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MessrO
Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 1
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 Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2005 6:02 am Post subject: |
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I'm very new to building (I'm working on my first area now), but the title of this topic resonated strongly with my personal taste or aesthetic if you want to get fancy.
Perhaps with a dynamically-generated world and especially a coordinate-based world a builder can go beyond rooms, mobs and objs (call them perceptions) and think instead in terms of interactions. As someone mentioned 'look' becomes a tool of the past. What if 'look' didn't even exist? I'm sorry if this sounds a little vague, it is even to myself atm, but for example:
[stock DIKU]
You leave north.
Temple of Terrible Death: antechamber
Blood, blood, blood! cascades down the rough hewn grey stone walls and washes over the dark onyx floor. The siren wail of a thousand souls doomed to listen to Brian Wilson's 'Smile' on auto-repeat fills the air.
[exits: south west down]
You have arrived.
A CD player is here.
The high priest of Kulg-donk plays a blood soaked theremin.
A nervous acolyte pours more blood on the walls.
MANA 1023 MOVE 2324 > l high
The high priest stands over his theremin with a maniacal look on his face. His deep black velvet robes are hitched up over his knee-high wading boots.
[interactionMUD]
You leave north and arrive in the antechamber of the Temple of Terrible Death!
The wailing of doomed souls fills the air.
A nervous acolyte pours blood on the walls across the room. The high priest of Kulg-Donk plays a blood soaked theremin nearby.
MANA 1023 MOVE 2324 > go high
Moving closer to the high priest you see his intense concentration as he plays the theremin, sheets of blood washing over his knee-high wading boots.
this is a great forum btw, MessrO |
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Vopisk
Joined: 22 Aug 2005
Posts: 99
Location: Golden Valley, Arizona, USA
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| Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2005 10:42 pm Post subject: |
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| MessrO wrote: |
[interactionMUD]
You leave north and arrive in the antechamber of the Temple of Terrible Death!
The wailing of doomed souls fills the air.
A nervous acolyte pours blood on the walls across the room. The high priest of Kulg-Donk plays a blood soaked theremin nearby.
MANA 1023 MOVE 2324 > go high
Moving closer to the high priest you see his intense concentration as he plays the theremin, sheets of blood washing over his knee-high wading boots.
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This is actually an idea that I really like, and sorry once again, for my per usual dragging up of old posts, but the fact that no one got back on this one is surpising. Anyway, I digress. I am a minimalist in life, and in my experience in building, minimalistic approaches can in fact be the best. I often pored over a description I was trying to write, trying to squeeze in a ton of information that would be passed over even myself were I to be playing the zone because of the sheer fact that reading a room description for ten-minutes just to find out that the throne is really nice... isn't my cup of tea. I would prefer personal interaction or even mindless bashing over having to read small novels each time I change rooms.
Anyway, I'm digressing again from the idea that struck me with this brilliant example... When you walk into a room, what do you notice? First and foremost, you'll basically be drawn to the most "flashy" thing in the room, expanding from there as far as visuals are concerned, a strong scent or lack thereof would also... spring out at you. Perhaps the floor is particularly soft or hard, perhaps the air tingles with static electricity... Use your imagination and expanding upon the given example, a whole new world can open up. Sure, the walls of the room are still there, and if we type "Look walls" we can see... "The walls of the room are made from coarsely chiselled stone, the ancient mortar cracking and missing in spots. The gray blocks have been stained red with coats of blood." Or something to that extent.
Putting sensory overload onto a player by trying to describe every aspect of the room. Maybe not the best idea. However, if we give them the bright and shining examples, and let them delve out any further details they might like to see, we enter a whole new realm.
Upon this same tangent... I believe that any corporeal items mentioned in a room description should be interactive, so if there is a chair, you should be able to sit in it, if there is a light you should be able to extinguish or light it, etc... KaVir's system is a lot like this in that there is full interact-ability with any item in game, to the extent that you can chop someone's arm off and beat them lifeless with it... oh how I love irony, but that's a horse of a different color, anyway...
Applying the principles discussed above... in a coordinate based system, if one were to lay out the "floorplan" of the game world, and using line-of-sight "feelers" one could generate on-the-fly "room" desccriptions for "wilderness" areas by finding out what things are available within the character's line of sight and giving them the most important aspects, say... a mountain looming ominously in the distance to the north, or perhaps a forest ahead and to the right... or a strange gathering of rocks immediately ahead.
Using, in general, an overhead map to display important information to the player-character, one could use this type of information relay to keep the player immersed while not having to wade through tons of information to get to the good stuff. Once again, this would not inhibit absolutely EVERYTHING from having a description, only that the player would have to choose to go after that information.
Anyway, I'm digressing past the point of realizing the point I was trying to make, so I'll leave that as food for thought and hopefully someone will bite.
Vopisk |
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