<!-- MHonArc v2.4.4 --> <!--X-Subject: Re: [MUD-Dev] Hard Sci-fi Muds was Character Evolution --> <!--X-From-R13: "Fenivf Qnfrl" <rsvaqryNvb.pbz> --> <!--X-Date: Mon, 01 Sep 1997 04:41:21 +0000 --> <!--X-Message-Id: 199709010433.AAA12487#polaris,net --> <!--X-Content-Type: text/plain --> <!--X-Head-End--> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <html> <head> <title>MUD-Dev message, Re: [MUD-Dev] Hard Sci-fi Muds was Character Evolution</title> <!-- meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" --> <link rev="made" href="mailto:efindel#io,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="msg00934.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00936.html">Next</a> ] Thread: [ <a href="msg00998.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00938.html">Next</a> ] Index: [ <A HREF="author.html#00935">Author</A> | <A HREF="#00935">Date</A> | <A HREF="thread.html#00935">Thread</A> ] <!--X-TopPNI-End--> <!--X-MsgBody--> <!--X-Subject-Header-Begin--> <H1>Re: [MUD-Dev] Hard Sci-fi Muds was Character Evolution</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] Hard Sci-fi Muds was Character Evolution</LI> <LI><em>From</em>: "Travis Casey" <<A HREF="mailto:efindel#io,com">efindel#io,com</A>></LI> <LI><em>Date</em>: Sat, 30 Aug 1997 00:43:39 -0400</LI> </UL> <!--X-Head-of-Message-End--> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-Begin--> <HR> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-End--> <!--X-Body-of-Message--> <PRE> Brian Price <blprice#bedford,net> wrote: > > I'm planning on using both for my mud... Earth won't have the tech > > to build starships, and PCs wouldn't be able to afford them if they > > did. That still leaves room for us to build other worlds and have > > PCs be able to get to them, but we can easily limit where they can > > go. > > This certainly allows you to cut down on the number of systems which > much be modeled, however it sounds as if you may be restricting > access to non-starship vessels as well. Is this correct? Yes, it is. The background I'm using has little space travel by humans... since WW3 and its aftermath provided a large population cut, there hasn't been as much pressure to expand into space. There will probably be a Lunar colony and a couple of commercial space stations (possibly run by aliens), and maybe a Mars colony. Given this low level of space activity, a spaceship won't be something that players will really want, as it might be in a campaign which featured more off-world colonies, asteroid mining, and other such things. > Suspension of disbelief requires a universe model that supports it in > a fairly logical manner. We can get away with modeling a city with > what amounts to a small village. Fantasy muds are easily restrictable > as to travel since transport technology is practically nil. Fantasy > muds can also easily justify the 'a magical barrier prevents your > entry' sort of roadblock. The problem as I see it in a hard sci-fi > setting is that, while you can easily downsize many features, it's > harder to justify artificial limits. Well... some people are better at suspending disbelief than others. :-) Mud players are usually fairly good at it, since they usually play in fantasy worlds. It's definitely better to have an in-game explanation for why there are few worlds that PCs can travel to, but my experience with players indicates that "there will be more worlds, but we need time to develop them" will be acceptable to most. > Perhaps 25 is too large a number for a workable hard sci-fi approach. > This line of inquiry begets a number of questions: > 1. How many zones/rooms would be required to model a habitable > world? > 2. How many rooms to model an orbital habitat or station? > 3. How many zones/rooms to model an uninhabitable world with and > with out colonies (such as a future Mars)? > 4. How many zones/rooms to model a gas giant with its moons? > 5. How to represent an asteroid belt? > 6. How many of the above features can minimally represent a star > system (assuming pc inter-planetary travel)? > 7. How many zones/rooms can an average builder generate in a years > time? Perhaps you need to look at the problem in a different way... why do all the planets need to be built on a zone/room basis? Uninhabited planets could be done on a more abstract system for the most part, with only those that actually have interesting features having real zones/rooms. (If you *really* want to have rooms on other worlds, they could be done on a virtual room system, with random features). Something along these lines on a fantasy mud is the way Dartmud handles outdoor areas -- with a hex map that shows different terrain types that the character moves around on. This gives a more realistic world, in that the "outdoors" isn't just a series of paths between towns and dungeons, but at the cost of making outdoor movement