<!-- MHonArc v2.4.4 --> <!--X-Subject: Re: [MUD-Dev] New Topic: Butthead features --> <!--X-From-R13: Penaqba Qyvar <oenaqbaNfrqban.arg> --> <!--X-Date: from fabius.globecomm.net [207.51.48.6] by in2.ibm.net id 870614744.23250-1 Sun Aug 3 13:25:44 1997 CUT --> <!--X-Message-Id: Pine.GSO.3.95.970803052757.18965A-100000#merlin,sedona.net --> <!--X-Content-Type: text/plain --> <!--X-Reference: 3.0.2.32.19970802163936.00b055e0#mail,tenetwork.com --> <!--X-Head-End--> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <html> <head> <title>MUD-Dev message, Re: [MUD-Dev] New Topic: Butthead features</title> <!-- meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" --> <link rev="made" href="mailto:brandon#sedona,net"> </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="msg00352.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00354.html">Next</a> ] Thread: [ <a href="msg00498.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00493.html">Next</a> ] Index: [ <A HREF="author.html#00353">Author</A> | <A HREF="#00353">Date</A> | <A HREF="thread.html#00353">Thread</A> ] <!--X-TopPNI-End--> <!--X-MsgBody--> <!--X-Subject-Header-Begin--> <H1>Re: [MUD-Dev] New Topic: Butthead features</H1> <HR> <!--X-Subject-Header-End--> <!--X-Head-of-Message--> <UL> <LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#null,net">mud-dev#null,net</A></LI> <LI><em>Subject</em>: Re: [MUD-Dev] New Topic: Butthead features</LI> <LI><em>From</em>: Brandon Cline <<A HREF="mailto:brandon#sedona,net">brandon#sedona,net</A>></LI> <LI><em>Date</em>: Sun, 3 Aug 1997 06:24:01 -0700 (MST)</LI> <LI><em>Reply-To</em>: Brandon Cline <<A HREF="mailto:brandon#sedona,net">brandon#sedona,net</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 Sat, 2 Aug 1997, Jeff Kesselman wrote: > hey all, > I thougth i stir the pot with another contentious issue. > > No offense to Raph but my playing around with UOL brought this to mind. > > There is a philisophical/practical issue in the inclusion in your MUD of > "butthead" features. What I mean by this are features that allow a pure > butthead to annoy (or worse seriously harm) other players just for the > cheap power trip of doing so. We all know these personalities exist on > the net SO... > Think we had a discussion along this line about pk a while back, an obvious "butt head" feature as you call it. Not sure what the final take was on it but, it seems to comes down to... Do you leave out/cripple these possibly abusive features so that Mr. Butthead cannot annoy other players or do you leave them in and either A) leave it up to the players to deal with it, B) declare it unlawful although it is possible, or c) set up in game laws and law enforcement etc. To me, leaving out / crippling features that should exist in the mud seems to be just as bad as Mr Butthead abusing them. There's nothing worse when playing a "thief" character and ya get the message "Sorry you're not allowed to steal from other player characters." (Wonders how many people are going, "What's so bad about that?" :> ) Well, for one. I see the next step in muds, and alot of what is being developed on this list as "environments" not "games". Which is what I think alot of people are asking for, IMO, I could be wrong. In order to keep a consistant environment, esp to satisfy role players and the like, everything must at least have a reason within the "evironments" rules for being like it is. > > How do you control them? > I don't know if it's such a matter of "controling" them as it is making the "environment" consistant enough that either A) control is unneccasary or B) "environment" features to counter balance or balance what ever effect could be abused. > > Do you just avoid features that could be so abused, or do you count on > other mechanisms to keep this behavior in check and if so what > garanties do you have of success? > > This comes to mind because in my current project we are conciously avoiding > butthead features. That was our design decision. I see a great many > features existant in the current UOl so obviosuly the designers there > took a differnet track.. > > Some examples of butthead features include.. > > (1) PC pickpocketing of other PCs... always upsets people. > For an example of above mention of balance and in game control, I see plenty of muds that allow pickpocketing, but there is no way to catch the thief, severly beat him, then take all his equipment, without killing him of course. On most muds low hp vs max hp means little which is a shame, cause it'd be nice to just thrash someone costing them time, without actually killing them, so as to allow death to still be a serious event. > > (2) Fixed tport points so that others can lay in wait and way-leigh > unsuspecting traverls before they can see whats up. > I'm hopin that a couple of adjustments in game mechanics will keep murder, robbing, theft down to a minimum and in a sense governed by things within the environment. For example, risk of death, no matter what level of skill a person has there is/should be a risk of death. Then