Question #4 Variable text

[GaioMacareg]

Now, I'm wondering, would it be possible to setup little bits of code that would alter the room descriptions from time to time? Specifically, make seasons occur, or even day and night?

I know one idea I've been mulling over was inspired by a book I read long, long ago (I nolonger even recall the author or the title) where instead of night the world experiences something called the Draw, which basically means it gets foggy, but the fog is a link to the dreamworld so illusions are semi real, and there are nasty monsters wandering around at those times, but people can hide safely inside faerie rings. Whether or not that exact model can be used, is a regularly occuring event like that, one that alters every part of the whole world, possible?

[SamW]

Originally posted by GaioMacareg:
Now, I'm wondering, would it be possible to setup little bits of code that would alter the room descriptions from time to time? Specifically, make seasons occur, or even day and night?


Don't quote me on this, but I think this can be done. The only real obstacle (I think) is that you have to write a number of different descriptions (or pieces of descriptions) for essentially the same areas. So, even if you only have a day description and a night description, you've probably just increased your development time for each area by, say, 30%.

But, it's a cool idea, and one that I think will definitely be exploited by designers because it adds a cool dynamic to the world without requiring any mindbending effort. However, I also think that it is one of those things that will get tinkered with constantly, but only after a game goes live.

That's just me, though, because I really, honestly, believe that these types of games take a couple of hard years of play before they really hit their stride. At that point, designers have stabilized their concepts according to the needs and styles of the players, and get into the serious work of making the world cool.

As always, just my $.02,

Sam

[GaioMacareg]

Well, MUME had something like this, but instead of altering the room descriptions, it just gave you messages like, "The sun is going down" or "it is winter and there is snow on the ground." But that was all just little server-side messages, it didn't alter the text of the room, which is really what I'd want to have happen. I suppose I could live with the MUME model though.

The other trick will be keying critters and skills to the draw and the seasons. Like in spring you get more mated pairs than loners, plus the kids from last year. During the draw you get all the really weird nightmare critters that could never exist in a normal ecosystem. In the snow it's harder to move silently, in the dark its easier to hide.

[JCrook]

Originally posted by SamW:
The only real obstacle (I think) is that you have to write a number of different descriptions (or pieces of descriptions) for essentially the same areas.

Also, it may be a while yet before the system is able to automatically handle things like day and night, or weather. I don't know if we will have to build these things into the descriptions from the start. That's one reason why, when I changed the starting point of my game, I moved it into a time when it is always dark and cold.

[Phinias]

Now, I'm wondering, would it be possible to setup little bits of code that would alter the room descriptions from time to time? Specifically, make seasons occur, or even day and night?

I've been thinking about something like this for a while, something like "Dynamic Description". It wasn't until I bumbled into the discussion about Skotos on Lum the Mad until I found that someone was experimenting with the exact same idea.

Basically, instead of only universal changes, like day and night, in room descriptions, the game tailors its output to a characters state. I assume the SkotOS isn't up to this yet, though.

As a few examples:

A group of characters enter a room. All of the players are presented with a cheery and comfortable description of the room - except one. That one player's character is psychicially talented. Since the room has been the location of violence in the past (maybe as a a recurring part of the game, which would be some kind of permanant flag, or maybe there was a murder just last night, a temporary flag), the room description presented to that one character is subtly changed to unsettle her - blood red curtains, a strange smell, what have you.

Or, a dwarf and elf are walking down an underground passage - to the dwarf, the descriptions are full of comfort, with maybe more structural details that he naturally notices. The elf, on the other hand, is fed oppressive and depressing, ugly descriptions that may miss important details unless he takes the time to examine more thouroughly.

Or, as a last example, we are all lounging in the Sunset room in Marrach. Sam slaps Jeff on the back proudly. My character, however, is posed (a system not currently active, I believe) as irritated, or maybe angry, and so I see the same action as "Sam slaps Jeff on the back roughly."

I understand this probably isn't feasible now; if text games are to continue to develop, this is one direction I think they'll have to go. None of us in the real world sees an object in the same way; our view of the world is tailored by our experiences, nature and mood - why shouldn't it be the same for our characters?

BJ

[GaioMacareg]

I don't know a whole lot about coding for MUDs, but I was working on a similar thing with some guys while doing world design for them. One idea they had was to put an "item" in each room that was a magical record. They wanted a way for characters to see visual remains of magical effects. The item was going to be designed so that it would record a list of all the magical activity in the room. A character would examine it and see a block of the recorded text based on the character's skill. The item would only be viewable to the people with the skill. Couldn't you do a similar thing where you have a thing like, "Room's psychic aura" and when examined by the right person it reveals the stored text. How the text gets input, may or may not be a simple thing though.

[ChristopherA]

Actually, the technical feasibility of all that you are talking about is either completely implemented now, or is easily implemented. The hard part is not the technical one, but one for the game designer -- all the descriptions get longer and longer the more variations you allow.

We call this technology SAM - Skotos Active Markup. It works like html, but is interpreted by the server before it is sent to you.

The simplest SAM is oneof -- it sends one of the phrases that follow it randomly. Everyone has seen the exploding beer mugs in Marrach:

An empty beer {mug|vessel} {disappears|evaporates|dissolves|dissipates}
into {a soft {mist|cloud|vapor}|a mist|a misty vapor|mist}.

Different people can see different things based on their skills:

You see a simple ring<if val="$(looker.canseemagic)"><true>. The ring has that subtle glow that you recognize as magic.</true><false>.</false>

A more complex example is the new, more realistic beer mug:

<if val="$(this.liquidcontainer:isfull)"><true>A </true><false>An empty </false> </if>wooden mug<if val="$(this.liquidcontainer:isfull)"><true><if val="$(this.liquidcontainer:contents)"><true> full of $(this.liquidcontainer:contents).</true><false>.</false></if></true><false><if val="$(this.liquidcontainer:contents)"><true>{ which smells| smelling} {slightly|} of {stale|} $(this.liquidcontainer:contents).</true><false>.</false></if></false></if>

-- Christopher Allen

[GaioMacareg]

Cool. Very cool.