12 Mar, 2010, Deimos wrote in the 1st comment:
Votes: 0
My game currently makes use of a small overhead ASCII map, which displays during movement commands, and if you issue the 'look' command, you get the typical name/description/exits layout, rather than the map. I like this method because it makes things like chasing people, ranged combat, and navigation of unknown areas much easier for the player IMO. You also get the level of detail that comes with typical room descriptions on an as-needed basis. This comes with the drawback of not being able to do crazy linking and weird, non-gridlike area construction, but I'm not a fan of that kind of building to begin with (I know some are, though).

Have you seen (or developed) any other interesting game world representation systems that you think make for a better playing experience?
12 Mar, 2010, Runter wrote in the 2nd comment:
Votes: 0
I've always used visual queues like this.

And yes, I've always used logical linking of rooms as well.
12 Mar, 2010, KaVir wrote in the 3rd comment:
Votes: 0
Runter said:
And yes, I've always used logical linking of rooms as well.

Same here - even back when I was running a room-based mud, I still laid the world out in a logical grid. I've always preferred drawing the ASCII map alongside the description though.
12 Mar, 2010, Deimos wrote in the 4th comment:
Votes: 0
I really wanted to get some kind of cursor manipulation system going a long time ago, until I found out how sketchy the support for it would be in most of the popular clients. It's a shame, as I think this could make for the best player experience ever.
12 Mar, 2010, David Haley wrote in the 5th comment:
Votes: 0
It's not unacceptable to change the rules of the medium slightly if that would make a better game. After all, the point is to make fun games, ne?
12 Mar, 2010, Deimos wrote in the 6th comment:
Votes: 0
I'm not sure I get your meaning. What are you referencing in terms of "changing the rules of the medium"? And no, if it makes a better game, I'm all for it.
12 Mar, 2010, David Haley wrote in the 7th comment:
Votes: 0
What I mean is that if you accept the dropping of strict telnet compliance (and relevant cursor control) you can get this stuff done. Some clients, like MUSHclient, allow more and more rich graphical representation on top of the text layer, using extra information sent by the server. Using these relaxed rules of the medium – namely departing from the insistence on using telnet-compliant cursor control – you can start accomplishing these goals you've set out. And you don't need to go to the extent of writing a fully custom client, either.
12 Mar, 2010, Deimos wrote in the 8th comment:
Votes: 0
I suppose, but I'd be much happier if everyone just played together nicely. I already put up with enough problems at work with software refusing to comply with established standards *cough*IE*cough*.
12 Mar, 2010, David Haley wrote in the 9th comment:
Votes: 0
Ah, well, sure. I definitely agree with you on that one. But it's the world we have to deal with, and as time goes on, I find myself caring far more about making a fun game, and far less about adhering to somewhat arbitrary standards of a genre. (There have been similar debates about Roguelikes, with some people going ballistic if a given RL is real-time rather than turn-based – completely ignoring whether or not it might be fun.)
13 Mar, 2010, KaVir wrote in the 10th comment:
Votes: 0
I can definitely understand (and appreciate) the advantages of adding support for more advanced clients. But I think it's well worth remaining compatible with other clients as well, even if the users of such clients don't get to play with all the bells and whistles.
13 Mar, 2010, Scandum wrote in the 11th comment:
Votes: 0
Deimos said:
I really wanted to get some kind of cursor manipulation system going a long time ago, until I found out how sketchy the support for it would be in most of the popular clients. It's a shame, as I think this could make for the best player experience ever.

zMud (including the free version) and TinTin++ support it, so that's all platforms and 60% of the market right there. Check out Storms of Time and Abandoned Reality if you're looking for examples of VT100 implementations.

Edit: And there's also Soiled, a flash VT mud client: http://code.google.com/p/soiled/
13 Mar, 2010, JohnnyStarr wrote in the 12th comment:
Votes: 0
I ported a pretty neat ASCII mapper created by a friend and used it on my ROM for movement, looking, and other info
commands. But, I have found that when you always have the help of the map, it can spoil you as a player not
to read the descriptions. When you deviate from providing a rich text based world, ASCII compared to these days graphics
just doesn't cut it. Anyway, I found for me personally, that only providing the map based on special abilities or items avoids
the players from getting bored.
13 Mar, 2010, KaVir wrote in the 13th comment:
Votes: 0
JohnnyStarr said:
But, I have found that when you always have the help of the map, it can spoil you as a player not to read the descriptions.

Some players don't like reading descriptions, regardless of whether or not there's a map. If you place a map and a description side-by-side, the players can choose for themselves what they want to read.
13 Mar, 2010, Kline wrote in the 14th comment:
Votes: 0
I've actually grown so accustomed to an ASCII automapper side by side with room descriptions that games which don't provide it look quite alien to me, and I really end up not liking them because it makes the formatting of things look very off to me. I'm pretty visual, so I like having a drawing of what I'm reading about to see an overview of the surrounding rooms so I'm not constantly re-drawing a mental map while trying to visual the current room description.
13 Mar, 2010, JohnnyStarr wrote in the 15th comment:
Votes: 0
@KaVir, Kline:

I do agree with both of your posts. It seems that without both you have someone who will be upset.
My goal is to write a routine that only displays maps based on if the character has been there or not.
Kind of like Zelda for snes or the old Warcraft II maps. This way, it forces the player to read the
room descriptions at least once. But it would be a shame to lose players over something like that.
13 Mar, 2010, Tonitrus wrote in the 16th comment:
Votes: 0
Well, you can't really force a player to read descs. If you have an exit line, they'll just look at that. If you don't, they'll just skim the description for directions, possibly even highlight them, then ignore the rest.
13 Mar, 2010, shasarak wrote in the 17th comment:
Votes: 0
I'm kinda old-school about text and graphics: I don't like ANY graphics in a text game, not even the odd spot of ascii. This isn't really a reasoned, logical thing, it's a visceral, emotional response. The second you add any graphical content to a text game at all, I find it immediately stops feeling like a text game and instead starts to feel like a graphical game with really crap graphics. It's a similar thing with other forms of entertainment: I like reading books; I like watching movies; but I don't thing that adding an occasional video clip in the middle of a book would make it a better book; it would make it seem like a failed film.
13 Mar, 2010, Scandum wrote in the 18th comment:
Votes: 0
My mud has several areas where players need to read various descriptions in order to start and solve quests, unless they have a walkthrough of course, but it's one way to get some of them to read.
13 Mar, 2010, KaVir wrote in the 19th comment:
Votes: 0
shasarak said:
I'm kinda old-school about text and graphics: I don't like ANY graphics in a text game, not even the odd spot of ascii.

2840/2840 (N/A)> map
Map has now been switched off.
13 Mar, 2010, shasarak wrote in the 20th comment:
Votes: 0
KaVir said:
shasarak said:
I'm kinda old-school about text and graphics: I don't like ANY graphics in a text game, not even the odd spot of ascii.

2840/2840 (N/A)> map
Map has now been switched off.

Well, that's fine so long as the game has been designed in such a way that I don't suffer any tactical disadvantage by doing that.
:smile:
0.0/70