Top Mud Sites Forum - View Single Post - Longtime mudder with ADD puts on his mad scientist hat

groovy9 · 01-22-2012, 06:35 PM

So to plamzi's point, I was thinking of importing the room/text/story/puzzle aspects of the TBAmud zones and bolting on my own mechanics. But yes, I get that this is a nontrivial challenge.

Anyway, at the moment, I'm coding up a dungeon generator (which is fun in its own right) and will worry about importing zones later (if ever). But my brain keeps coming back to two concepts over and over. One is a Nethack-esque autogenerated dungeon/puzzle/quest or whatever you want to call it.

And the other has to do with the mob universe. Rather than enumerate all the specific types of mobs that may load in my dungeon, it seems like it could be fun to define a collection of "rules of the universe", which include such things as

* general mob types (elf, dwarf, orc, dragon, lizardman, dog, fairy, etc, )
* characteristics of said mob types. e.g. elves hate orcs, are ambivalent to dwarves, and are protective of fairies. Dwarves love axes and fear horses.
* applicable adjectives - dragons can be red or green, dwarves can be hairy or fat, etc

So as a player, you might log in, type "play middle_earth" and be thrown into a dungeon with a middle earth universe in which the mobs act according to the rules of that universe. Elf mobs may attack orc mobs, orcs may run from elves if alone, hobbits may eat a lot, etc. Maybe your goal is to make it to the "end." Or to kill all the orcs. Or maybe you load as an orc and have to kill 10 elves.

Or you might "play star_wars". Or you might spot a neat addition to middle earth and "suggest middle_earth elf adjective arrogant". IMMs and/or player base votes, characteristic gets added and on future middle earth loads, you may encounter an arrogant elf.

Because the dungeons are auto-generated, some will be better than others. If you load a particularly awesome rendition of star wars, maybe you suggest it for the hall of fame. Players vote it in, and then anyone can play the specific dungeon that loaded for you. Before long, you have a collection of really-good-dungeons, as voted by the players, alongside the ability to load random dungeons.

The world may start out fairly basic, but the potential complexity would quickly grow as players add to the lore. As a coder, I might add an item combining feature with a few basic rules (water + flour = dough) and after players run with it, you wind up with a complex alchemy system usable by players and mobs both.

I just don't know how complex the universe would have to be in order to attract players in the first place.

01-22-2012, 06:35 PM	#8
groovy9 New Member Join Date: Jan 2012 Posts: 5	Re: Longtime mudder with ADD puts on his mad scientist hat So to plamzi's point, I was thinking of importing the room/text/story/puzzle aspects of the TBAmud zones and bolting on my own mechanics. But yes, I get that this is a nontrivial challenge. Anyway, at the moment, I'm coding up a dungeon generator (which is fun in its own right) and will worry about importing zones later (if ever). But my brain keeps coming back to two concepts over and over. One is a Nethack-esque autogenerated dungeon/puzzle/quest or whatever you want to call it. And the other has to do with the mob universe. Rather than enumerate all the specific types of mobs that may load in my dungeon, it seems like it could be fun to define a collection of "rules of the universe", which include such things as * general mob types (elf, dwarf, orc, dragon, lizardman, dog, fairy, etc, ) * characteristics of said mob types. e.g. elves hate orcs, are ambivalent to dwarves, and are protective of fairies. Dwarves love axes and fear horses. * applicable adjectives - dragons can be red or green, dwarves can be hairy or fat, etc So as a player, you might log in, type "play middle_earth" and be thrown into a dungeon with a middle earth universe in which the mobs act according to the rules of that universe. Elf mobs may attack orc mobs, orcs may run from elves if alone, hobbits may eat a lot, etc. Maybe your goal is to make it to the "end." Or to kill all the orcs. Or maybe you load as an orc and have to kill 10 elves. Or you might "play star_wars". Or you might spot a neat addition to middle earth and "suggest middle_earth elf adjective arrogant". IMMs and/or player base votes, characteristic gets added and on future middle earth loads, you may encounter an arrogant elf. Because the dungeons are auto-generated, some will be better than others. If you load a particularly awesome rendition of star wars, maybe you suggest it for the hall of fame. Players vote it in, and then anyone can play the specific dungeon that loaded for you. Before long, you have a collection of really-good-dungeons, as voted by the players, alongside the ability to load random dungeons. The world may start out fairly basic, but the potential complexity would quickly grow as players add to the lore. As a coder, I might add an item combining feature with a few basic rules (water + flour = dough) and after players run with it, you wind up with a complex alchemy system usable by players and mobs both. I just don't know how complex the universe would have to be in order to attract players in the first place.