<!-- MHonArc v2.4.4 --> <!--X-Subject: [MUD-Dev] Balancing a Mud --> <!--X-From-R13: [negva Q Ejrvgmre <zfrj+Nnaqerj.pzh.rqh> --> <!--X-Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 08:02:30 -0800 --> <!--X-Message-Id: AquAiQK00UwJ0WPMc0#andrew,cmu.edu --> <!--X-Content-Type: text/plain --> <!--X-Reference: E10LLMt-0000X9-00#koala,kanga.nu --> <!--X-Head-End--> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <html> <head> <title>MUD-Dev message, [MUD-Dev] Balancing a Mud</title> <!-- meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" --> <link rev="made" href="mailto:msew+@andrew.cmu.edu"> </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="msg00553.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00555.html">Next</a> ] Thread: [ <a href="msg00546.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00557.html">Next</a> ] Index: [ <A HREF="author.html#00554">Author</A> | <A HREF="#00554">Date</A> | <A HREF="thread.html#00554">Thread</A> ] <!--X-TopPNI-End--> <!--X-MsgBody--> <!--X-Subject-Header-Begin--> <H1>[MUD-Dev] Balancing a Mud</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] Balancing a Mud</LI> <LI><em>From</em>: Martin C Sweitzer <<A HREF="mailto:msew%2B#andrew,cmu.edu">msew+@andrew.cmu.edu</A>></LI> <LI><em>Date</em>: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 03:09:00 -0500 (EST)</LI> <LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI> <LI><em>Sender</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev-admin#kanga,nu">mud-dev-admin#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> When you have a mud you can have the best world, ideas, classes, skills, EQ, etc etc but unless it is balanced the mud is garbage. Now of course, (well let us hope to god) that you have designed your mud to allow easy customization and tweaking of the variables you have. How strong a class of sword is or how strong a specific artifact is. Spell effects. Tables are nice for this. If you don't have this then I would argue that your mud is not going to scale and going to just bust at the seams when you begin to add lots of things to it. (ie add that new Spanky Class and watch your carefully balanced mud collapse under the refactoring you get to do now). So how do you balance a mud? I have N sets of V variables and then I instances of those variables to balance which boggles my mind. You have this wonderful: Player vs Player Player vs Mobs PLayer vs Environment PLayer vs Self Then GroupsOfPlayers vs GroupsOfPlayers GroupsOfPlayers vs Mobs GroupsOfPlayers vs Environment GroupsOfPlayers vs Self (I don't believe that groups are the basic unit. If you insist on that then how do you deal with a Group of One? It is the same thing as a Player.) So maybe: SIMULATION I can imagine trying to simulate the entire world, but then I stop and think while that would be a totally kick ass project in itself, you will end up spending more time coding the simulation and tweaking it than working on making a place for players to enjoy. Way too complex also. BETA TEST Oh just set up a beta test server. Bah now you have two muds in reality. Seems sketchy to use a beta mud to test balancing issues and tweaking. The thing here is that while a beta mud is really awesome for allowing a wide range of testing and balance issues you will end up making a small tweak and then having to run the beta mud for a while and monitor before you place them in to the world. Seems sketchy to me at some level, SOME TYPE OF EVALUATION FUNCTION Being able to to group the variables into groups of some sort. This reduces the complexity issues but still is going to suck I think. I can imagine something like having the set of variables that represent a maxed out foo class, an average foo class, and the wussy foo class. And then having those variables vs everything else in a spreadsheet. wussyFoo vs lvl 1 mobs wussyFoo vs lvl 2 mobs wussyFoo vs lvl 3 mobs wussyFoo vs lvl 4 mobs . . . mediumFoo strongFoo And same for all of the the other vs players, self, environment. groups. And then when you change something in the long sword hardness rating everything is updated and you get a nice rating from 0-1 where .5 is balancedd or something like that. Problems with this is that the evaluation function for comparing the groups of variables is going to be total hell to create. I think. I think you might end up simulating the interaction between the groups (fighting, exploring, working, etc etc). These are more bottom up approaches. I think mob true balancing might be is that you are able to set something like: a level 10 warrior class should be able to get 5k exp per hour of RL. Should get 2k gp per hour. And then this top down approach calculates out the variable values for you. Does anyone have any advice or even better some proven techniques or even a framwork that can help balance things en general? msew _______________________________________________ MUD-Dev maillist - MUD-Dev#kanga,nu <A HREF="http://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev">http://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev</A> </PRE> <!