Re: [MUD-Dev] Supporting RP+PG

[Matt Chatterley <root#mpc,dyn.ml.org>]

On Mon, 30 Jun 1997 clawrenc#cup,hp.com wrote:

> In <199706230514.TAA02643#mail,pixi.com>, on 06/22/97 
>    at 10:21 PM, "Huibai" <ashen#pixi,com> said:
> 
> >- hiding all statistics. (HP,skills,levels,etc.)
> >  health is a graphic % bar.  they've got no idea
> >  what their absolute points are, only how hurt
> >  out of the whole.
> 
> This loses the ugliness of numbers while avoiding the chancy
> interpretation of adjectives (just how hurt is "in agony" as vs
> "moaning with pain"?)  Essentially you now have a percentage value. 
> The problem which it chares with all the other general systems is in
> evaluating what 20% damage (or whatever) really means in game
> functionality.  

There are merits to both the %age, and descriptive systems, the main
problem of the former being as you say, "How hurt is 20%? Is 100% hurt
dead? What about 99%?", and with the latter "Ok, I'm in agony, how hurt is
that?". Of course, you'll get some chance to compare descriptors the
longer you survive - if they're reasonable done (ie made to sound a bit
more drastic at each step, on average), you'll soon get the point, plus
the worry of "Am I nearly finished?", until it's confirmed one way or
another. I actually like that. :)
 
> ie given a stat at XXX level, what can and can't I do because of that
> stat?

Yup. I have no idea how you can do stats/skills without showing numbers,
and without using descriptors (ie "Moderately skilled") though.
 
> -- 
> J C Lawrence                           Internet: claw#null,net
> (Contractor)                           Internet: coder#ibm,net
> ---------------(*)               Internet: clawrenc#cup,hp.com
> ...Honorary Member Clan McFUD -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...
> 
> 


Regards,
	-Matt Chatterley
	http://user.itl.net/~neddy/index.html
"He can't stop us, we're on a mission from Glod!" - Soul Music (Pratchett)