add something a bit more crippling to death instead of just exp loss, like actual down time from that character, or being trapped within the underworld until someone ressurects you or ya make a deal with the devil etc. Now, this may sound as an advantage for the Buttheads, "Hey I just killed Joe, lets drag his corpse out and cut it up into little pieces so he can't be ressed", hehe, but the same would go for the buttheads, and if Joe ever did get back, revenge would be indeed sweet. Lotsa other little features could be added to balance this stuff out, um, ways to hire npcs for revenge, ways to keep from dying in the first place, ways to fake death etc, hehe. Dunno if this makes sense, I'm sure Im leaving out some stuff but that's my general take on the whole thing. > > (3) The ability to take control of OTHERS PCs and make them do things (The > Provocation skill in UOL looks at first blush particuarly nasty in this > regard.) > Hehe... <mud sex ensues> , "Hey wait, Bob never said that" , "You're not Bob!" ... > > There are lost more but there are some starter catagories. > > Thoguhts, all? Raph? Whats your UOl philosophy on managing these things? > > Jeff Kesselman > Snr. Game Integration Engineer > [Couldn't resist I fixed most of Jeff's typo's, hehe] Brandon Lee Cline brandon#sedona,net </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="00347" HREF="msg00347.html">[MUD-Dev] New Topic: Butthead features</A></STRONG> <UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> Jeff Kesselman <jeffk#tenetwork,com></LI></UL></LI> </UL></LI></UL> <!--X-References-End--> <!--X-BotPNI--> <UL> <LI>Prev by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00352.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Graphic MUDS.</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00354.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] common server design</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00498.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] New Topic: Butthead features</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00493.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] New Topic: Butthead features</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="index.html#00353"><STRONG>Date</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thread.html#00353"><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] New Topic: Butthead features</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM> <ul compact> <ul compact> <ul compact> <LI><strong><A NAME="00351" HREF="msg00351.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] New Topic: Butthead features</A></strong>, Matt Chatterley <a href="mailto:root#mpc,dyn.ml.org">root#mpc,dyn.ml.org</a>, Sun 03 Aug 1997, 15:48 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00365" HREF="msg00365.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] New Topic: Butthead features</A></strong>, Jeff Kesselman <a href="mailto:jeffk#tenetwork,com">jeffk#tenetwork,com</a>, Mon 04 Aug 1997, 08:57 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00368" HREF="msg00368.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] New Topic: Butthead features</A></strong>, Matt Chatterley <a href="mailto:root#mpc,dyn.ml.org">root#mpc,dyn.ml.org</a>, Mon 04 Aug 1997, 13:33 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00498" HREF="msg00498.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] New Topic: Butthead features</A></strong>, clawrenc <a href="mailto:clawrenc#cup,hp.com">clawrenc#cup,hp.com</a>, Tue 12 Aug 1997, 21:27 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00353" HREF="msg00353.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] New Topic: Butthead features</A></strong>, Brandon Cline <a href="mailto:brandon#sedona,net">brandon#sedona,net</a>, Sun 03 Aug 1997, 20:25 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00493" HREF="msg00493.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] New Topic: Butthead features</A></strong>, clawrenc <a href="mailto:clawrenc#cup,hp.com">clawrenc#cup,hp.com</a>, Tue 12 Aug 1997, 18:26 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00536" HREF="msg00536.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] New Topic: Butthead features</A></strong>, Martin Keegan <a href="mailto:martin#cam,sri.com">martin#cam,sri.com</a>, Thu 14 Aug 1997, 02:53 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00540" HREF="msg00540.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] New Topic: Butthead features</A></strong>, Jeff Kesselman <a href="mailto:jeffk#tenetwork,com">jeffk#tenetwork,com</a>, Thu 14 Aug 1997, 03:19 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00543" HREF="msg00543.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] New Topic: Butthead features</A></strong>, Adam Wiggins <a href="mailto:nightfall#user2,inficad.com">nightfall#user2,inficad.com</a>, Thu 14 Aug 1997, 03:35 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> </ul> </ul> </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>