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SnowTroll · 11-27-2012, 02:46 PM

One of the biggest things I hate about certain codebases is the stupidity that results from trying to code in too much realism. In some muds, you get meaningless spam about the weather. Every few ticks, you get a meaningless message about how the sun comes out or it's raining or snowing. In most muds, the weather doesn't do anything to your gameplay or your character, and just becomes a meaningless bit of spam everyone ignores. Every once in awhile, some uncreative person with nothing better to roleplay about will try to strike a pose or some conversational issue about the weather, which most people brush off. In muds where weather actually does something, it's more of an annoyance than an appreciated realistic system. Nobody wants to have penalties and take twice as long getting from one place to another because it's raining. That doesn't help with gameplay, it doesn't help with roleplaying, it's just tedious and actually gets in the way of both. You can't enjoy the gameplay or contribute to a roleplayed scene if you're stuck between cities because it's raining.

Some codebases make you get hungry and thirsty every few ticks, so people stock up on meaningless food items, slurp from every fountain they pass, or just ignore hunger in those muds where it doesn't harm you. It becomes yet another thing people just completely ignore if it doesn't have a coded penalty, and a thing people hate and find tedious if it does.

Some codebases tried to code drukenness. If you take a sip of beer, you have a random chance of hiccuping, burping, or puking your guts out. The more sips you take, the greater your odds. That sounds like fun, doesn't it?

I played a mud awhile ago that had random status modifiers. Every once in awhile, for no particular reason, your character might feel run down or energetic and get a tiny bonus or penalty to a stat. That's sort of my mental equivalent of code for being sick.

Someone getting the flu and having small penalties to stats, being forced to cough and sneeze, and getting personal messages about feeling bad and having a fever is only unique to roleplay the very first time. Then it's just a stupid thing that gets in the way by interfering with the gameplay people want to experience and the roleplaying people want to do. The idea of a sickness code is right up there with having to take a leak or a dump, and if you don't run out of a roleplaying scene every 10 ticks to do so, you pee your pants. Eventually, everybody's just going to ignore the people running in and out to cope with the pee pee code, and it becomes something people play around rather than playing with. Because it's tedious and gets in the way of the real game. That's what random sickness would do.

11-27-2012, 02:46 PM	#8
SnowTroll Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Posts: 183	Re: Sickness One of the biggest things I hate about certain codebases is the stupidity that results from trying to code in too much realism. In some muds, you get meaningless spam about the weather. Every few ticks, you get a meaningless message about how the sun comes out or it's raining or snowing. In most muds, the weather doesn't do anything to your gameplay or your character, and just becomes a meaningless bit of spam everyone ignores. Every once in awhile, some uncreative person with nothing better to roleplay about will try to strike a pose or some conversational issue about the weather, which most people brush off. In muds where weather actually does something, it's more of an annoyance than an appreciated realistic system. Nobody wants to have penalties and take twice as long getting from one place to another because it's raining. That doesn't help with gameplay, it doesn't help with roleplaying, it's just tedious and actually gets in the way of both. You can't enjoy the gameplay or contribute to a roleplayed scene if you're stuck between cities because it's raining. Some codebases make you get hungry and thirsty every few ticks, so people stock up on meaningless food items, slurp from every fountain they pass, or just ignore hunger in those muds where it doesn't harm you. It becomes yet another thing people just completely ignore if it doesn't have a coded penalty, and a thing people hate and find tedious if it does. Some codebases tried to code drukenness. If you take a sip of beer, you have a random chance of hiccuping, burping, or puking your guts out. The more sips you take, the greater your odds. That sounds like fun, doesn't it? I played a mud awhile ago that had random status modifiers. Every once in awhile, for no particular reason, your character might feel run down or energetic and get a tiny bonus or penalty to a stat. That's sort of my mental equivalent of code for being sick. Someone getting the flu and having small penalties to stats, being forced to cough and sneeze, and getting personal messages about feeling bad and having a fever is only unique to roleplay the very first time. Then it's just a stupid thing that gets in the way by interfering with the gameplay people want to experience and the roleplaying people want to do. The idea of a sickness code is right up there with having to take a leak or a dump, and if you don't run out of a roleplaying scene every 10 ticks to do so, you pee your pants. Eventually, everybody's just going to ignore the people running in and out to cope with the pee pee code, and it becomes something people play around rather than playing with. Because it's tedious and gets in the way of the real game. That's what random sickness would do.