<!-- MHonArc v2.4.4 --> <!--X-Subject: [MUD-Dev] Re: Levels versus Skills --> <!--X-From-R13: X Q Znjerapr <pynjNhaqre.rate.ftv.pbz> --> <!--X-Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1999 19:27:16 -0800 --> <!--X-Message-Id: 199901160327.TAA50799#under,engr.sgi.com --> <!--X-Content-Type: text/plain --> <!--X-Reference: 015801be40e5$505838c0$55e5edd0@dev-18.chilisoft.com --> <!--X-Head-End--> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <html> <head> <title>MUD-Dev message, [MUD-Dev] Re: Levels versus Skills</title> <!-- meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" --> <link rev="made" href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com"> </head> <body background="/backgrounds/paperback.gif" bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" alink="#FF0000" vlink="#006000"> <font size="+4" color="#804040"> <strong><em>MUD-Dev<br>mailing list archive</em></strong> </font> <br> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] <br clear=all><hr> <!--X-Body-Begin--> <!--X-User-Header--> <!--X-User-Header-End--> <!--X-TopPNI--> Date: [ <a href="msg00198.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00200.html">Next</a> ] Thread: [ <a href="msg00198.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00204.html">Next</a> ] Index: [ <A HREF="author.html#00199">Author</A> | <A HREF="#00199">Date</A> | <A HREF="thread.html#00199">Thread</A> ] <!--X-TopPNI-End--> <!--X-MsgBody--> <!--X-Subject-Header-Begin--> <H1>[MUD-Dev] Re: Levels versus Skills</H1> <HR> <!--X-Subject-Header-End--> <!--X-Head-of-Message--> <UL> <LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI> <LI><em>Subject</em>: [MUD-Dev] Re: Levels versus Skills </LI> <LI><em>From</em>: J C Lawrence <<A HREF="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</A>></LI> <LI><em>Date</em>: Fri, 15 Jan 1999 19:27:01 -0800</LI> <LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI> </UL> <!--X-Head-of-Message-End--> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-Begin--> <HR> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-End--> <!--X-Body-of-Message--> <PRE> On Fri, 15 Jan 1999 16:14:48 -0800 Caliban Tiresias Darklock<caliban#darklock,com> wrote: > My game *resets*. You specifically set up your configuration, and > nothing happens until you apply it. Each zone can be reset > individually, or the entire game can be. When a specific zone is > reset, all players in that zone get shoved into another > one. Anything they own in that zone is lost. > But... now there's virgin territory. Zones can get "played out" > over time, if players spend a lot of time there; enemy > regeneration is limited by existing power level, so if the enemy > is sent packing often enough he will eventually dwindle into > obscurity. Likewise, if players *ignore* the enemy, he will > eventually snowball into an unstoppable force that will steamroll > through the universe like a vast engine of doom, leaving nothing > survive in his wake. Both situations are Bad and require a > reset. This is a legacy problem, and one which I am still deciding > whether to maintain. There are good points. First thoughts: Change is good. Extremes are bad. The essential problem you have is that the system, via positive feedback, will tend to extremes and will then tend to stay there. *THAT* is a problem. You need a system that will accellerate toward to the extremes, but will, upon approaching them, create a repuslive force that will accellerate the pendulumn back. Aaack. Even that won't work. That just gives you wild and accellerating bounces between the extremes. Not good. You need a force graph that looks something like: Game impetus to move to signed state / . -ve extreme | +ve extreme . . | . .x | . . x | . . x | . . x | . . x |x . . x | x . . x | x . . x | x . . x | x . . x | x . . x | x . . x | x . --.---------------------+----------------------.-- . x | x . \ . x | x . Game state. . x | x . . x | x . . x | x . . x | x . . x| x . . | x . . | x . . | x . . | x . . | x . . | x. Translation: The x's are the graphs. The X-axis shows how how far the game stat is along the NPC-in-control (-ve) or players-in-control (+ve) scale. The Y axis shows the in-game force/tendency to move the game-state in the direction of the sign of the Y-value. ie A large positive Y-value will be a big force to make the game more player controlled and a -ve Y-value will force the game back towards NPC controlled. The points to notice are that there are two inflection points, both roughly in the middle of -ve and +ve. These are the two states that the game will tend toward: either medium-level player mastery, or medium level NPC's in control. Both are fairly enjoyable states (you either have a respectably dangerous enemy to fight who can kick you arse or you are mostly in control, but the enemy is still plenty dangerous). Deviation from the inflection points to the extremes responds with a force massive countersigned that will rapidly (hope) force the game towards the other inflection point. Deviation from the inflection