September 1999
- Battle Systems Philip Loguinov -- Draymoor
- Battle Systems Matthew Mihaly
- Battle Systems Richard Woolcock
- Battle Systems Matthew Mihaly
- Battle Systems Richard Woolcock
- Battle Systems Mik Clarke
- Battle Systems Greg Miller
- Battle Systems Ben Greear
- Battle Systems Matthew Mihaly
- Battle Systems Greg Miller
- Battle Systems Christopher Allen
- Battle Systems Batis
- Battle Systems Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- Battle Systems Richard Ross
- Battle Systems Matthew Mihaly
- semi-OT: Alan Cox is a MUD hacker Adam Wiggins
- semi-OT: Alan Cox is a MUD hacker Ben Greear
- Graphical Mud Design JT Herring
- Graphical Mud Design Chris Gray
- Graphical Mud Design David
- ScryMUD is offically open to the public. Ben Greear
- ScryMUD is offically open to the public. Chris Gray
- ScryMUD is offically open to the public. Ben Greear
- ScryMUD is offically open to the public. Ben Greear
- IMP (Interactive Mud Protocol?) Philip Loguinov -- Draymoor
- IMP (Interactive Mud Protocol?) J C Lawrence
- Its not a MUD...is it? J C Lawrence
- An Introduction Hess, Ian {Ian} *CTR*
- An Introduction Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- An Introduction Mik Clarke
- An Introduction Greg Miller
- An Introduction Ilya, SCC, Game Commando
- An Introduction Matthew Mihaly
- An Introduction Jeremy Music "Sterling"
- An Introduction Matthew Mihaly
- An Introduction Jeremy Music "Sterling"
- An Introduction Hess, Ian {Ian} *CTR*
- An Introduction Wes Connell
- An Introduction Greg Miller
- An Introduction Albert
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Tony Wilkinson
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Jeremy Music "Sterling"
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Greg Miller
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Marc Bowden
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Sellers, Michael
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Tony Wilkinson
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Matthew Mihaly
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Ilya, SCC, Game Commando
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Matthew Mihaly
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Jon A. Lambert
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Matthew Mihaly
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Travis Casey
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Wes Connell
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Adam Wiggins
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Dundee
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Matthew Mihaly
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Dundee
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Matthew Mihaly
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Adam Wiggins
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Matthew Mihaly
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Matthew Mihaly
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Adam Wiggins
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Matthew Mihaly
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Dundee
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Matthew Mihaly
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? J C Lawrence
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Chris Turner
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Jon A. Lambert
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Matthew Mihaly
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Asmodeus
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Dundee
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Matthew Mihaly
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- The Relationship between pkers andmonster AI? Mik Clarke
- The Relationship between pkers andmonster AI? Matthew Mihaly
- The Relationship between pkers andmonster AI? Sellers, Michael
- The Relationship between pkers andmonster AI? Matthew Mihaly
- The Relationship between pkers andmonster AI? J C Lawrence
- The Relationship between pkers andmonster AI? Matthew Mihaly
- The Relationship between pkers andmonster AI? Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- The Relationship between pkers andmonster AI? Matthew Mihaly
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Greg Miller
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Jon A. Lambert
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Jon A. Lambert
- The Relationship between pkers and monster A I? Sellers, Michael
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Mik Clarke
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Matthew Mihaly
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Jeremy Music "Sterling"
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Jon A. Lambert
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Matthew Mihaly
