December 1998

• Hex-grid mapping Matthew R. Sheahan
• • Hex-grid mapping Jon Leonard
  • • Hex-grid mapping James Wilson
    • • Hex-grid mapping Jon Leonard
      • • Hex-grid mapping James Wilson
        • • Hex-grid mapping Par Winzell
          • Hex-grid mapping quzah [sotfhome]
          • Hex-grid mapping Nathan F Yospe
  • Hex-grid mapping Ling
  • • Hex-grid mapping Jon A. Lambert
    • Hex-grid mapping Nathan F Yospe
    • Hex-grid mapping Alberto Barsella
• Hex-grid mapping (example from PSL empire) Pericolo DiMorte
• • Hex-grid mapping (example from PSL empire) Nathan F Yospe
  • Hex-grid mapping (example from PSL empire) quzah [sotfhome]
  • • Hex-grid mapping (example from PSL empire) Pericolo DiMorte
    • • Hex-grid mapping (example from PSL empire) James Wilson
• ADMIN: Personalities... J C Lawrence
• Hex-grid mapping (fwd) Nathan F Yospe
• • Hex-grid mapping (fwd) J C Lawrence
• Electric Communities' E Ola Fosheim Grøstad
• Electric Communities' E Ola Fosheim Grøstad
• mud client development systems Sunny Gulati
• • mud client development systems Caliban Tiresias Darklock
  • mud client development systems Chris Gray
  • • mud client development systems greear@cyberhighway.net
    • mud client development systems Sunny Gulati
    • • mud client development systems Benjamin D. Wiechel
      • mud client development systems Sunny Gulati
      • • mud client development systems J C Lawrence
        • mud client development systems Per Vognsen
        • • mud client development systems Sunny Gulati
          • • mud client development systems Scatter
            • mud client development systems Per Vognsen
  • mud client development systems Chris Gray
  • • mud client development systems Jon Leonard
  • mud client development systems Bruce Mitchener, Jr.
  • • mud client development systems Sunny Gulati
  • mud client development systems Chris Gray
• Stack-Based NPC AI Eli Stevens {KiZurich}
• • Stack-Based NPC AI Mark Gritter
  • Stack-Based NPC AI Marc Hernandez
  • Stack-Based NPC AI Richard Woolcock
  • • Stack-Based NPC AI Par Winzell
    • • Stack-Based NPC AI David Bennett
    • Stack-Based NPC AI Mik Clarke
  • Stack-Based NPC AI Felix A. Croes
• Introduction Mik Clarke
• • Introduction Adam J. Thornton
  • • Introduction Mik Clarke
    • • Introduction ApplePiMan@aol.com
      • • Introduction Mik Clarke
• Thought Treasure Adam Wiggins
• Netscape's "Gecko" Browsing Engine (fwd) Nathan F Yospe
• • Netscape's "Gecko" Browsing Engine (fwd) Adam Wiggins
  • • Netscape's "Gecko" Browsing Engine (fwd) Bruce Mitchener, Jr.
    • Netscape's "Gecko" Browsing Engine (fwd) greear@cyberhighway.net
• Error tolerant UDP data streams J C Lawrence
• • Error tolerant UDP data streams James Wilson
  • • Error tolerant UDP data streams J C Lawrence
  • Error tolerant UDP data streams Ola Fosheim Grøstad
• ADMIN: (IMPORTNANT) Server down time and possible service interruption J C Lawrence
• [DevMUD] Error tolerant UDP data streams Darren Henderson
• MUD Design doc (long) Thinus Barnard
• • MUD Design doc (long) Benjamin D. Wiechel
  • • MUD Design doc (long) Thinus Barnard
    • • MUD Design doc (long) J C Lawrence
      • • MUD Design doc (long) Koster, Raph
        • MUD Design doc (long) Emil Eifrem
        • • MUD Design doc (long) Adam Wiggins
          • • MUD Design doc (long) Michael Willey
            • • MUD Design doc (long) Adam Wiggins
                On 18 Dec 1998, Michael Willey wrote:
                > On 12/17/98 2:36 PM, adam@angel.com wrote:
                > >On Thu, 17 Dec 1998, Emil Eifrem wrote:
                > >> Surely you must have some way to delay a
                > >>player's queing commands while they're busy
                > >>doing something else. For example, say you
                > >>have a spell that causes damage. According to
                > >>the above, a fight between two people with
                > >>this spell would basically be a fight between
                > >>their clients and connections -- whomever gets
                > >>through most "cast my damagespell" messages
                > >>would win.
                > >
                > >No, not necessarily. It's game balance. A
                > >direct player delay is not always necessary in
                > >order to ensure that combat itself gets drawn
                > >out for more than 3 seconds.
                > >
                > >Consider:
                > >
                > >- Buffy the mage has a damage spell,
                > >'fireball'. It costs her 100 mana to cast the
                > >spell.
                > >- Buffy has another, weaker damage spell,
                > >'chilling touch'. It costs her 50 mana to cast
                > >the spell.
                > >- Buffy has a really kickass damage spell, >'nuke'. It costs her 200
                > mana to cast the
                > >spell.
                > >
                > >- Buffy has 120 total mana.
                > >- Buffy's mana count can go negative, up to her
                > >total negated: -120.
                > >- Buffy gets back (((N + n) / 8) + 1) mana per >second, where N is her
                > max (120) and n is her
                > >current mana level (which could be between -120
                > >and 120).
                > >
                > >Buffy's current target, Boffo, can be killed by
                > >two nukes, four fireballs, or eight chilling
                > >touches. What spell(s) should she cast at him >to kill him as quickly as
                > possible, and when? >Does tintin really help out here? How long
                > >does combat last?
                > >
                > >Now throw in that Boffo has spells and mana of >his own, including neat
                > mana-twiddling spells
                > >such as limiting the targets regen or
                > >temporarily increasing your own.
                > >
                > >Now what's the wisest course? Does #10 cast
                > >'fireball' boffo seem to be the best way for
                > >Buffy to start combat?
                >
                > A simple problem. Assuming Buffy starts at a
                > full charge, a simple script will kill off Boffo
                > in eight seconds, with mana to spare. Something
                > along the lines of..
                >
                > Repeat 4 { chill touch boffo, wait 2 seconds }
                > nuke boffo
                
