Time/Night/Day

[The Crazy Animal]

If you asked me one thing that bothered, me the most about the general atmosphere of MMUD is that it could be described as eternal twilight which can be quite stale at times. I?m wondering how hard would it be to have some basic and maybe some complex time dynamics to the game depending on their use ability.

Monster/NPC wise:
I was thinking perhaps some general effects with who can be found at what times in what areas. Maybe shops have different counter people through out the day/night. Perhaps the number of guards dwindle off during certain times in towns. Townspeople walk around in the streets during the day but can be found in their homes/local inns at night.

Lunar cycle: Might make Werewolves more frequent and have some dynamics to add to lighting.

Night/Day description functions: description and or lighting changes for areas, oil lamps might light up the streets.

Special Nighttime only creatures: vampires

Little more complex:
Timed scripts:
Maybe the sheriff or the mayor of the town will sit in his office all day then walk home at night making the walk home the easer time to attack if needed.

TCA

[Valentine]

Mother. Fucker.
I had a post all typed out about this and my piece of shit on-board v-card decided to flip out. I'm recreating my post, but I'm angry. Also: Grr. Arg.
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Vampires! Were-creatures! Yea! I like the idea of day/night. I'm assuming you aren't suggesting real-time for this: A 30-60 minute day night cycle is completely reasonable, though. This would give all players equal opportunity to each setting across time zones. Chars would need a light source to travel at night. A lunar cycle should be irregular to avoid having the full moon be every Mon/Wed/Fri at 2p. Some examples of bonuses/deficiencies follow:

Bonuses
Stealth
Lockpick
(lots of other thieving abilities)
Perhaps increase charisma? You know the old saying about turning out the light...

Deficiencies
Detect/Reveal
Melee attacks
Hunting
Reading (scrolls, signs, etc)
Pickpocket (my reasoning is the increased difficulty of removing an item from a satchel in the dark is greater than the benefit of increased stealth)

I could list dozens of examples, but I don't want to be "that guy". The above alterations would also apply to caves, dark rooms, etc (just wouldn't be on a timer). Nighttime would account for 1/3 of a day cycle. On a 60 minute timer, night time would be 20 minutes, daytime 40 minutes. Light sources (physical , magical, or otherwise) would counteract the alterations in abilities (ahh, if/then/else...good times).

I had more....

Edited because hours and minutes are not the same thing....in most dimensions.

[The Crazy Animal]

Na I wouldn?t do real-time unless the realm was large enough to support time zones. I would probably make the cycle a little longer though like 1H 40M or some goofy time like that so that the lunar cycle, which should be roughly 28 days rotates slowly.

I?d say for caves and subterranean places these shouldn?t be effected as much if they are more than say 10 room from the surface. Maybe there could be a way to limit the effect for these areas with a simple flag.

Searching would be a big hit in the deficiencies category.

<Grin> By all means, increase the list I know I make some long ass posts and normally that?s after I?ve cut them back too.

TCA

[Valentine]

I was actually thinking that the day cycle and month cycle would be on different timers altogether. Being a fantasy realm, we can play fast and loose with the lunar cycle, but even at 28 days/60min cycle that still gives you less than one full moon per real-time day.

Real Time	Game Time
0100	night; full moon
0120	day
0200	night; full moon
0220	day
0300	night; full moon
0320	day
0400	night; partial moon
0420 (shut up DC)	day
0500	night; partial moon?
0520	day

...and so on and so forth...I think the only moon distinctions we'd want are full, partial, and new, so you'd have [3 full moons, 11 partial, 3 new, 11 partial] x infinite. You would then have a full moon on (real time) Day 1 0100, Day 2 0500, Day 3 0900....(Day 7 wouldn't have a full moon) thus rotating the time of day and allowing all players to enjoy the finer points of hunting wererats.

I like night time happening uniformly...it stands to reason that a char would know what time of day it is, so having sunrise at 20 past the hour makes sense. With a 28 day lunar cycle you are stuck in a 1/5/9/13/17/21 pattern, so making the lunar cycle 27 or 29 days (adding or subtracting from a partial moon segment) would help disperse the fun of werebeasties.

Random question....is HTML enabled for posting? Transcribing to BBS code on the fly makes my head hurt.

Edited because I forgot the make a point...

[The Crazy Animal]

Couldn't tell you if HTML posting was enabled.

Ya that would work. However, I'm not sure what?s better though longer days/nights with a slower moon progression or shorter days/nights with a faster moon progression? I guess it really depends on what type of time based events would be wanted. Idealy you want a few game days to pass per real time day but i'm not really shure what would feel too fast.

So that just leaves one question, so what times happy hour and wheres my rum?!?!!

TCA

[DeathCow]

Honestly I didn't read everything..but let me talk a little about day and night cycles.


Majormud couldn't pull it off because of the way the database was organized.  We can :p

The day and night cycles can't and shouldn't effect PCs.  Its just too much for them.  It can however be something that we use that effects non player part of the game...ie NPC chatter, npc movement, monster stats....It should eb something that advanced games can use..and something that basic gamers actively avoid...I'm drunk or I'd totally find the data file I have on day/night.....

I'll post about this tommorow... :p

[Reece]

Hey, While your adding cycles females can have the full benifit of it too.

[The Crazy Animal]

Thinking about it, it might be a fair idea to have sunlight damage for creatures that are normaly only found at night.

TCA

[Valentine]

Hey, While your adding cycles females can have the full benifit of it too.

Yes, but that's only fair if the characters can get drunk and knocked up, and then hire bounty hunters to hunt down the sperm donors for child support.


I'm curious to know how night/day is too much for the players. I've played several games where this was a factor, and I'm still alive.

Edit: Oh! Regarding TCA's post above...like, Continual Light would cause damage to vampires? That idea makes me happy.

[The Crazy Animal]

Don't forget about Trolls, Trolls were thought to turn to stone in the sunlight... that might be a neat dynamic feature for the game. I can see it now you out beating up trolls and the sun comes out and they turn into Troll Statues.

TCA

[proteus]

Yes, but hopefully, this will mean that most of the night-time monsters will spend their time indoors, regardless of gametime.

[DeathCow]

I'm curious to know how night/day is too much for the players. I've played several games where this was a factor, and I'm still alive.

You havent met many majormud players.  They cry.

[Valentine]

Ahh...majormudders = major whiners. Got it.

I still like night/day distinctions, especially if it leads to spells that can cross boundaries between utility and attack as a form of strategy. Of course creatures harmed by sunlight would stay indoors during daylight hours, (and sorry I keep going back to vampires...they're an easy target here) but during the night travelers could run into a band of blood-suckers whereas traveling during the day would be safe passage from the creatures of the night.?

It's not a bad idea for a town...guarded by people during the day, but everyone locks themselves inside at night when the gargoyles come to life.

Edited because typing is hard.

[DeathCow]

Its a rather fun idea.. :p

[The Crazy Animal]

Not all mudders are whiners just most of them and especially in situations were they feel some other class has the upper hand.

Sounds good.

going back to the vampire bit:

Vampires during the day should be weaker but they should have their resting places guarded by ghoul minions that could offset the loss of power by force of numbers.

An interesting idea for were-creatures is that they assume their native form during the day but when attacked will change shape. This would be an interesting way to have things like villages pleged by were-creatures but doing to day the creatures would blend in and be harder to find.

TCA