From: jacob@fy.chalmers.se (Jacob Hallen)
Newsgroups: rec.games.mud.lp
Subject: Re: **** TOP 10 LPMUDs ****
Keywords: opinions opinions opinions
Date: 16 Aug 92 06:13:06 GMT
Organization: Chalmers University of Technology, G|teborg, Sweden

I will take this opportunity to explain the thoughts behind the design of
Genesis. Please note that we still consider the mud to be in alpha stage,
so we are still some way away from the goals that we have set ut.

In article <alfred.713896642@dutepp3> Alfred.Kayser@dnpap.et.tudelft.nl (Alfred Kayser) writes:
>
>Genesis is a mud, one of the best (in implementation that is).
>But when attacking an orc, which seems small enough for me,
>the messages 'You mis' and 'he misses' exchange for a while,
>(very long and in longer sentences...) than 'Orc hits you!'
>'You're dead!!', etc.... 

To start with, combat is too much in focus right now. Genesis was planned
to be built with quests of various sizes and complexity as the focal
point. However, good quests require a lot of work and take much time
in the making, forcing people to rely on combat for advancement. The
situation is improving slowly, and there are several quests under way
right now.

I do agree about the criticism of the combat system to a certain extent.
We want to give the player a message each time his health status changes
from one description to an other while he is in combat. This hasn't been 
implemented yet. Our time is limited, and we place our priorities on things
that we feel add the most to the game.

The combat system is designed to be more dangerous than the old one. This
is compensated by the fact that the penalty for dying is much lower than
in the old system. You lose a portion of the experience you earned through
combat, your money and your belongings. That is all. You don't lose skills
(unless you decide to change race/sex), and you don't lose any of the
experience you earned on quests.

There is a small imbalance in the combat system at the moment, because it
is too easy to die as a newbie, and too hard to die when you are close to
wizzing. This will be adjusted when all the major components of the mudlib
are in place.
>
>The good thing about Genesis is that a lot of thought went into
>longer descriptions, an extensive race and class system, and better
>interactions between players, although it is difficult to meet people 
>and easy to get lonelys sometimes...

How difficult it is to get in contact with other players is very much
dependent on how you behave in the mud. Traditional tactics, where you
run around as a mad hatter, will most certainly leave you with very few 
friends. If you take it a bit easier, and spend a little time in the
natural places of assembly (pubs, shops, banks etc), you will make
friends just as fast as on any other mud. We have checked this very
carefully, and it really isn't a problem for most people.

>
>There two solutions to this problems. Either make dying less painfull,
>as in action games, where you can get extra lives, but can keep the scores
>until you've lost al your lives. Or make dying very hard, (as is reasonable 
>implemented in the wimpy mode of most muds). 

If it is any comfort, we plan to make dying a lot more interesting.

>
>Aside this little killing problem, I happy to play the role of
>'Trickler the Hobbit', output of 'look at trickler'
>You are a thinly-bearded young hobbit, presenting yourself as:
>Trickler Squire of Solamnia, beginner, male hobbit.
>You have scars on your left leg, right leg, left hand, forhead and left
>cheek.
>You are very short and skinny for a hobbit.
>You look hideous.
>You are in good shape.				   
>
>As yoy can see the trickleroni likes to adventure...

Stronger incentive to roleplaying was one of the main design goals when we
planned the new Genesis. Shouting and widespread tells destroy too much
of the illusion to be acceptable in such an environment. A very strong
advantage of having limited communication channels is that it's quite
difficult and not very fun to be abusive to other players. If someone
is rude, you can just walk away, and be rid of the stupid git.

To return to our vision of the future, we want to make several strategies
of play possible. A player should be able to become wizard by exploring
the world, solving quests on the way, and generally staying away from combat.
Of course some quests may require that you defeat foes to reach the goal,
but there would be nothing to stop a non-violent player to hire help
to deal with such problems.
We also want to make room for enjoyable play for people who want to stay
as mortals, and alternate careers for those who want to climb in the
world, but are not interested in writing code. We also want a world, and
not a bunch of castles that place igloos next to jungles, kalashnikovs
in the hands of orcs and 'the most fearsome monster in the world' in
every third room.
You can feel proud and heroic after killing a cockroach if it feels
like a real battle, and you can be utterly bored when you walk over
your 15th archdevil with special extra superduper powers. It's all
a matter of perspective.

To round this off, I can just say that all this won't happend over night,
but with the present gang of wizards, we have very high hopes for the future.

Jacob Hallen