HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: prospero@hardy.u.washington.edu ( )
Newsgroups: rec.games.mud
Subject: Re: Search for ascii picture
Summary: Hmmmmm......
Keywords: mud welcome screen
Date: 28 Jul 92 02:50:13 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle

This looks very similar to the dragon you see logging in to Tsunami. I don't know who
started it or it's origin. I might have seen in before, but I am unsure of that. I 
have included the ascii from that MUD below......







                    ___====-_  _-====___
              _--^^^#####//      \\#####^^^--_
           _-^##########// (    ) \\##########^-_
          -############//  |\^^/|  \\############-
        _/############//   (@::@)   \\############\_
       /#############((     \\//     ))#############\
      -###############\\    (oo)    //###############-
     -#################\\  / ** \  //#################-
    -###################\\/      \//###################-
   _#/|##########/\######(   /\   )######/\##########|\#_
   |/ |#/\#/\#/\/  \#/\##\  |  |  /##/\#/  \/\#/\#/\#| \|
   '  |/  V  V  '   V  \#\| |  | |/#/  V   '  V  V  \|  '
      '   '  '      '   / | |  | | \   '      '  '   '
                       (  | |  | |  )
                      __\ | |  | | /__
                     (vvv(VVV)(VVV)vvv)



The only thing *I* that's is different, is the sign....
Anyone else have any clues or interesting comments?

Prospero
Newsgroups: rec.games.mud
From: bjh42543@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Glorfindel)
Subject: TinyFugue docs
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 17:03:03 GMT
Keywords: Tiny TinyFugue docs


Does anyone out there have a copy of the docs to 
TinyFugue?  an FTP site would be fine, or mail to bjh42543@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu.

					Thanks.

Newsgroups: rec.games.mud
From: melissa@hssc.scarolina.edu (Melissa Faust)
Subject: deathlands
Organization: USC  Department of Computer Science
Date: 24 Jul 92 03:53:32 GMT

yeah I ve heard of it. It a post apocalyspe series. its been a long time since
I have read it. Essentially it about a man Ryan Crawder and a group of his
friends who travel around the world via teleportation machines looking for leftover goods. that guy that you used in your header was a weapons specialist. I can't remember much more off the top off my head without confusing you. However
I do have a good portion of the series at home. send me your email address and
I can give you a well poloshed essay.
			melissa
				melissa@andy.hssc.scarolina.edu
From: tbonewil@acpub.duke.edu (Thomas M. Williams)
Newsgroups: rec.games.mud
Subject: Dreamlands MUSH
Date: 28 Jul 92 14:27:25 GMT
Organization: G.D.I.

The machine that Dreamlands MUSH has been running on (128.109.113.15)
is running strangely at best right now.

Until this machine returns to a peaceful state of normalcy,
Dreamlands MUSH will be down.

When we go back up, I'll post in this space.
-- 
|         Sleepwalker          | For a moment, I saw the vast plain of |
|                              | infinity spread out before me. At     |
| Caretaker of Dreamlands MUSH | first I thought it was a dream, but   |
|     128.109.113.15 6250      | it was real. I had ceased to exist.   |
Xref: sparky rec.games.mud:8146 rec.games.mud.diku:120
From: hamrick@milton.u.washington.edu (Mike Hamrick)
Newsgroups: rec.games.mud,rec.games.mud.diku
Subject: Re: Coding Questions
Date: 26 Jul 92 10:06:11 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle

mjr writes:

>	To me, it's not the "newbie" questions that bother me - it's the
>questions where clearly the questioner is asking just because [s]he didn't
>pause to think for a second before asking. That gets tiresome in a hurry.
>I've seen a lot of very senior programmers in my day, explaining basic
>things like pointers or whatnot to beginners - with patience and indeed
>pleasure.

I agree.  It's not so much the content of the question, it's the context in
which it is asked.  On a side note, I think newbie is a losing term.  The
techo elite sometimes use this term to classify a person as someone to look
down upon or pitty.  It makes me ill.  We already have plenty of cute little
terms to classify groups of people and I don't think we need any more.

