Monday, October 31, 2005

Humanoid Entities

So I actually got more stuff done, seems im almost making time for myself instead of filling it. I wrote up all the properties for humanoid entities today, putting the spec at a full 25 pages. This now includes lists of skills and attributes. Also wrote about the cool logout system where players will still be available to be killed when they arent connected(Makes you want to be in a clan doesnt it?). That system also includes the potential for a means of letting players know when their chars are at risk for an added service fee. I also wrote about lifespans, bloodlines, real-death, genetic traits and auto-description.

Anyone who knows about this project either already knows or should know that all characters are intended to be vulnerable to death, making it a big part of the game. Players also will have maximum lifespans to keep players balanced. This also keeps people from over investing time and becoming junkies(tho is this bad for a game? :P ).

Bloodlines will be the main unit of player grouping in the game. Each tribe has a leader, some elders and a bunch of other players and NPC's. I wrote up a heir system where players can select their heir to their leadership position. Each bloodline will have characteristic genetic traits. Traits will mutate with time and be passed on to your kids, controlling both appearance but predisposition to attributes including magic as well. And finally the autodescription thing will use the traits to generate descriptions and survey messages that will be accurate to the individual.

I am hoping to complete the rest of the humanoid entities section this week. The more and more I mess around with this the more I wish I was playing it. I also think I might be starting to look for a webmaster/webdeveloper to design and maintain a website for me in the next month so stay tuned!

-Toraux

Sunday, October 30, 2005

Time

Today I decided to primarily tackle the issue of time. There is a lot to think about when it comes to how time plays into everything else in a game. It especially matters when the world has limited lifespans and limited means of travelling far distances.

This is how time will work. "Day and Night will pass based on this in a way proportional to an estimated total planet size in comparison to how much of the world is available on the map. Passage of time during a game year will be a bit fuzzier. A game year is equal to a full real day. Game years will have names and symbols in a way similar to the Chinese zodiac. A game year will consist of 240 game days, each will be 10 minutes long. There will be 12 game months, each with a name. Each game month will be 20 game days long and thus about 3 1/3 hours long. A game week will be 6 game days long and thus an hour of real-life time." Yeah thats a quote, im lazy and dont want to rewrite it seperate for this.

Also got to starting player stuff, got a basic list of skills down. I now have a total of 23 pages or so in the spec. Im thinking this week will be basicly dedicated to finishing off the player stuff, not sure if it'll be done or not come friday but I think it's a good goal. Once again feel free to post a comment, any input I get could help a lot in refining features or maybe bring up new ones. For example my bro suggested something that would work well with the adrenaline system I got in mind that would allow experienced combatants to have a 'battle calmness' that would help reduce fumbling and stuff. Anyways im out.

-Toraux

Friday, October 28, 2005

Dynamic Abstract

I just wrote up the 'abstract' portion of the dynamic specification... or in other words a summary. Its still basicly unofficial but might give some of you people new to the project a better idea of what im trying to accomplish:



Dynamic Mud is my attempt at a better MUD. I realized that static zones can get quite boring. Game politics in MUDs I have played in the past became a big issue and the worst part was loosing friends and getting in fights. My intention is to create a game where player politics are part of the game. Where people will enjoy interacting with each other both cooperatively and competitively to change a world in their favor. In MUDs like Medievia for example it is hard to detach yourself from the game. It becomes a career and players ‘retire’ when they want to stop playing.

Dynamic’s Real Death System will allow players a more fluid connection to the game. It will become easier to come and go, and players will be able to learn not to become overly attached to their characters as they would in a game where characters last forever. This will also give players a chance to fade in and out, and become someone new. It also will prevent problems caused by all the power gamers ganging up on the smaller players.

Dynamic will be entirely free, it will pay for itself in various means such as advertisements on it’s game generated web-site and various merchandise sales online.

Everything in Dynamic will change from day to day, and even hour by hour. If one watches the map they will see the rise and fall of empires, battlefields, villages and other various changing features. The ability of players to change their landscape ads a whole new dimension of fun. Players will also interact with the occasional planned scripted event. Attacks from the underworld and afar as well as various player driven wars and campaigns. Creatures will also help dictate the landscape as players fight to protect their homes from monsters and dragons.

The game will include no levels, all skills and attributes will grow as they are used. The complete lack of visibly scoring of players will make it hard to judge who is stronger then you and who is not.

The mapping system will provide for much more interesting engagements. Other MUDs have maps but none that I know of have player highlighting on the maps. This system will display player locations in your vicinity, even representing battle lines in large engagements.

The combat system will be innovative with its lack of a combat locking mechanism, allowing for larger swirling melee environments. Ranged weapons and heavy weapons will also add an entirely new strategic element. AI driven beings will add to the scale of conflicts and the scale of the world as well.

The ships system will provide a means for players to travel far and wide across oceans and to battle in a completely different environment.

Dynamic will also include player grown and harvested foods, player created items and a limited resource model.
The coolest thing left to note is the plan to publish books each year that will detail the events of the year, provide maps and figures based on what players did. Players will be able to see their names written in a book when they help keep the world safe, or lead their empire to dominate the world.


Please comment if you would like to, I would enjoy some feedback.

-Toraux

Thursday, October 27, 2005

World Section Completed

Whew so thats a lot of stuff. Eleven Pages of Room Types, Movement restrictions, growth and basic discussion of how the mapper will work. Page total is now at 20 pages, this will end up a long specification yet :P

Here is a preliminary list of Room Types:
1. Ironwood Trees
2. Construction Trees
3. Hardwoods Trees
4. Dirt Road
5. Gravel Road
6. Paved Road
7. River
8. Rapids
9. Lake
10. Lake Shallows
11. Ocean
12. Ocean Shallows
13. Wooden Bridge
14. Stone Bridge
15. Grass
16. Corn
17. Hemp
18. Wheat
19. Peas
20. Beans
21. Tomatoes
22. Walls
23. Doors
24. Under a Roof
25. Stairs/Ladders
26. Cliff Face
27. Steep Slope
28. Gradual Slope
29. Large Cavern
30. Cavern
31. Narrow Tunnel
32. Supported Tunnel
33. Walls
34. Gates
35. Guard Towers
36. Spike Pits
37. Flag pole
38. Portals

Yeah theres a lot there. Main things to note that are different from the old alpha test version of dynamic is the new water concepts and the new mountain concepts. And I guess crops because I never got to them. Oceans and lakes wont be totally impassable this time around with the shallow water room types. Mountains will be traversable both inside and outside. And 3d movement is in the design this time around. Also mentioned the Flag Pole room type which will allow villages to name themselves and have it appear on the map and do some cool stuff with the territory stuff.

Yeah kinda scattered thoughts hopefully ill do better in time.

-Toraux

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Dynamic Mud News

So I decided to set up a little place to post as I work on the long daunting project of planning, designing, implementing, and eventually running Dynamic Mud. I will be posting my thoughts, changes to designs, and maybe even ask questions... though who knows who will respond.

Dynamic Mud is intended to be a 100% persistant world. No static zones like most other muds, everything changes, including the face of the world itself. Players die for real, creatures populate the world and breed, and everything including boundries and the stories behind them are shaped by our actions.

I currently have an outline for what the game will be. I started 10 days ago on the 16th and I now have about 5 pages of written descriptions and specifications that will one day make up this game. Speaking of which I should get back to writting.

-Toraux