> On Wed, 21 Jul 1999, JoeR wrote:
> -
> - I had an interesting idea in mind for allowing objects to be "combined" to
> - create a NEW item. I think this could help with the logistical question of
> - limiting items to a certain number available... because when you physically
> - combine object 1 with object 2, you REMOVE the first 2 items from the system
> - and then object 3 is created!
> -
It's not a new idea really. I'm not going to post the code for
'assemble' but i simply added two ints to the item, had them settable in
the same way I poseted for level for items (about 3-4 years ago? many
others have too - it's simple), and then slotted it together. All said it
took half an hour, and most of that was the function that tried to figure
out what you were actually trying to connect, since I declined using
generic find.
(oh - the two ints were 'item to join with' and 'item to create')
However, I don't think this will limit anything much.
Maybe if you stuck to the base d&d system, where even a level 30
fighter is probably going to have just a single sword (that's right, no
'dual weapons crap') and it's going to do 1d10 or so, and maybe be +2 to
hit and damage, you could balance evereything very quickly.
Most of the unbalancing on muds that i've seen comes from failure
to anticipate the effects of simple number growth. Without a doubt, every
mud I've seen seems to get it into their head that by simply multiplying
stats and damage by 10, it will be somehow more fun, and be 'more' of a
game. In reality most muds don't have enough diversification that there's
a difference between characters less than 10 levels apart. Not enough
skills/spells or the ones that exist aren't anything more than like-types
of another class, or just damage-modification spells.
IfI were to sum it up, I'd say the following things are what I've
seen as the most unbalancing things:
- lack of skills spells for each class for every level with no
overlap.
- skills+spells have max learn of 100% work every time
- group exp lets high level chars power-level a low level char.
- stock tables (savingthrows, thac0, ac, damage,etc) become
unusable after a certain point (around level 25ish,ac <
-100, etc)
- overpowerful spells/skills like those that let you have
large numbers of attacks, or stop attacks especially.
- unscaled (multiply all stats by 10..monty haul syndrom)
- powerful equipment exists in quantities.
Of these I'd say the lack of scaling (including stock tables) is
the # problem, followed by a much lower priority of item avail.
PjD
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