From: Michael.Marsden@newcastle.ac.uk (Michael Marsden)
Newsgroups: rec.games.mud.misc
Subject: Re: Ideas instead of 'wiz' level ??!
Date: 5 Nov 92 16:49:26 GMT
Organization: University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, NE1 7RU

c8927218@cc.newcastle.edu.au writes:
>[........................]
>	Anyway...
>	I am not fond of the idea of players being able
>to add locations to my mud just because they have made
>it to 'wiz' level.   I (believe i) have played most
>RPG type muds, and have programmed extensively on LP(s)

>Now the question is thus:  What else can players be allowed
>to do (as a 'reward') for getting high levels ?

     Why high levels only?  Might be a nice touch for a low level
character to be able to buy a shack out in the woods ;)

>One idea i'm toying with is have a maximum level, and then
>let players 'buy' land and build a stronghold, which of
>course would require mega $$$ in upkeep.
>[.........................]

     I've coded a system that allows players (of any level) to build a
'house', which is basically 3 to 20 rooms, which they can populate
with monsters (1 monster per room, stats depend on whether it has
treasure / armour / weapons or not).

     The rooms are positioned on an X, Y, Z grid, with 0,0,0 being the
entrance room of the house.  Building costs money, typically a 20 room
house would cost a total of 60K to 70K, assuming that every room has
examinable items, furnishings (special options - eg, monsters,
darkness, monster chats, and so forth), and has been decorated (eg,
long_desc and short_desc set).  Upkeep cost is zero (in fact, they get
a small amount of revenue from people spending money within their
house, since one of the special room options is a pub facility).

     As far as disk space goes, a typical 20 room house takes about
15K total or so in a single file, whereas the code to do the same room
in LPC is about 2K (so 40K total).  There are approx.  1000 house
rooms in total at my home mud, and this takes roughly 700K of disk
space to store.  The source code brings it up to a megabyte, though.

     Its written for LPmud, 2.4.5 lib, although I'm working on MudOS
and CDlib variants at the moment.  If you're interested in the code,
have a look at houses_and_lockersV2.2.tar.Z at lysator.liu.se (in
/pub/lpmud/lpc).

>Example:
>	X the barbarian makes lvl 25, and no more hp/sp/mp
>advancement is possible.  X has 2,000,000 coins in the bank
>and wishes to build a stronghold.  X purchases a deed, and is
>presented with a boundary peg which X drops at a the spot
>where the construction is to be built.  It may be some time
>before the construction is finished, and this may only be a
>few rooms,  thisgs sych a locking doors, upper stories, etc
>can be purchased later.

     The houses aren't located on an overall map, but this would be
easy enough to add, if I could be bothered to code it.  They can add
locking doors and so forth at any time, ditto with extra rooms in any
direction (including upwards and downwards).

>	As the GM, i can then repopulate the area as I see
>fit.  Things such as the addition of surrounding villages
>and/or shops.  If i didn't like the building i could start
>a few extra wandering monsters in the area...  etc.

     I've tried to make the houses self-regulating..  there is a quest
associated with being voted the best house owner, and a mini-wizlist
records the activity of visitors to the houses.  Basically, unless you
limit the amount they can build severely, you haven't got a hope of
seeing more than a fraction of the rooms yourself.


                                -MetaPrat (@ various sites)


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