----
mikeh		void foo (void (*bar) (void (*baz) (void (*garply) (void)));
From: jopsy@naucse.cse.nau.edu (JO.hn  P.hillip  C.rane)
Newsgroups: rec.games.mud
Subject: Yet more inane Ascii Art
Keywords: ascii art
Date: 30 Jul 92 18:12:39 GMT
Organization: Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff AZ


Borrowed and modified some time back from someone's .sig:

          )       \   /      (
         /|\      )\_/(     /|\
*       / | \    (/\|/\)   / | \       *
|`.____/__|__o____\`|'/___o__|__\____.'|
|            '^`   \|/   '^`           |
|                   V                  |
|                ,_.                   |
|               /,-.\                  |
| .____________//___\\_______________. |
|'l         / ((     \\_//  \        l`|
* l        /   \\     `-'    \       l *
  l    /\ /     \\            \ /\   l  
  l  /   V       \\            V   \ l 
  l/              ))                 \ 
                 //
                 V

Dragon's are damned hard to paint in ascii... 

               _____________                
      __--~~~~~_____________~~~~---__        
   _-~__--~~~~~ #_________  ~~~~---__~-_          
  |_-~  __---~~~#         ~~~~---__  ~-_|          
  (    (        #           \.     ) #  )         
   ~-__|   .    #            ##    |_#_-~          
        \~ |  - #  .  .  .  //   ~/  #          
         ~-_    #         //   _-~   #       
           #~-_ #        /  _-~      #       And they take too much 
           #   ~#_     / _-~         #       time to doodle properly. ;-)
           #    # )   ( (            # 
           #   _#~     \ ~-_         #   
           #_-~ #        \  ~-_      #     
         _-~    #         \\   ~-_   #       
        /_ | -  # ~  ~   ~  \\  _ \  #          
   _-~~|   '    #            ##    |~#-_          
  (    |        #           /'     | #  )     
  |~-_  ~~---___#         ____---~~  _-~|   "Keep the ball!  I have
   ~-_~~--_____ #~~~~~~~~~  ____---~~_-~     a whole bucket full!"
      ~~--_____~~~~~~~~~~~~~____---~~                -- G. Addams
               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~                            

Just out of curiosity, is anyone interested in starting up
"alt.ascii.art"  or  "alt.text.pics"  or something?
Xref: sparky rec.games.mud:8161 rec.games.mud.diku:128
From: jflint@ic.sunysb.edu (Jesse Flint)
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
Subject: Wanted: Info on Modern Warfare
Date: 29 Jul 1992 01:35:22 -0500
Organization: State University of New York at Stony Brook
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

Once upon a time there were Microgames... small-scale games
that were inexpensive and played quickly. (Ah, the Old
Days... :)) 

I'm looking to design, if only for myself, a micro-scale
game of present-day warfare; say a "Third World War" or
"Desert Storm" scenario. Specifically, I need to know where
I could find information on modern units, and the relative
capabilities thereof. 

I do own Dunnigan's "How to Wage War" (?), which gives extensive
info on the various tanks, APCs, planes etc. but does very little
to compare the _types_ of systems. In other words, how do I relate
the effectiveness of a given ATW with a given tank or vehicle? I
could rate bombers according to their bombload weight, but how does
that affect their capability to take out (say) a T-80 or a hardened
air-defense site? Or do I just fake it and hope nobody notices?

P.S. The game I'm thinking of would be on a team level... say 2-3km
per hex, one team per unit counter. Sort of like a more conventional
version of OGRE/GEV.


-- 
############################################################################
#DISCLAIMER:    	     # "You should fully realize what society has  #
#	                     # made of you and take a terrible revenge.    #
#THE OPINIONS IN MY POSTINGS # Get weird. Get way weird. Get dangerously   #
#ARE MINE AND DO NOT REFLECT # weird. Get sophisticatedly, thoroughly      #
#HE VIEWS OF MY HOME SYSTEM  # weird and don't do it halfway.."            #
#OR THE OWNER OF THIS        #			                           #
#ACCOUNT.  		     #  Gary McCammon a.k.a. Tog                   #
#                            #  jflint%libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu@sunysb.edu   #
#			     #					           #
############################################################################
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
From: mathers@sibelius.trl.oz.au (Steven Mathers)
Subject: Re: Dice rolling
Reply-To: s.mathers@trl.oz.au
Organization: Telecom Research Labs, Melbourne, Australia
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 00:35:05 GMT

I think the standard response to this question would be:

As little as possible.