more abstract. It depends to some extent on how powerful sensor technology is in your universe... if the PCs can scan a planet from orbit and find that it has no artificial features and no valuable resources, they probably won't bother to visit the surface. If that kind of data requires an extensive survey effort, it's probably something that players won't want to get into. It's in the in-between zone where you really have to worry about providing zones/rooms on uninhabited planets. -- |\ _,,,---,,_ Travis S. Casey <efindel#io,com> ZZzz /,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ No one agrees with me. Not even me. |,4- ) )-,_..;\ ( `'-' rec.games.design FAQ: '---''(_/--' `-'\_) <A HREF="http://www.io.com/~efindel/design.html">http://www.io.com/~efindel/design.html</A> It also depends on what kinds of things you want the players to be doing... if you want the game to focus on interstellar trade, for example, the PCs will most likely spend most of their time in explored regions of space, travelling between inhabited worlds. OTOH, if your mud focuses on exploration of new territory, you'll definitely need a way to create new worlds rapidly, or even "on the fly." </PRE> <!--X-Body-of-Message-End--> <!--X-MsgBody-End--> <!--X-Follow-Ups--> <HR> <!--X-Follow-Ups-End--> <!--X-References--> <!--X-References-End--> <!--X-BotPNI--> <UL> <LI>Prev by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00934.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Modeling spells/skills as collections of affects</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00936.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Modeling spells/skills as collections of affects</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00998.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Hard Sci-fi muds was Character evolution</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00938.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Hard Sci-fi Muds was Character Evolution</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="index.html#00935"><STRONG>Date</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thread.html#00935"><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] Hard Sci-fi muds was Character evolution</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM> <ul compact> <LI><strong><A NAME="00932" HREF="msg00932.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Hard Sci-fi muds was Character evolution</A></strong>, Brian Price <a href="mailto:blprice#bedford,net">blprice#bedford,net</a>, Mon 01 Sep 1997, 03:43 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00933" HREF="msg00933.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Hard Sci-fi muds was Character evolution</A></strong>, Jeff Kesselman <a href="mailto:jeffk#tenetwork,com">jeffk#tenetwork,com</a>, Mon 01 Sep 1997, 03:51 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="01009" HREF="msg01009.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Hard Sci-fi muds was Character evolution</A></strong>, Nathan Yospe <a href="mailto:yospe#hawaii,edu">yospe#hawaii,edu</a>, Tue 02 Sep 1997, 10:51 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00998" HREF="msg00998.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Hard Sci-fi muds was Character evolution</A></strong>, Miroslav Silovic <a href="mailto:silovic#helga,zesoi.fer.hr">silovic#helga,zesoi.fer.hr</a>, Tue 02 Sep 1997, 09:13 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00935" HREF="msg00935.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Hard Sci-fi Muds was Character Evolution</A></strong>, Travis Casey <a href="mailto:efindel#io,com">efindel#io,com</a>, Mon 01 Sep 1997, 04:41 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00938" HREF="msg00938.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Hard Sci-fi Muds was Character Evolution</A></strong>, Brian Price <a href="mailto:blprice#bedford,net">blprice#bedford,net</a>, Mon 01 Sep 1997, 05:49 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00968" HREF="msg00968.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Hard Sci-fi Muds was Character Evolution</A></strong>, Travis Casey <a href="mailto:efindel#io,com">efindel#io,com</a>, Mon 01 Sep 1997, 21:03 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00977" HREF="msg00977.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Hard Sci-fi Muds was Character Evolution</A></strong>, Brian Price <a href="mailto:blprice#bedford,net">blprice#bedford,net</a>, Mon 01 Sep 1997, 23:32 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="01075" HREF="msg01075.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Hard Sci-fi Muds was Character Evolution</A></strong>, Adam Wiggins <a href="mailto:nightfall#user1,inficad.com">nightfall#user1,inficad.com</a>, Thu 04 Sep 1997, 10:46 GMT </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>