point towards zero state will respond with a force that will tend to throw the game across the inflection point and then back towards zero-state. The hope is that this mechanism will create a pattern where the state tends to vibrate, with increasing amplitude, about an inflection point, until it suddenly breaks out and whooshes across the zero-state towards the other inflection point where it will then tend to settle to make the same sort of ascending amplitude pattern before wooshing back again etc. Occassionally (there is where care in the graph shape comes in (you might need to make the graph shape different depending on the direction of motion unless you can build entropic losses to make sure that crossing the zero-state doesn't have any effect on the state-change momentum)) the game state will ping-pong between the big ramps at the extremes. The hope however is that the centrat ramps (near zero-state) will damp this effect such that end-to-end vibrations will rapidly damp into vibrations about an inflection point. -- J C Lawrence Internet: claw#kanga,nu (Contractor) Internet: coder#kanga,nu ---------(*) Internet: claw#under,engr.sgi.com ...Honorary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith... </PRE> <!--X-Body-of-Message-End--> <!--X-MsgBody-End--> <!--X-Follow-Ups--> <HR> <!--X-Follow-Ups-End--> <!--X-References--> <UL><LI><STRONG>References</STRONG>: <UL> <LI><STRONG><A NAME="00197" HREF="msg00197.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Levels versus Skills</A></STRONG> <UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> "Caliban Tiresias Darklock" <caliban#darklock,com></LI></UL></LI> </UL></LI></UL> <!--X-References-End--> <!--X-BotPNI--> <UL> <LI>Prev by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00198.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Levels versus Skills</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00200.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Levels versus Skills</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00198.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Levels versus Skills</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00204.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Levels versus Skills</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="index.html#00199"><STRONG>Date</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thread.html#00199"><STRONG>Thread</STRONG></A></LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> <!--X-BotPNI-End--> <!--X-User-Footer--> <!--X-User-Footer-End--> <ul><li>Thread context: <BLOCKQUOTE><UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00214" HREF="msg00214.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Reputations, More Mazes</A></strong>, Eli Stevens (KiZurich) <a href="mailto:c718157#showme,missouri.edu">c718157#showme,missouri.edu</a>, Sun 17 Jan 1999, 09:26 GMT <LI><strong><A NAME="00211" HREF="msg00211.html">[MUD-Dev] From Devmud: Database module, draft 3</A></strong>, Greg Connor <a href="mailto:gconnor#nekodojo,org">gconnor#nekodojo,org</a>, Sun 17 Jan 1999, 02:35 GMT <LI><strong><A NAME="00197" HREF="msg00197.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Levels versus Skills</A></strong>, Caliban Tiresias Darklock <a href="mailto:caliban#darklock,com">caliban#darklock,com</a>, Sat 16 Jan 1999, 00:19 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00198" HREF="msg00198.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Levels versus Skills</A></strong>, Petri Virkkula <a href="mailto:pvirkkul#iki,fi">pvirkkul#iki,fi</a>, Sat 16 Jan 1999, 01:16 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00199" HREF="msg00199.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Levels versus Skills</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Sat 16 Jan 1999, 03:27 GMT </LI> </UL> <UL> <li><Possible follow-up(s)><br> <LI><strong><A NAME="00204" HREF="msg00204.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Levels versus Skills</A></strong>, quzah [softhome] <a href="mailto:quzah#softhome,net">quzah#softhome,net</a>, Sat 16 Jan 1999, 05:59 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00219" HREF="msg00219.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Levels versus Skills</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Tue 19 Jan 1999, 00:33 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00207" HREF="msg00207.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Levels versus Skills</A></strong>, Vladimir Prelovac <a href="mailto:tomcat#galeb,etf.bg.ac.yu">tomcat#galeb,etf.bg.ac.yu</a>, Sun 17 Jan 1999, 00:43 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00208" HREF="msg00208.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Levels versus Skills</A></strong>, quzah [softhome] <a href="mailto:quzah#softhome,net">quzah#softhome,net</a>, Sun 17 Jan 1999, 01:45 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL></BLOCKQUOTE> </ul> <hr> <center> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] </center> <hr> </body> </html>