I think there should be some randomness in resolving conflict though,
otherwise it becomes to mechanical.  There should always be a
"best laid plans of mice and men..."  option.

Frinstance in civ, (sorry to pick it again, I like the game, really!)
conflict between tokens is resolved by removing one token at a time
until the tokens can co-exit.  Admirable simplicity, but it leaves no
room for variation.  The player knows EXACTLY what the result of the
conflict will be before it occurs.  Nothing ever goes exactly to plan,
now does it?

A simple system I like for military conflict on a broad scale is:

(given all units are the same) attacker and defender roll one dice for
each of the units involved in the conflict, and on a 6, they score a
kill.  This gives the player with numerical superiority a clear
advantage as he gets more attacks and can withstand more damage, but
there is still an element of uncertainty.  I would not use this system
in a game where stacks of more than 4 units would be a regular
thing...too many dice roles.
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
From: mathers@sibelius.trl.oz.au (Steven Mathers)
Subject: Re: Bureaucracy, management, and empires (was Re: Game balance (2))
Reply-To: s.mathers@trl.oz.au
Organization: Telecom Research Labs, Melbourne, Australia
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 00:43:26 GMT

In article <1992Jul23.232544.9742@wheaton.wheaton.edu>, jonh@david.wheaton.edu (Jonathan Hayward) writes:
|> unnoticed (in larger empires, how many emperors have personally encountered
|> even 1% of the people working under them?), and more room for structures to
|> become entangling - the lack of a needed peocedure may cause trouble, or a rule
|> long outliving its usefulness could entangle legitimate needs.
|> 
|> An excellent example of this is provided in the world of Star Wars and company,

I would like to model some form of bureaucracy, but have been unable to
think of a system which would be simple enough to add to my game...more
like a game in itself, really.

Any ideas on how to model an expanding empire's bureacracy having 
to specify reams of rules?
From: 8914437l@levels.unisa.edu.au
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
Subject: Collision Detection
Date: 23 Jul 92 03:18:41 GMT
Organization: University of South Australia


Does anybody out there know of a fast efficient way to detect and handle
colliding objects in two dimensions (there may be multiple objects colliding
as well)...

it may be a similar problem to gas particles colliding...

Part of my Honours project is to animate objects and then detect when they
collide and generate there new position...the problems come in when after a
collision occurs the object then collides with another object, when it bounces
away...


Any suggestions or good algorithms???
Please email me...

Thanks in advance,

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Andrew "Killer" Kulikovsky                Be alert...the world needs lerts! |
|------------------------------------+----------------------------------------|
|  B.App.Sc (Hons) Computer Studies  | The wise men looked for Jesus Christ...|
|                                    | and so it is today.                    |
| send email to:                     |                                        |
|   kulikovsky@unisa.edu.au          |        - Look to Jesus Christ!         |
+------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+

               - People who live in glass houses shouldn't!
From: jgould@adobe.com (Jim Gould)
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
Subject: Combat: Man to Man?
Date: 22 Jul 92 21:21:54 GMT
Organization: Adobe

Hello,

  I am looking for Man to Man combat systems (Gladiator Type), that you think
are well written.  I have the typical D&D, AH's Gladiator, Rolemaster, and
T&T.

  It's not that I am looking for RPG combat, but just a combat system that is
different.  Would like to find something that has different styles of combat.
If you have a system that you created and would like to share your thoughts,
I would love to hear them.  Please just E-MAIL me jgould@adobe.com

Thanks Jim Gould
From: rwallace@unix1.tcd.ie (russell wallace)
Subject: Re: Game balance (2)
Organization: Trinity College, Dublin
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 05:51:48 GMT

In <1992Jul21.000621.6964@trl.oz.au> mathers@sibelius.trl.oz.au (Steven Mathers) writes:

>From a military point of view, I guess that a larger empire has a much
>bigger circumference to defend.  This makes it vunerable to attack from
>more than one direction.  As long as there is only one problem to deal
>with at a time, the empire can mobilize all of it's spare resources and
>eradicate the problem.  But if attacked on several fronts (and the
>larger you are, the more likely this will be) takes a lot more resources
>in proportion than a small empire.