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Travis S. Casey
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Matthew Mihaly
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Sellers, Michael
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Zaid Sayeed
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Solmyr of the Azure Star
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Sellers, Michael
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Solmyr of the Azure Star
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Greg Miller
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Greg Miller
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Matthew Mihaly
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Adam Wiggins
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Greg Miller
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Laurel Fan
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Greg Miller
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Greg Miller
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Greg Miller
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Travis Casey
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Greg Miller
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Travis S. Casey
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Greg Miller
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Solmyr of the Azure Star
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Matthew Mihaly
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Adam Wiggins
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Matthew Mihaly
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Adam Wiggins
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Matthew Mihaly
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Solmyr of the Azure Star
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Sellers, Michael
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Solmyr of the Azure Star
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Matthew Mihaly
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Matthew Mihaly
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Greg Miller
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? JT Herring
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Matthew Mihaly
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Greg Miller
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Kylotan
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Greg Miller
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Mik Clarke
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Greg Miller
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Mik Clarke
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Matthew Mihaly
- The Relationship between pkers and monster AI? Adam Wiggins
- Skill Power vs Skill Rarity Philip Loguinov -- Draymoor
- Skill Power vs Skill Rarity Mik Clarke
- Consensual/PvP/PK Ilya, Game Commandos
- Announcement Locke / Mad Merv
- Announcement J C Lawrence
- Announcement Greg Miller
- Tactical Interest Was MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #142 - 4 msgs Spin
- Tactical Interest Was MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #142 - 4 msgs Travis S. Casey
- Tactical Interest Was MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #142 - 4 msgs Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- Tactical Interest Was MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #142 - 4 msgs Adam Wiggins
- Tactical Interest Was MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #142 - 4 msgs Ilya, Game Commandos
- Tactical Interest Was MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #142 - 4 msgs Mik Clarke
- Attracting players // TMC // 'admin' type reviewing Ilya, Game Commandos
- Attracting players // TMC // 'admin' type reviewing J C Lawrence
- Attracting players // TMC // 'admin' type reviewing Emil Eifrém
- Attracting players Koster, Raph
- Attracting players Dominic J. Eidson
- Attracting players Matthew Mihaly
- Attracting players John Hopson
- Attracting players David Bennett
- Attracting players Ilya, Game Commandos
- Attracting players Koster, Raph
- Attracting players The MUD Connector - Administrator
- Attracting players Dundee
- Attracting players Adam Wiggins
- Attracting players Matthew Mihaly
- Attracting players Koster, Raph
- Attracting players Adam Wiggins
- Attracting players Ilya, Game Commandos
- Attracting players Emil Eifrém
- Attracting players Mik Clarke
- Attracting players The MUD Connector - Administrator
- Attracting players Petri Virkkula
- Attracting players Koster, Raph
- Attracting players Matthew Mihaly
- Attracting players Koster, Raph
- Attracting players Matthew Mihaly
- Attracting players David Bennett
- Attracting players Greg Miller
- Attracting players Laurel Fan
- Attracting players Scatter
