons unique , maybe one for each of the 2 or 3 classes that would best use that particular weapon

Well I appreciated the concern for necro posting, its not a big deal.  Now as for your idea.  I'm not entirely sure I followed everything, because thats a really painful sentence.  There isn't even a period at the end :D.  Ok lets talk about that idea.  What would you like?  I've invisioned a realm that is significantly larger than majormud.  With many more quests and such.  So I've figured there will be plenty of items for everyone.  But are you suggesting that the item that drops would be unique depending on who kills the monster?  What if there is a group?  Or is it dependant on who equips it.  Like abilities for items that have class requirements?

[proteus]

Like abilities for items that have class requirements?

This would be interesting.

You know, if it's doable, making all weapons enhanced by which class is wielding them rather than restricted to specific classes might make things more fun. Other than the typical class weapon restrictions, that is, like mages/staffs, or clerics/blunt or witchunters/non-magical, etc. Opens up a huge set of possibilities.

[DeathCow]

True true....I'm just having trouble with the vision of how that would work.

[The Crazy Animal]

You would need the item to have a constant effect type textblock spell that doesn't show that it is cast when the item is equiped.

The effects could then be handled by check class tests

Personaly it would be easier to write it as a real script though..

However, I'm not sure what type of bonuses would be good for a system like this.

TCA

[Gaiden]

rather than make the weapon "change" with the class weilding it  , why not have  2 or 3 variations drop. example-laen longsword , one handed- usually weilded by say a bard , or ranger , or ninja-why not drop one specifically geared for each of the classes that would normally use that weapon type. maybe ninjas could add a couple ac or a rangers would add a little bs ,  that way also the first 3 or 4 times killing a new boss could be interesting instead of just the first

[The Crazy Animal]

Why would a NPC have 2 or 3 versions of a single weapon?

[DeathCow]

It seems a little wierd to me.  I think the concept would be better implimented in another way.