On the contrary, a large empire has less circumference per available
resources (since circumference is proportional to linear dimensions and
resources are proportional to area). Historically large empires have
fallen either by being defeated by new weapons and tactics, or because
they decayed from within for socio-political reasons (or a combination
of both).








--
"To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem"
Russell Wallace, Trinity College, Dublin
rwallace@unix1.tcd.ie
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
From: seurer@rchland.vnet.ibm.com (Bill Seurer)
Subject: Re: Wanted: Info on Modern Warfare
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 14:57:00 GMT
Reply-To: BillSeurer@vnet.ibm.com
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not necessarily those of IBM
Organization: IBM Rochester

Also, if you want purely technical information a great source is
the manual from Microprose's _M1 Tank Platoon_ computer game.  It has 
dozens and dozens of pages of information on US and Soviet vehicles and 
weapons.  For instance for each weapon it will list how much armor it
can penetrate at various ranges (and lots of other info too).  For vehicles 
it lists how much armor they have on various parts and what weapons they
carry (and lots of other info...)

Oh yah, it's a GREAT game too.
-- 

- Bill Seurer     Language and Compiler Development      IBM Rochester, MN
  Internet: BillSeurer@vnet.ibm.com    America On-Line: BillSeurer@aol.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
Subject: Re: Too much math! (Or is it??)
From: CDRESSER@eagle.wesleyan.edu (CLAYTON J. DRESSER)
Date: 28 Jul 92 23:01:09 EDT
Distribution: world
Organization: Wesleyan University
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.20In-Reply-To: Dan's message of Tuesday, 28 Jul 1992 13:55:39 EDTLines: 52

In <92210.135539DK6TOPER@MIAMIU.BITNET> Dan writes:

> of points he/she has.  The formula for this is:
>  
> rating = log (points)
>  
> My fear is that designing a system with "log" in it will scare away 99.9%
> of the gaming population.  Note that access to a scientific calculator is
> not necessary.  I'm only concerned with "rating" being accurate to one
> decimal place. So it would be easy to include a small table such as:

> rating         points
> ------         ------
> 0.0            1
> ...            ..
> 0.5            3
> ...            ..
> 1.0            10
> 1.1            13
> ...            ..
> 1.7            50
>  
> etc.

> But this seems somewhat awkward to me.  What I really want is a system where
> "level 1" is about 10 points, "level 2" is much greater (maybe 100), "level 3"
> greater still and so on.  It doesn't have to be 10, 100, 1000 etc.  (I
> considered different base logs but this only made it more complicted.)
> Any ideas?

I've used logarithmic relations in a number of systems that I've designed and
you don't need to be this awkward.  What you do is create a table that can be
repeated with each power of ten.  Thus, the table takes up very little space
and the only math is a table look-up.  Thus, the table for your points to
magical power conversion could appear like so:

Points first digit:	Rating:      
1               	0.0        For every extra digit on your point score,
2			0.3        add one to your rating.  
3			0.5
5			0.7
8			0.9
  
For example, 10 points would be rating of 1.
800 point would be a rating of 2.9.
54,762 points would be 4.7

Easy, yes?

>                                                               -Dan

Clay
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
From: seurer@rchland.vnet.ibm.com (Bill Seurer)
Subject: Re: Wanted: Info on Modern Warfare
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 14:52:29 GMT
Reply-To: BillSeurer@vnet.ibm.com
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not necessarily those of IBM
Organization: IBM Rochester

In article <JPG.92Jul29083315@holly.bnr.co.uk>, jpg@bnr.co.uk (Jonathan P. Gibbons) writes:
|> 
|> Rather than wade through highly technical info on the real items, I'd go to
|> existing rules for wargames.  I used to own some for modern warfare but they
|> have vanished and would probably not be considered modern any more.

I agree.  GDWs FirstBattle system is pretty good.  They even have a free
little game that you can probably pick up from a local game shop that is
set in Iraq during Desert Storm (I forget the name though).

I know that _Sands of War_ and _Team Yankee_ are part of the FirstBattle
system.  There are others, too.
-- 

- Bill Seurer     Language and Compiler Development      IBM Rochester, MN
  Internet: BillSeurer@vnet.ibm.com    America On-Line: BillSeurer@aol.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
From: mathers@sibelius.trl.oz.au (Steven Mathers)
Subject:  complexity vs. playability
Reply-To: s.mathers@trl.oz.au
Organization: Telecom Research Labs, Melbourne, Australia
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 04:42:31 GMT

Heres a question for you...