                Perhaps. But one might note that now the game already has
                more complex combat than 80% of existing muds. I'd say that's
                a pretty good start. Now with a little imagination we can
                extend this and come up with some slightly more amusing spells
                rather than straight damage to shake things up a bit.
                
                > Poor Boffo has eight seconds to type in a few
                > commands; He will likely be defending himself or
                > running away rather than trying to slow Buffy's
                > mana regeneration.
                
                You're welcome to fool with the formula in order to change the rate
                of regeneration. The original point is that it is possible to
                have no forced delay (or "lag") on the player characters in order to
                make combat not a war of typing/link speed. My design has achieved
                this aim. If you'd like to extend it from there, a creative mind
                could do that quite easily. (Perhaps I'll try for some more interesting
                rules. See below.)
                
                > The only effect your mana regeneration had on
                > Buffy is for her to add a 2 second delay to the
                > script rather than the system adding a delay
                > for her.
                
                Which was the original goal. Mission accomplished.
                
                > Buffy's next goal is probably to raise
                > her mana maximum to 200 points, so she can
                > change her insta-death script to
                >
                > repeat 2 nuke boffo
                >
                > and be done with it.
                
                Actually I think your chill touch trick would *still* be better regardless
                of how much mana she got. One (potential) flaw with my formula is that
                your regen increases as your max mana increases. I'd probably rather
                do something percentage based - where you got back ((N + n) / 8) + 1
                percent of your mana back, or (((((N + n) / 8) + 1) / 100) * N) per pulse.
                
                Again, you can do a lot with this. None of it requires any character
                delay, and most of it makes for more interesting gameplay.
                
                Here's some more spells which Boffo or Buffy might have. Most of these
                ideas are not new, of course - Magic: The Gathering is a great source for
                this sort of spellcasting, so I will now shamelessly rip off a few of
                its more popular spells.
                
                Mana Vortex: For 50 mana, cause everyone in the room to be drained 10
                mana per pulse. Lasts twenty seconds.
                
                Mana Barbs: For 100 mana, cause everyone in the room to take an amount
                of damage equal to the casting cost of any spell they cast. Eg,
                Buffy casting the 50 mana chilling touch above would do 50 pts of damage
                to her. Lasts ten seconds.
                
                Mana Sink: For 80 mana, cause every spell to cost twice as much. Lasts
                fifteen seconds.
                
                Reverse Damage: For 100 mana, any damage done to the caster during
                the next five seconds heals them rather than harms them.
                
                Wither: For 30 mana, cut a target's mana regen in half for the next
                twenty seconds.
                
                Drain Power: For 75 mana, any spell the target casts over the next
                ten seconds will cause the caster's mana to go up by half the casting
                cost of that spell.
                
                Drain Life: For 75 mana, any spell the target casts over the next ten
                seconds will cause the caster's health to go up by half the casting
                cost of that spell.
                
