[Home] [Groups] - Message: [Prev in Group] [Next in Group]

nu.kanga.list.mud-dev

25847: RE: [MUD-Dev] AI not worth doing in our games?

[Full Header] [Plain Text]
From: Sasha Hart <hart.s@attbi.com>
Newsgroups: nu.kanga.list.mud-dev
Date: Sat, 14 Dec 2002 09:04:39 -0800
References: [1]
Organization: Kanga.Nu
[Damion Schubert]

> Consider this: the AI in most combat-oriented games is the
> 'puzzle'.  It's the cards that are flipped over in solitaire, or
> the pieces that fall in tetris.

I don't think this is a disagreement: that description fits more
with my experience of single-player games than (most, or big
graphical) MUDs. Those mobs seem to be not a puzzle so much as
(aggregately) a fitness function which is used to evaluate your
point distribution and gear. So, for example, it's not at all a
puzzle to pull but you can get spells cast on you to make you a more
efficient puller and increase xp gain rate. Getting those spells
cast on you is just a matter of knowing their names, begging, buying
the scroll, etc. The decisions made in a combat are themselves
generally negligible - do I use my mana now or later? Do I run now? 
That's fine, but the decisions made out of combat are barely a game
themselves. For that you really look to the decisions made about
gear and point distribution.



_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev@kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev