Layered Armor

A while ago on mudconnector I noticed a thread discussing a layered armor system that Kavir uses in his GodWars II mud. While I haven't played any of the GodWars muds, based on what I've read GodWars II seems like a decent game, and Kavir seems like hes a decent coder and designer as well. This system basically entails being able to lair armor. For example you might wear an undershirt which covers your arms and body. You could then wear some padded leather armor over this on your body, and armored sleeves over your arms because these items aren't worn on the same layer. I think this is an interesting idea, especially when paired with localized damage and hit zones. I believe it adds to the realism, and even more so expands the strategic offerings available. This lets a player decide which parts are more important to protect for example, or let them decide against heavily armored and slow, or lightly armored and more agile.

I've basically added this concept to my specification changes to do list. It also adds in a whole lot of expanded realism for my game concept.... for example if a player was to wear some shiny metal armor in the rain it might rust. But what if you could throw a rain poncho or robe of some sort over it?

I'm sort of thinking of this stuff as I go along, but it basically moves onto another idea. Each item, say a shirt for example, should have a size. The size of an item that a player can wear is limited both by the body type size, and the size of the outermost item worn. A large bodied character for example would only be able to wear larger items. Some items might require a certain closeness in size to be worn, or at least worn effectively. This definitely expands whats on my mind for items, this should be a whole lot of fun when I get there. I'll need to reference this post in my development notes so I can come back when I update my spec. :P

Ultimately this ties into my belief that games should have realism, at least within the 'universe' of the game (to use a probability term... damn random signals and noise). Adding to the ambience and strategy required improves the game, and a better game is always better.

Later,
-Toraux

Tags: Game, Games, MUDS, Multi User Dungeon, Online Games, Game Design, Programming