- Attracting players Andrew Wilson
- Attracting players Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Attracting players Greg Miller
- Attracting players Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Attracting players Greg Miller
- Attracting players Greg Miller
- Attracting players Matthew Mihaly
- attracting players Par Winzell
- attracting players David Bennett
- attracting players Mud Imp
- attracting players Marc Bowden
- attracting players adam@treyarch.com
- attracting players Kevin Scott London
- attracting players Ben Greear
- attracting players Wes Connell
- attracting players Marc Bowden
- attracting players Willowreed@aol.com
- attracting players Mordengaard
- attracting players adam@treyarch.com
- attracting players Jon A. Lambert
- attracting players David Bennett
- attracting players Marc Bowden
- Attracting players mrkelley@one.net
- Attracting players Louis
- Attracting players Matt Mihaly
- chess Matthew Mihaly
- chess Robin Cloutman
- an essay on PK Adam Wiggins
- an essay on PK J C Lawrence
- an essay on PK Marian Griffith
- an essay on PK Jeremy Music "Sterling"
- an essay on PK Chris Turner
- an essay on PK Adam Wiggins
- an essay on PK Chris Turner
- an essay on PK Adam Wiggins
- an essay on PK Charles Hughes
- an essay on PK Adam Wiggins
- an essay on PK Chris Turner
- an essay on PK Adam Wiggins
- an essay on PK Matthew Mihaly
- an essay on PK Jon A. Lambert
- an essay on PK Matthew Mihaly
- an essay on PK Ilya, Game Commandos
- an essay on PK Marian Griffith
- an essay on PK Matthew Mihaly
- an essay on PK Rhonda Alexander
- an essay on PK Ilya, Game Commandos
- an essay on PK Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- an essay on PK Laurel Fan
- an essay on PK Miroslav Silovic
- an essay on PK Matthew Mihaly
- an essay on PK Marian Griffith
- an essay on PK Matthew Mihaly
- an essay on PK Adam Wiggins
- an essay on PK J C Lawrence
- an essay on PK Richard Bartle
- an essay on PK Jason Spangler
- an essay on PK Willowreed@aol.com
- an essay on PK Koster, Raph
- an essay on PK Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- an essay on PK Richard Bartle
- Might not make right... Spin
- META: MUD-Dev visibility J C Lawrence
- Seeking one or two creative C coders for MURP project. Darin De Stefano
- Algorithms for an Infinite Universe Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Algorithms for an Infinite Universe Quzah
- Algorithms for an Infinite Universe Jp Calderone
- Algorithms for an Infinite Universe Joel Kelso
- Algorithms for an Infinite Universe Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Algorithms for an Infinite Universe Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Dynamic muds ryan
- Dynamic muds Asmodeus
- Dynamic muds Robin Cloutman
- Dynamic muds ryan
- Dynamic muds Ilya, Game Commandos
- Dynamic muds Colin Coghill
- Dynamic muds J C Lawrence
- Dynamic muds Emil Eifrém
- Dynamic muds Katrina McClelan
- Dynamic muds Ilya, Game Commandos
- Dynamic muds David Bennett
- Dynamic muds Christopher Allen - GM Fangs
- Dynamic muds Spin
- Dynamic muds Ilya, Game Commandos
- Dynamic muds Spin
- Dynamic muds Chris Turner
- Dynamic muds Adam Wiggins
- Dynamic muds Mik Clarke
- Dynamic muds Arlie Stephens
- Dynamic muds Eli Stevens {KiZurich}
- Dynamic muds Greg Miller
- Dynamic muds Petri Virkkula
- Dynamic muds Ben Greear
- Dynamic muds Greg Miller
- Dynamic muds Colin Coghill
- Dynamic muds Katrina McClelan
On Mon, 20 Sep 1999, Ben Greear wrote:
> However, you don't get anything for free, and though the descriptions are
> better than many hand-crafted ones you'll find, they seem to be inferior
> to what a decent writer could produce. My (current) opinion
> is that a well written snapshot in time is more pleasing to
> play in than a more technically correct system that changes, but can never
> be fine prose.
>
Jumping into the thread a bit late, The model I had in mind involved
having items know how to describe themselves (at varied distances, as well
as "inside" since rooms would be objects themselves), have a
'noticability' level, that would affect what would be noticed in a area
where 30 objects were availible to choose from, meaning that you'd for
sure notice the large ugly ogre, but not always notice the ruby gem laying
in the corner of the closet. (a search would obviously locate otherwise
missed stuff)
Basically the idea is to generate a room description as the sum
of the parts:
You stand inside (an old bamboo hut that has been weather beaten over
decades of neglect). Some (piles of old rotted wood) fill the corner, and
(bunches of cobwebs hang from the ceiling). In the center of (the hut) is
(a table that has seen better days). (The door) leads into (the Mirthwood
Forest).
Ok, I'm not a wonderful writer, but someone with a good flair for
describing objects could make this into a pretty good description.
