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KaVir · 03-02-2005, 06:30 PM

An interesting idea, but I think it would still run into the experimentation problems - if it's too easy to adapt your recipes to match someone elses, then everyone will copy them off the web instead of experimenting, while if it's too difficult then recipe trading won't be worthwhile.

I think that would make it far too difficult - most of the testers have already blown themselves up several times even with the way the system stands now, but if you can't even be sure which result a command will have I don't think many people would ever finish :p Imagine trying to complete a rubix cube, but every time you tried to perform a move you had to roll a d6, and on a 1-3 you instead moved it in a different direction. Now imagine that, on certain combinations of that cube, it blew up in your face...

Reduce the failure percentage a lot further, and that might work well - perhaps every command has a 5-10% chance of moving a randomly selected tumbler one point in a random direction (or, as you suggest, base it on your Alchemy skill and the difficulty of the potion). That would add an unknown risk factor, making it more comparible with activities such as combat.

I think you're right, and what you describe would be excellent for a mud where alchemy was one of the key aspects of gameplay, but that's not something I'm trying to achieve - this isn't designed to be a core feature of the game, but rather a sideline activity which rewards smart players for solving puzzles and encourages interaction through trading.

03-02-2005, 06:30 PM	#5
KaVir Legend Join Date: Apr 2002 Name: Richard Home MUD: God Wars II Posts: 2,052	An interesting idea, but I think it would still run into the experimentation problems - if it's too easy to adapt your recipes to match someone elses, then everyone will copy them off the web instead of experimenting, while if it's too difficult then recipe trading won't be worthwhile. I think that would make it far too difficult - most of the testers have already blown themselves up several times even with the way the system stands now, but if you can't even be sure which result a command will have I don't think many people would ever finish :p Imagine trying to complete a rubix cube, but every time you tried to perform a move you had to roll a d6, and on a 1-3 you instead moved it in a different direction. Now imagine that, on certain combinations of that cube, it blew up in your face... Reduce the failure percentage a lot further, and that might work well - perhaps every command has a 5-10% chance of moving a randomly selected tumbler one point in a random direction (or, as you suggest, base it on your Alchemy skill and the difficulty of the potion). That would add an unknown risk factor, making it more comparible with activities such as combat. I think you're right, and what you describe would be excellent for a mud where alchemy was one of the key aspects of gameplay, but that's not something I'm trying to achieve - this isn't designed to be a core feature of the game, but rather a sideline activity which rewards smart players for solving puzzles and encourages interaction through trading.