                
                Now with just one or two of these spells at his disposal, Boffo could
                make mincemeat of Buffy (presuming she was blindly trusting the
                4*chill touch + nuke script you mentioned above).
                
                Here's some possible scenarios. Let's assume that both characters
                have 200 hitpoints. This would mean (according to the stuff I said
                in the original message) that a chilling touch does 25 points of
                damage, fireball does 50, and nuke does 100.
                
                Buffy walks into the room, starts her script on Boffo.
                Buffy casts chill touch at Boffo. (Boffo.HP = 175)
                Boffo casts mana barbs.
                Buffy casts chill touch. (Boffo.HP = 150, Buffy.HP = 150)
                Boffo twiddles his thumbs.
                Buffy casts chill touch. (Boffo.HP = 125, Buffy.HP = 100)
                Boffo cackles evily.
                Buffy casts chill touch. (Boffo.HP = 100, Buffy.HP = 50)
                Boffo laughs loudly.
                Buffy casts chill touch. (Boffo.HP = 75, Buffy.HP = 0)
                Buffy is DEAD! R.I.P.
                Boffo loots Buffy's corpse.
                The Mana Barbs disipates.
                
                Let's say that Boffo only wants to disable her, perhaps to kill her
                at his leisure with conventional weaponry, or perhaps even to try to
                talk some reason into her:
                
                Buffy walks into the room, starts her script on Boffo.
                Buffy casts chill touch at Boffo. (Boffo.HP = 175, Buffy.Mana = 70)
                Boffo casts wither on Buffy. (Boffo.Mana = 90)
                Buffy casts chill touch at Boffo. (Boffo.HP = 150, Buffy.Mana = 45)
                Boffo casts mana sink. (Boffo.Mana = -10)
                Buffy casts chill touch at Boffo. (Boffo.HP = 125, Buffy.Mana = -55)
                Buffy casts chill touch at Boffo. (Boffo.HP = 100, Buffy.Mana = -140)
                Buffy casts chill touch at Boffo. (Boffo.HP = 75, Buffy.Mana = -180)
                
                At this point Boffo's spells wear off, but it doesn't matter - Buffy
                can't cast anymore (she's *way* under her limit), and Boffo can
                continuely renew the Wither on her at his leisure to keep her disabled.
                (The mana counts above are approximate, btw...)
                
                
                I'm sure a person that wanted to put some serious time into this could
                come up with something that was a lot of fun, and for which triggers
                and scripts where all but useless.
                
                The point being that we've removed that annoying character lag (which
                players hate), made clients less important than wits, preserved
                the flow and pacing of combat, and in the meantime maybe made the combat
                gameplay a little bit more fun and engaging for the players.
                