Everything inside of the parentheses is written by author and stored with
the object, which is most of the substance of the description. It would
take some messy code to make the grammar on the transitional phrases work,
_properly_, but it would be plausible. But the nice thing is that if
someone moves the table, or otherwise alters it, the description changes
to reflect this. In terms of code level implementation this seems fairly
feasible. In terms of building, well I don't know. It is the same type
of jump in terms of building that procedural based code to object oriented
code. To me it makes more sense to think in terms of a description in
terms of what is there, than to think of what is there in terms of the
description. You wouldn't make a room and describe what was there, you
would make all of the objects that were there, describe them in general
terms, and then place them to define the scene. At least that's how I see
dynamic descriptions. It doesn't imply that you're asking the computer to
write descriptions, you're asking the computer to splice together
descriptions from building blocks. (In terms of this model, the time of
day, weather, etc could be considered to be "objects" even if they were
special cases that were handled differently... you'd supply desciriptions
for "the rain", "the sunshine", "the full moon", "the clouds" etc etc)
To actually answer a question, yes it would take more work to design ONE
room from scratch. However, once you start getting objects, they can be
re-used. This is where the building block efficiency happens. The
caverns filled with stalactites, cobwebs, fungus, and such could be
designed by dropping multiples of the objects in place, rather than trying
to describe the 50 rooms of the cavern. (the objects would obviously have
singular and plural descriptions, and groupings for internal use). I
would be more inclined to use this method to design an area, than the
typical static descriptions. Then again, I'm an engineer, and not a
artistic person, so my opinion may be a bad sample point. I also
personally tend to struggle with descriptions that are static in nature.
It's all wonderful to describe the Count Dynsinar's evil glare from atop
his perch, but it all looks stupid if you came by 5 minutes after Boffo
and Bubba killed him, and left his bleeding corpse on the floor. It's
much easier for me to describe the glare as part of the "Count Dynsinar"
object, and know that the system will use a corpse and pool of blood to
describe the area should the NPC meet up with fate. For that matter, in
this system Bubba could decide to crack the throne into splinters with his
axe, and given a well designed object that "destructs" (the same way the
poor Count destructed into a corpse and blood), the MUD would be happy to
let him, and change the description to make it look right after the fact.
(Object desctruction would be the ugliest part of the building, since
you'd have to allow for different methods of destruction. The throne is
going to look different after Bubba's Axe smashes it, than it would if
Boffa's fireball burned it). More work in a way, but the much better
fruits of the labor would tend to make me more interested in working on
it. There is some evidence to support this notion when you compare the
typical design of areas in an LP that does give the builder a reasonable
amount of versitiliy (at a cost of complexity) to that of a DIKU style
MUD.
-Katrina - Dynamic muds Marian Griffith
- Dynamic muds Katrina McClelan
- Dynamic muds Alex Oren
- Dynamic muds Eli Stevens {KiZurich}
- Dynamic muds Chris Gray
- Dynamic muds Ronan Farrell
- Dynamic muds Petri Virkkula
- Dynamic muds Christopher Allen
- Dynamic muds Petri Virkkula
- Dynamic muds Justin Lockshaw
- Dynamic muds Mik Clarke
- Dynamic muds Marian Griffith
- Dynamic muds Travis S. Casey
- Dynamic muds Marian Griffith
- thoughts on 'realism' Matthew Mihaly
- Tactical Interest Spin
- Tactical Interest Spin
- Tactical Interest Adam Wiggins
- what players want, what I want Ilya, Game Commandos
- what players want, what I want Matthew Mihaly
- what players want, what I want Ilya, Game Commandos
- what players want, what I want Justin Lockshaw
- what players want, what I want Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Creating a mudlib Solmyr of the Azure Star
- Mobiles AI and automation Crystalmir
- Mobiles AI and automation Matthew Mihaly
- Mobiles AI and automation Marc Bowden
- Mobiles AI and automation Mik Clarke
- This is just... STRANGE Dundee
- Mail delivery failed: returning message to sender (fwd) Matthew Mihaly
- Ultima Online Steve Sparks
- Ultima Online Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Peer pressure and cooperation Miroslav Silovic
- Effiecient interaction (was deliver failed) Spin
- ADMIN: We're moving again J C Lawrence
- "Online migration and population mobility" Koster, Raph
- "Online migration and population mobility" Koster, Raph