--X-Body-of-Message-End--> <!--X-MsgBody-End--> <!--X-Follow-Ups--> <HR> <ul compact><li><strong>Follow-Ups</strong>: <ul> <li><strong><A NAME="00557" HREF="msg00557.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Balancing a Mud</A></strong> <ul compact><li><em>From:</em> Mik Clarke <mikclrk#ibm,net></li></ul> </UL></LI></UL> <!--X-Follow-Ups-End--> <!--X-References--> <UL><LI><STRONG>References</STRONG>: <UL> <LI><STRONG><A NAME="00545" HREF="msg00545.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] How to support 1000+ simultaneous connections, and some philosophy.</A></STRONG> <UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> J C Lawrence <claw#kanga,nu></LI></UL></LI> </UL></LI></UL> <!--X-References-End--> <!--X-BotPNI--> <UL> <LI>Prev by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00553.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] Elder Games</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00555.html">[MUD-Dev] ADMIN: Signature length</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00546.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] How to support 1000+ simultaneous connections, and some philosophy.</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00557.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Balancing a Mud</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="index.html#00554"><STRONG>Date</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thread.html#00554"><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>RE: [MUD-Dev] How to support 1000+ simultaneous connections, and some philosophy.</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM> <ul compact> <ul compact> <ul compact> <LI><strong><A NAME="00552" HREF="msg00552.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] How to support 1000+ simultaneous connections, and some philosophy.</A></strong>, Jay Carlson <a href="mailto:nop#mitre,org">nop#mitre,org</a>, Fri 12 Mar 1999, 13:55 GMT </LI> </ul> </ul> <LI><strong><A NAME="00542" HREF="msg00542.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] How to support 1000+ simultaneous connections, and some philosophy.</A></strong>, Chris Gray <a href="mailto:cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA">cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA</a>, Fri 12 Mar 1999, 05:30 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00545" HREF="msg00545.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] How to support 1000+ simultaneous connections, and some philosophy.</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#kanga,nu">claw#kanga,nu</a>, Fri 12 Mar 1999, 06:24 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00546" HREF="msg00546.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] How to support 1000+ simultaneous connections, and some philosophy.</A></strong>, Mark Gritter <a href="mailto:mark#erdos,Stanford.EDU">mark#erdos,Stanford.EDU</a>, Fri 12 Mar 1999, 07:08 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00554" HREF="msg00554.html">[MUD-Dev] Balancing a Mud</A></strong>, Martin C Sweitzer <a href="mailto:msew+@andrew.cmu.edu">msew+@andrew.cmu.edu</a>, Fri 12 Mar 1999, 16:02 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00557" HREF="msg00557.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Balancing a Mud</A></strong>, Mik Clarke <a href="mailto:mikclrk#ibm,net">mikclrk#ibm,net</a>, Fri 12 Mar 1999, 20:26 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00560" HREF="msg00560.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Balancing a Mud</A></strong>, Martin C Sweitzer <a href="mailto:msew+@andrew.cmu.edu">msew+@andrew.cmu.edu</a>, Sat 13 Mar 1999, 01:54 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00559" HREF="msg00559.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] How to support 1000+ simultaneous connections, and some philosophy.</A></strong>, Ben Greear <a href="mailto:greear#cyberhighway,net">greear#cyberhighway,net</a>, Sat 13 Mar 1999, 00:55 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> </ul> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00512" HREF="msg00512.html">[MUD-Dev] Generic event handling</A></strong>, Adam Wiggins <a href="mailto:adam#angel,com">adam#angel,com</a>, Fri 05 Mar 1999, 19:56 GMT </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>