Which makes for a better game in general- a complex game with lots of
strategy and tactics involved, or a simpler game that is easier to play.

How long are people prepared to play a game for?  Some take a few hours,
some last over a day.

I favour a game that can be played in one sitting, mostly for practical
reasons.  I also prefer a game that is simple in concept, but complex in
action.  Sort of like Chess.  Its not a complex concept...ie: not too
many rules at all, and yet the complexity of the game in play can be
staggering.  I think this should be the ideal for any game rules.
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
From: tdunn@ecst.csuchico.edu (Tim Dunn)
Subject: Re: How many gadgets are too many? How many are enough?
Organization: California State University, Chico
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 03:04:05 GMT

Grant R. Davis writes:
>As GMs, do you prefer to make up your own equipment or have them ready-made? 

As both referee and player I prefer to have a system allow me to create a
custom piece of gear. Hero is possibly the best at this. I've given referees
pages of hardware (substitute spells or items if you wish) that they have
used over and over in various campaigns using the same system. 

As a refereee, I will stat out stuff that is common in a very simple way 
(this gun does [x] damage, that stops [x] effect, etc) so there is some
game mechanic for them. However, the more unusual stuff I would prefer 
the rules allow me to have some guides for how to represent them, rather
than have me make rules out of whole cloth.

>How much trouble do you have with players who know (and want) every piece 
>of equipment in the book, and what do you do about them?

Generally, the games I play I have some pretty realistic (IMO) limitations
on hardware. Where did you find someone to sell you mil-spec stuff? How
did you afford it? Are you licensed to use it? To carry it? How do you
lug it about? If the game is agency-based (some sponsoring group) then
there is also the matter of control from higher-ups. ("This is a body-
guarding assignment. Canister flame units are not really standard issue.")

I have no problem with hardware fanatics so long as they understand that
the gear list is there to provide guide for other stuff like it, and that
any holes or problems with said list are obviously unintentional, and will
be fixed. F'instance, in Cyberjunk, paint guns loaded with Neuro-3 do 16d10
damage. That's a hole, considering 7.62 Nato does only 6d6 and change.

If you play in my cyber game, don't expect the same effectiveness.
-- 
"The voters have spoken, the bastards ..."
From: howell@blegga.u.washington.edu (David Howell)
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
Subject: Re: Printing Cards
Date: 22 Jul 92 11:20:48 GMT
Article-I.D.: u.1992Jul22.112048.19041
Organization: University of Washington

The business card scheme won't work. Business cards are printed
2 at a time, not on 8.5x11 sheets of paper. You would be
asking for (number of cards in deck)/2 different press
runs.

You say that rubber cementing thin paper wouldn't be good.
All I can say is, you're not doing it right. I've gotten
outstanding results that way. It's easier with thin cement.

Even better is spray adhesive. You spray the sheets, and drop
the heavy stock on. Presto, completely glued cards.

Now if I could just figure out a way to get rounded
corners on the dang things...

Dave Howell
SnarkWorks Typesetting
From: wildstar@moeng2.minc.umd.edu (Derek Wildstar)
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
Subject: Re: How many gadgets are too many? How many are enough?
Date: 21 Jul 92 16:34:53 GMT
Organization: Morgan State U. / Sch. of Engineering, Baltimore, MD

I prefer rules or guidelines for making up gadgets and gizmos, rather
than exhaustive lists of stuff.  Part of this is that the players will
quickly go over the lists and become familiar with what's available, and
part is because I enjoy making up techno-stuff.

I wouldn't cut out the equipment list altogether, though.  A basic list
of "standard" and "off-the-shelf" gear saves me the trouble of creating
it, and gives me a list I can hand to the players as a "shopping-list"
of standard items.

Finally, the rules or guidelines should have examples, so that it is
clear how they should be used.  Again, the "standard" items can serve
this purpose, and serve as a scale agains which new creations can be
gauged.
-- 

wildstar@moeng2.minc.umd.edu
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                 Science-Fiction Adventure
                                                         in the Far Future