<!-- MHonArc v2.4.4 --> <!--X-Subject: Re: [MUD-Dev] Elder Games --> <!--X-From-R13: "[nggurj R. Thyyre" <shyyrezqNshgherfbhgu.pbz> --> <!--X-Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 09:27:23 -0800 --> <!--X-Message-Id: 19990315191941.K25217#futuresouth,com --> <!--X-Content-Type: text/plain --> <!--X-Reference: 11A17AA2B9EAD111BCEA00A0C9B417930210BC65#forest,origin.ea.com --> <!--X-Reference: 36ED3123.A61F08EC#fcicom,com --> <!--X-Head-End--> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <html> <head> <title>MUD-Dev message, Re: [MUD-Dev] Elder Games</title> <!-- meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" --> <link rev="made" href="mailto:fullermd#futuresouth,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="msg00597.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00599.html">Next</a> ] Thread: [ <a href="msg00599.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00603.html">Next</a> ] Index: [ <A HREF="author.html#00598">Author</A> | <A HREF="#00598">Date</A> | <A HREF="thread.html#00598">Thread</A> ] <!--X-TopPNI-End--> <!--X-MsgBody--> <!--X-Subject-Header-Begin--> <H1>Re: [MUD-Dev] Elder Games</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>: Re: [MUD-Dev] Elder Games</LI> <LI><em>From</em>: "Matthew D. Fuller" <<A HREF="mailto:fullermd#futuresouth,com">fullermd#futuresouth,com</A>></LI> <LI><em>Date</em>: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 19:19:42 -0600</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> On Mon, Mar 15, 1999 at 08:11:15AM -0800, a little birdie told me that B. Scott Boding remarked >"Koster, Raph" wrote: > > > > This still, btw, only postpones the inevitable exhaustion of all the game's > > mechanics. > > > > I've seen situations where the only way to become certain classes is to reach a > certain level and then abandon all exp and start at level 1 again. The new class > had additional qualities though that made it more powerful. One of my big beefs with this course is the power differentials it gives you. To make your 'older' players go for it, you either have to make it attractive to them (more power), or force them into it (which just isn't going to fly). As you keep adding more tiers, you have to increase the power at each tier. So you end up with this massive different between a 'level 1' who happens to be a '15th mort/gen/tier/whatever', and even a 'level 10' on their 1st time through, to the point that the 'old' player can be linkdead, and the 'new' player can be an excellent tactician, and the 'new' player will still get utterly slaughtered. Is that necessarily bad? No, because the 'older' player has been there, put in the time, and earned their power. But the power differential hits its most striking against mobs. Anything that's possible for that new player to kill will not even register on the older player's radar. No matter how you balance it, the mobs will be either impossible for the new players, or boring to the older. It'll be either impossible for new players to level, or far too easy for older players. You can work around this by saying, 'each gen, your xp to level doubles', but it's kinda a hackish way of doing it. You can create 'seperate areas', so older players can't get to the same 'easier' areas as new players, but then you blow inter-gen grouping, you blow 'helper' tasks like corpse retrievals, etc etc. The only clean way to avoid this that's easy to do is to keep the power differentials so small as to be trivial, which won't work because then people won't go for it. And to keep the game open ended, you have to keep adding more and more, meaning that the people who play 18 hours a day will soon be able to sit at level 1 and slaughter all the new level 2000's. Of course, if you discard 'mobs', 'leveling', 'inter-player combat', etc, none of this applies... mind you, then you're just running an IRC server. Any time you allow players to open-endedly become more 'powerful', you just end up with an infinite stream of game balance problems. Different ways of dealing with open-endedness are, of course, myriad, and an interesting topic of discourse in their own right ;) I'm working on a scheme involving a VERY intricate skill tree/web for my present project, with a lot of checks and balances. --- Matthew Fuller | fullermd#over-yonder,net Unix Systems Administrator | fullermd#futuresouth,com Specializing in FreeBSD | <A HREF="http://www.over-yonder.net/">http://www.over-yonder.net/</A> "If it doesn't work the first time, bring more ammo the second" _______________________________________________ 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="00605" HREF="msg00605.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Elder Games</A></strong> <ul compact><li><em>From:</em> Matthew Mihaly <diablo#best,com></li></ul> <li><strong><A NAME="00603" HREF="msg00603.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Elder Games</A></strong> <ul compact><li><em>From:</em> "B. Scott Boding" <sboding#fcicom,com></li></ul> </UL></LI></UL> <!--X-Follow-Ups-End--> <!--X-References--> <UL><LI><STRONG>References</STRONG>: <UL> <LI><STRONG><A NAME="00588" HREF="msg00588.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] Elder Games</A></STRONG> <UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> "Koster, Raph" <rkoster#origin,ea.com></LI></UL></LI> <LI><STRONG><A NAME="00595" HREF="msg00595.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Elder Games</A></STRONG> <UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> "B. Scott Boding" <sboding#fcicom,com></LI></UL></LI> </UL></LI></UL> <!--X-References-End--> <!--X-BotPNI--> <UL> <LI>Prev by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00597.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Elder Games</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00599.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Elder Games</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00599.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Elder Games</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00603.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Elder Games</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="index.html#00598"><STRONG>Date</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thread.html#00598"><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] Elder Games</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM> <ul compact> <LI><strong><A NAME="00588" HREF="msg00588.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] Elder Games</A></strong>, Koster, Raph <a href="mailto:rkoster#origin,ea.com">rkoster#origin,ea.com</a>, Mon 15 Mar 1999, 07:39 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00595" HREF="msg00595.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Elder Games</A></strong>, B. Scott Boding <a href="mailto:sboding#fcicom,com">sboding#fcicom,com</a>, Mon 15 Mar 1999, 15:44 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00597" HREF="msg00597.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Elder Games</A></strong>, Wes Connell <a href="mailto:wconnell#adhesive,com">wconnell#adhesive,com</a>, Mon 15 Mar 1999, 17:16 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00599" HREF="msg00599.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Elder Games</A></strong>, Caliban Tiresias Darklock <a href="mailto:caliban#darklock,com">caliban#darklock,com</a>, Mon 15 Mar 1999, 18:04 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00598" HREF="msg00598.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Elder Games</A></strong>, Matthew D. Fuller <a href="mailto:fullermd#futuresouth,com">fullermd#futuresouth,com</a>, Mon 15 Mar 1999, 17:27 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00603" HREF="msg00603.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Elder Games</A></strong>, B. Scott Boding <a href="mailto:sboding#fcicom,com">sboding#fcicom,com</a>, Tue 16 Mar 1999, 10:05 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00612" HREF="msg00612.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Elder Games</A></strong>, Michael Hohensee <a href="mailto:michael#sparta,mainstream.net">michael#sparta,mainstream.net</a>, Tue 16 Mar 1999, 13:39 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00605" HREF="msg00605.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Elder Games</A></strong>, Matthew Mihaly <a href="mailto:diablo#best,com">diablo#best,com</a>, Tue 16 Mar 1999, 11:40 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00615" HREF="msg00615.html">[MUD-Dev] On the topic of Mud AI</A></strong>, Leif Hardison <a href="mailto:leif#marblehead,com">leif#marblehead,com</a>, Tue 16 Mar 1999, 15:25 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </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>