                
                Adam W.
              • • MUD Design doc (long) J C Lawrence
          • MUD Design doc (long) Mik Clarke
          • • MUD Design doc (long) Caliban Tiresias Darklock
            • • MUD Design doc (long) Thinus Barnard
              • • MUD Design doc (long) Mik Clarke
              • MUD Design doc (long) Mik Clarke
              • • MUD Design doc (long) Travis Casey
                • MUD Design doc (long) Nathan F Yospe
                • • MUD Design doc (long) Mik Clarke
                  • • MUD Design doc (long) Nathan F Yospe
                    • • MUD Design doc (long) Mik Clarke
                      • • MUD Design doc (long) Nathan F Yospe
                        • • MUD Design doc (long) Mik Clarke
                        • MUD Design doc (long) Adam Wiggins
                        • MUD Design doc (long) J C Lawrence
                        • • MUD Design doc (long) Ling
                          • • MUD Design doc (long) J C Lawrence
                            • • MUD Design doc (long) Koster, Raph
                              • • MUD Design doc (long) J C Lawrence
                          • MUD Design doc (long) Mik Clarke
                          • • MUD Design doc (long) J C Lawrence
          • MUD Design doc (long) J C Lawrence
          • • MUD Design doc (long) Emil Eifrem
            • • MUD Design doc (long) Travis Casey
              • • MUD Design doc (long) Emil Eifrem
                • • MUD Design doc (long) Travis Casey
                  • • MUD Design doc (long) Emil Eifrem
                    • • MUD Design doc (long) Travis S. Casey
                      • • MUD Design doc (long) Caliban Tiresias Darklock
                      • MUD Design doc (long) Marian Griffith
              • MUD Design doc (long) Koster, Raph
  • MUD Design doc (long) Chris Gray
  • • MUD Design doc (long) Sunny Gulati
    • • MUD Design doc (long) J C Lawrence
  • MUD Design doc (long) Chris Gray
  • MUD Design doc (long) Benjamin D. Wiechel
  • • MUD Design doc (long) J C Lawrence
  • MUD Design doc (long) Nathan F Yospe
  • MUD Design doc (long) Chris Gray
  • • MUD Design doc (long) Emil Eifrem
  • MUD Design doc (long) Chris Gray
  • • MUD Design doc (long) Mik Clarke
  • MUD Design doc (long) Chris Gray
  • • MUD Design doc (long) Caliban Tiresias Darklock
• Hex grids. quzah [softhome]
• small dev-mud invite Chris Gray
• • small dev-mud invite J C Lawrence
• mud client development systems Sunny Gulati
• • mud client development systems Jay Carlson
  • mud client development systems J C Lawrence
• AFAP: As fast as possible, non linear... quzah [softhome]
• • AFAP: As fast as possible, non linear... Jon Leonard
  • • AFAP: As fast as possible, non linear... quzah [softhome]
  • AFAP: As fast as possible, non linear... Mik Clarke
  • • AFAP: As fast as possible, non linear... Alex Oren
  • AFAP: As fast as possible, non linear... Dan Shiovitz
  • AFAP: As fast as possible, non linear... Mik Clarke
  • • AFAP: As fast as possible, non linear... quzah [softhome]
    • AFAP: As fast as possible, non linear... quzah [softhome]
    • • AFAP: As fast as possible, non linear... Greg Connor
      • • AFAP: As fast as possible, non linear... quzah [softhome]
• Graphic design, client questions Thinus Barnard
• • Graphic design, client questions Caliban Tiresias Darklock
  • • Graphic design, client questions Jo Dillon
    • • Graphic design, client questions Caliban Tiresias Darklock
      • • Graphic design, client questions Jo Dillon
    • Graphic design, client questions Thinus Barnard
    • • Graphic design, client questions Sunny Gulati
      • • Graphic design, client questions J C Lawrence
      • Graphic design, client questions Caliban Tiresias Darklock
      • Graphic design, client questions J C Lawrence
    • Graphic design, client questions J C Lawrence
    • Graphic design, client questions Jay Carlson
  • Graphic design, client questions Ben Greear
• More Laws, was DIS: Client-Server vs Peer-to-Peer Koster, Raph
• • More Laws, was DIS: Client-Server vs Peer-to-Peer Ola Fosheim Grøstad
  • • More Laws, was DIS: Client-Server vs Peer-t o-Peer Koster, Raph
    • • More Laws, was DIS: Client-Server vs Peer-t o-Peer J C Lawrence
• More Laws Niklas Elmqvist
• • More Laws J C Lawrence
• Re[2]:MUD Design doc (long) Michael Willey
• • Re[2]:MUD Design doc (long) Adam Wiggins
  • Re[2]:MUD Design doc (long) Caliban Tiresias Darklock
  • • Re[2]:MUD Design doc (long) J C Lawrence
  • Re[2]:MUD Design doc (long) Sunny Gulati
  • • Re[2]:MUD Design doc (long) quzah [softhome]
    • • Re[2]:MUD Design doc (long) David Bennett
  • Re[2]:MUD Design doc (long) quzah [softhome]
• Some useful links Niklas Elmqvist
• Response (Was MUD Design doc (long)) Ola Fosheim Grøstad
• Response (Was MUD Design doc (long)) Chris Gray
• • Response (Was MUD Design doc (long)) J C Lawrence
• example custom protocol and its uses Chris Gray
• client stuff... Andrew Wilson
• Developing a MUD for the first time? Alex Oren
• Re[2]:MUD Design doc (long) J C Lawrence
• [DevMUD] Database module J C Lawrence
• • [DevMUD] Database module cynbe@muq.org
  • • [DevMUD] Database module J C Lawrence
    • • [DevMUD] Database module cynbe@muq.org
    • [DevMUD] Database module T. Alexander Popiel
    • [DevMUD] Database module Jay Carlson
    • • [DevMUD] Database module cynbe@muq.org
  • [DevMUD] Database module Felix A. Croes
• Re[2]:MUD Design doc (long) Caliban Tiresias Darklock
• [RRE]AAAI 1999 Fall Symposium: Narrative Intelligence Bruce Mitchener, Jr.
• (fwd) DESIGN: Proposed topic of Discussion (Injecting Pure Signal) J C Lawrence
• • (fwd) DESIGN: Proposed topic of Discussion (Injecting Pure Signal) Mik Clarke
• Terragen Vadim Tkachenko
• [RELEASE] Insanity To Infinity (I:I_OS) v.01a Bobby Bailey
• • [RELEASE] Insanity To Infinity (I:I_OS) v.01a Robin Carey
  • • [RELEASE] Insanity To Infinity (I:I_OS) v.01a Bobby Bailey
• META: 1998 Topic Summary Jon A. Lambert
• [RELEASE] Insanity To Infinity (I:I_OS) v.02a Bobby Bailey
• ADMIN: New text formatting rule for MUD-Dev J C Lawrence
• More Laws Jon A. Lambert
• • More Laws Travis Casey
• MUD Design doc - Combat Jon A. Lambert
• • MUD Design doc - Combat J C Lawrence
  • • MUD Design doc - Combat cynbe@muq.org
    • MUD Design doc - Combat Koster, Raph
    • • MUD Design doc - Combat Caliban Tiresias Darklock
      • • MUD Design doc - Combat quzah [softhome]
        • • MUD Design doc - Combat Caliban Tiresias Darklock
          • MUD Design doc - Combat T. Alexander Popiel
          • • MUD Design doc - Combat J C Lawrence
            • • MUD Design doc - Combat Koster, Raph
              • • MUD Design doc - Combat Adam Wiggins
                • MUD Design doc - Combat J C Lawrence
                • MUD Design doc - Combat quzah [softhome]
                • MUD Design doc - Combat Dr. Cat
