October 2000
- Interactive Fiction Competition 2000 Aaron Mitchell
- trade skill idea msew
- trade skill idea Josh Olson
- trade skill idea Koster, Raph
- trade skill idea Josh Olson
- trade skill idea Koster, Raph
- trade skill idea Matthew Mihaly
- trade skill idea Koster, Raph
- trade skill idea Josh Olson
- trade skill idea Koster, Raph
- trade skill idea Matthew Mihaly
- trade skill idea msew
- trade skill idea Travis Casey
- trade skill idea Josh Olson
- trade skill idea Zak Jarvis
- trade skill idea John Buehler
- trade skill idea Dave Rickey
- trade skill idea Zak Jarvis
- trade skill idea Josh Olson
- trade skill idea Mordengaard
- trade skill idea Richard Tew
- trade skill idea Val Trullinger
- trade skill idea Phillip Lenhardt
- trade skill idea John Buehler
- trade skill idea Matthew Mihaly
- trade skill idea msew
- trade skill idea Wes Connell
- trade skill idea Matthew Mihaly
- trade skill idea Brad Wyble
- trade skill idea Vincent Archer
- trade skill idea Jeff Freeman
- trade skill idea Corey Crawford
- trade skill idea Yves K
I do not think the large amount of repetitive tasks involved in some
current MMORPG's crafts do really add to the game quality and
enjoyment, on the contrary, this leads to the Ebay phenomenon
and macroing or the infamous carpal tunnel syndrome. The
economic and social aspects of crafts, on the other hand, do add a
dimension to the game that tends to make it more a virtual world.
That is why I would rather think about completely abstracting the
involved tedious tasks the same way it is done in tabletop RPG or
even in movies, where the focus is set on the action and not on all
the preliminary work. I would suggest two ways of achieving this,
the economical and the social.
With the economical way, the character is simply assumed to do
the tedious work outside of the focus, that is when the player is not
playing it. The quantity and/or success of his material production
could therefore depend on his skill level, the time (real time)
elapsed, the target quality of the product (better is harder, longer),
the availability and/or cost of the raw materials.
The social way would involve even more abstraction. Based on the
ratio of skilled non-skilled crafters inside a social organization, a
guild, a clan or even a party, and even on the skill levels of these,
co-members would automagically benefit from the corresponding
craft. Say, you have some ratio of weaponsmiths in your guild,
therefore your weapons benefit from this damage bonus, and, if one
is in your adventuring party, this advantage is even more acute. All
the skills providing a commodity which can be expressed as
quality, in game terms, bonuses, can use this principle. Of course,
this indeed expects the system to not be completely overwhelmed
by the "mule" symptom, say, a one-character-per-account
hypothesis.
The former economical way present the advantage of encouraging
player interaction by trading and of creating a virtual economy
though balancing it with a proper economical sink can be tricky.
The second, social way, encourage the organization of social
entities within the game world a bit similarly to the character class
complementarity concept but without its mandatory aspect.
Probably, a combination of both ways would make the craft skilled
character a rich enough alternative to the omnipresent adventurer
archetype.
Now, who wants to play a pure crafter character as his primary and
only character? I would guess that, without the possibility of
multiplaying, a very large portion of player would rather chose an
action empowered role, that is generally an adventurer who faces
epic risks and rewards. Very few players would indeed chose never
to adventure in some dangerous places, and even most would not
even sacrifice a little bit of their combative skill quota for a more
individualized, social character, of course, most fighters wish to be
the best.
Such a situation would marginalise the crafts to the point that the
question of implying them arise despise their obvious social
benefits.
