Top Mud Sites Forum - View Single Post

JilesDM · 08-10-2003, 06:00 PM

We leave this in intentionally for lack of a better way to provide effective feedback (DM's head admin has a chart of improves -> skill level description posted on his website). The method of training that a player uses under a given set of specific circumstances affects a players' rate of learning dramatically. Without providing some sort of objective way to evaluate ones progress, DM would be far too frustrating. In other words, this is, as far as we know, the most effective user interface for this particular aspect of the game.

With respect to combat and "hp", however, raw numerical data is actually quite inferior at conveying complete information in a complex system. How do you quickly evaluate what kind of damage a 789hp hit to the head of a creature when the creature's head has 9875hp, the attack does "splash damage" to the tune of 32-54% primary damage to the 3 nearest limbs, and the overall health of the creature is tied to the head's health such that it is also reduced based on a logarithmic function of the damage done to the head (similar functions associated with each limb)? It's much easier to have a smart parsing engine turn that into a reasonably terse English description than to try to figure out what exactly you just did by looking at a list of numbers. Also, if we decide to tweak the granularity of health, we can arbitrarily scale the number of units of health up and players wouldn't even notice. The same applies to stat values (Onyxflame is mistaken in that 300 is most definitely not the maximum value for a given stat for mortals, though it once was).

Our philosophy is simply to try to design the most effective user interface possible without sacrificing critical feedback. We have found that raw numerical feedback is only useful if the associated game systems are so simplistic that a player can interpret their meaning in a useful way in realtime. Pen and Paper RPGs (which I also enjoy, btw) are obviously bound by this limitation as players do all the calculations themselves. MUDs, on the other hand, need not be.

In short, what I meant by saying "the systems you described are disgustingly primitive" is that the numberless interface in your example is actually a hinderance, and an inferior UI to raw numerical data. If, however, the interface is superior to raw numerical data, players won't even care what kind of numbers are being thrown around in the backend, much less try to figure them out.

08-10-2003, 06:00 PM	#10
JilesDM Member Join Date: Nov 2002 Posts: 66	We leave this in intentionally for lack of a better way to provide effective feedback (DM's head admin has a chart of improves -> skill level description posted on his website). The method of training that a player uses under a given set of specific circumstances affects a players' rate of learning dramatically. Without providing some sort of objective way to evaluate ones progress, DM would be far too frustrating. In other words, this is, as far as we know, the most effective user interface for this particular aspect of the game. With respect to combat and "hp", however, raw numerical data is actually quite inferior at conveying complete information in a complex system. How do you quickly evaluate what kind of damage a 789hp hit to the head of a creature when the creature's head has 9875hp, the attack does "splash damage" to the tune of 32-54% primary damage to the 3 nearest limbs, and the overall health of the creature is tied to the head's health such that it is also reduced based on a logarithmic function of the damage done to the head (similar functions associated with each limb)? It's much easier to have a smart parsing engine turn that into a reasonably terse English description than to try to figure out what exactly you just did by looking at a list of numbers. Also, if we decide to tweak the granularity of health, we can arbitrarily scale the number of units of health up and players wouldn't even notice. The same applies to stat values (Onyxflame is mistaken in that 300 is most definitely not the maximum value for a given stat for mortals, though it once was). Our philosophy is simply to try to design the most effective user interface possible without sacrificing critical feedback. We have found that raw numerical feedback is only useful if the associated game systems are so simplistic that a player can interpret their meaning in a useful way in realtime. Pen and Paper RPGs (which I also enjoy, btw) are obviously bound by this limitation as players do all the calculations themselves. MUDs, on the other hand, need not be. In short, what I meant by saying "the systems you described are disgustingly primitive" is that the numberless interface in your example is actually a hinderance, and an inferior UI to raw numerical data. If, however, the interface is superior to raw numerical data, players won't even care what kind of numbers are being thrown around in the backend, much less try to figure them out.