                • • MUD Design doc - Combat T. Alexander Popiel
                  • • MUD Design doc - Combat Caliban Tiresias Darklock
                  • MUD Design doc - Combat J C Lawrence
      • MUD Design doc - Combat James Wilson
      • • MUD Design doc - Combat Nathan F Yospe
        • • MUD Design doc - Combat James Wilson
          • • MUD Design doc - Combat Nathan F Yospe
            • MUD Design doc - Combat diablo@best.com
            • MUD Design doc - Combat Kristen Koster
  • MUD Design doc - Combat Chris Gray
  • • MUD Design doc - Combat Scatter
  • MUD Design doc - Combat Koster, Raph
  • • MUD Design doc - Combat Kristen Koster
  • MUD Design doc - Combat Caliban Tiresias Darklock
  • • MUD Design doc - Combat T. Alexander Popiel
• Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Till Eulenspiegel
• • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Travis Casey
  • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Koster, Raph
    • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Adam Wiggins
      • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Marian Griffith
      • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Andy Cink
      • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Ling
        • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Till Eulenspiegel
          • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Andy Cink
        • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Caliban Tiresias Darklock
        • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Justin Robinson
        • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Andy Cink
          • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Mik Clarke
            • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. J C Lawrence
              • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Koster, Raph
                • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. J C Lawrence
                  • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Koster, Raph
                    • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Adam Wiggins
                      • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Marian Griffith
                        • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. J C Lawrence
                          • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Marian Griffith
                            • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. J C Lawrence
                            • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Alex Oren
                        • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Mik Clarke
                        • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Adam Wiggins
                          • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. J C Lawrence
                            • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Koster, Raph
                              • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Mik Clarke
                              • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Matt Wallace
                                • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Adam Wiggins
                              • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Adam Wiggins
                      • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Marian Griffith
                      • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. J C Lawrence
                        • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Koster, Raph
                  • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Caliban Tiresias Darklock
                  • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Andy Cink
                  • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Koster, Raph
                    • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Caliban Tiresias Darklock
                      • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. J C Lawrence
                        • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Caliban Tiresias Darklock
                      • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Andy Cink
                      • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Koster, Raph
                        • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Caliban Tiresias Darklock
                  • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Marian Griffith
                  • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Caliban Tiresias Darklock
                    • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Koster, Raph
                  • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Mik Clarke
                  • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Koster, Raph
                    • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Adam Wiggins
                      • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. J C Lawrence
                      • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Holly Sommer
                        • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Adam Wiggins
                          • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. J C Lawrence
                          • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Mik Clarke
                      • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Matt Wallace
                      • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. J C Lawrence
                      • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Mik Clarke
            • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. D. B. Brown
        • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Mik Clarke
        • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. J C Lawrence
        • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. J C Lawrence
        • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Vladimir Prelovac
          • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. J C Lawrence
            • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Caliban Tiresias Darklock
              • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Nathan F Yospe
                • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. J C Lawrence
  • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. J C Lawrence
  • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Jon A. Lambert
  • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Travis S. Casey
    • • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Caliban Tiresias Darklock
  • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. J C Lawrence
  • Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when. Petri Virkkula