To tackle this problem, I would suggest using a hierarchised skill
system, that is, for each character, a somehow fixed number of
each primary skills and secondary skills, the laters could never
equal the formers in efficiency. Players who want to be the best in
one area, would not want to have pertaining skills in the secondary
set and would therefore chose an alternate area, this opening the
way for a personalisation of each and every character, including the
use of craft skills. Of course, most fighters would be tempted to
chose, say, weaponsmith as a secondary skill, but if this benefits
the whole social body (guild or party), as suggested earlier, then
the advantages of diversity could also start to be taken into
account. - trade skill idea Koster, Raph
- trade skill idea Tamzen Cannoy
- trade skill idea Robert Zubek
- trade skill idea Patrick Dughi
- trade skill idea Koster, Raph
- trade skill idea Matthew Mihaly
- trade skill idea Brian 'Psychochild' Green
- trade skill idea msew
- trade skill idea Koster, Raph
- trade skill idea Matthew Mihaly
- trade skill idea Josh Olson
- trade skill idea Matthew Mihaly
- trade skill idea Koster, Raph
- trade skill idea msew
- trade skill idea Batir
- trade skill idea Arabis2000@aol.com
- Open Source 3D Interactive World Server Ian Macintosh
- Reactive keyboard J C Lawrence
- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #243 - 14 msgs Dr. Cat
- Banning Players for Off-Site Activities? Ananda Dawnsinger
- Banning Players for Off-Site Activities? Madman Across the Water
- Banning Players for Off-Site Activities? sverre@munthe.net
- Banning Players for Off-Site Activities? Jeff Freeman
- Banning Players for Off-Site Activities? Matthew Mihaly
- Banning Players for Off-Site Activities? Marc Bowden
- Banning Players for Off-Site Activities? Ananda Dawnsinger
- Banning Players for Off-Site Activities? Zak Jarvis
- Banning Players for Off-Site Activities? Madman Across the Water
- Banning Players for Off-Site Activities? Vincent Archer
- Banning Players for Off-Site Activities? Dave Rickey
- Banning Players for Off-Site Activities? Ananda Dawnsinger
- Mud / Web Integeration Lee Hulbert
- Mud / Web Integeration Wes Connell
- Mud / Web Integeration Bruce
- Mud / Web Integeration Bruce
- Mud / Web Integeration KevinL
- Mud / Web Integeration msew
- Mud / Web Integeration msew
- Mud / Web Integeration Richard Tew
- Mud / Web Integeration Nathan F. Yospe
- Declaration of the Rights of Avatars sverre@munthe.net
- Declaration of the Rights of Avatars Matthew Mihaly
- Declaration of the Rights of Avatars Justin Rogers
- Declaration of the Rights of Avatars Andy
- OT: Banning Players for Off-Site Activities? Brian 'Psychochild' Green
- OT: Banning Players for Off-Site Activities? Ananda Dawnsinger
- Grandmaster Nuclear Safety Technicion or Grandmaster Warrior ( was John Szeder
- Alternate Means of EQUAL Enjoyment (formerly trade skill idea) Geoffrey MacDougall
- Realistic travel times/virtual terrain Richard Tew
- Realistic travel times/virtual terrain Zak Jarvis
- Realistic travel times/virtual terrain Inq Admin
- Realistic travel times/virtual terrain Richard Tew
- Realistic travel times/virtual terrain Matthew Mihaly
- Realistic travel times/virtual terrain Koster, Raph
- Realistic travel times/virtual terrain Richard Tew
- Realistic travel times/virtual terrain Matthew Mihaly
- Realistic travel times/virtual terrain Richard Tew
- Realistic travel times/virtual terrain Inq Admin
- Realistic travel times/virtual terrain William McCarroll
- Realistic travel times/virtual terrain Matthew Mihaly
- Realistic travel times/virtual terrain Mordengaard
- Realistic travel times/virtual terrain Justin Rogers
- Realistic travel times/virtual terrain Matthew Mihaly
- Grandmaster Nuclear Safety Technicion or Grandmaster Willowreed@aol.com
- [world-create] Progressive Aristocracy (fwd) J C Lawrence
- [world-create] Progressive Aristocracy (fwd) Matthew Mihaly
- VRML Richard Tew
- Admin: System outage J C Lawrence
- absolute vs. relative coords KevinL
- absolute vs. relative coords Inq Admin
- absolute vs. relative coords Nathan F. Yospe
- ADMIN: More troubles I'm afraid, and the details of the recovery. J C Lawrence
- integrated character webpages ala Black and White creature pages msew
- integrated character webpages ala Black and White creature pages msew
- Admin: Kang.Nu troubles J C Lawrence
- Admin: Kanga.Nu troubles... J C Lawrence
- travel times (commercial/graphical vs grassroots/text) Fredfish {E. Harper}
- travel times (commercial/graphical vs grassroots/text) the_logos@www.achaea.com
- Admin: We're back in business J C Lawrence
- Triangular Damage Infliction System Ben
- Triangular Damage Infliction System Ben Chambers
- Triangular Damage Infliction System Travis Casey
- Fwd: absolute vs. relative coords Nathan F.Yospe
- Opinions (even harsh) on Castle Marrach by Skotos? Christopher Allen
- Opinions (even harsh) on Castle Marrach by Skotos? Chris Lloyd
- Opinions (even harsh) on Castle Marrach by Skotos? tanis@mediacom.it
- Opinions (even harsh) on Castle Marrach by Skotos? Christopher Allen
- Opinions (even harsh) on Castle Marrach by Skotos? Federico Di Gregorio
- Opinions (even harsh) on Castle Marrach by Skotos? Christopher Allen
- Opinions (even harsh) on Castle Marrach by Skotos? Frank Crowell
- Opinions (even harsh) on Castle Marrach by Skotos? Frank Crowell
- Opinions (even harsh) on Castle Marrach by Skotos? Christopher Allen