NEW D&D GAME!!??!!
David Gudeman
away the best game of the genre (if you ignore bugs). It was
distributed on comp.sources.games I believe. The code is not very
good, but not bad for the writer's first major C program. (He used
strcpy() and strcat() instead of sprintf(), and seems to have an
inordintate fondness for switch statements, even when an array could
be used much more efficiently and conveniently.)
--
David Gudeman
Department of Computer Science
The University of Arizona gud...@arizona.edu
Tucson, AZ 85721 {allegra,cmcl2,ihnp4,noao}!arizona!gudeman
13001...@uwovax.uwo.ca
called Explore!. In concept the game will resemble Moria, Nethack, Rogue
and others, but it will be (we hope!) better.
We need some suggestions... What do you dislike about Moria, Nethack, Rogue?
What features do you want to see? What do you not want included?
Are there any ANSI C / Curses features that your system doesn't support?
(We can try to avoid them).
Some preliminary info:
----------------------
System requirements:
ANSI C / Curses (about .5 Mb RAM, 1.2 Mb diskspace--not much!)
or IBM PC XT/AT/386 compatible with any graphics adapter supported
by Turbo C, 640K RAM, DOS >= 3.0, 1.2 Mb diskspace.
Game info:
One player.
Possibly semi-intelligent NPCs.
Likely to allow programmable player control (rest until...,
or explore until you meet big monster..., etc) as we want
to eliminate some of the boredom of doing routine stuff.
Good fighting sequences, possibly like in Omega.
Alex Pruss and Patrick Surry
Dept of Physics, University of Western Ontario.
Trevor Paquette
I agree!! Omega is probably the BEST rogue/Hack/Moria game out right
now (even with some of the bugs that is in it.) I have tried to get
in touch with the author (Lawrence Brothers) but all my e-mail keeps
bouncing. Does anyone know what the latest version of Omega is? I have
0.60.2 (alpha) and I have started going through the code to fix up
some of the more obvious bugs. But if there is a neewer version.. why
bother?
Trev
==============================================================================
Trevor Paquette/GraphicsLand, Calgary, Alberta
..uunet!{ubc-cs,utai,alberta}!calgary!paquette ICBM:51 03 N/114 05 W
calgary!paqu...@cs.ubc.ca Luminous beings we are, not this crude matter
Keith Steiger
>gud...@arizona.edu (David Gudeman) writes:
>> Before you do this, you _have_ to take a look at Omega. It is far and
>> away the best game of the genre (if you ignore bugs). It was
>> distributed on comp.sources.games I believe. The code is not very
>> good, but not bad for the writer's first major C program. (He used
>> strcpy() and strcat() instead of sprintf(), and seems to have an
>> inordintate fondness for switch statements, even when an array could
>> be used much more efficiently and conveniently.)
>
>now (even with some of the bugs that is in it.) I have tried to get
>in touch with the author (Lawrence Brothers) but all my e-mail keeps
>bouncing. Does anyone know what the latest version of Omega is? I have
>0.60.2 (alpha) and I have started going through the code to fix up
>some of the more obvious bugs. But if there is a neewer version.. why
>bother?
Omega is presently at 0.71 as far as I've seen, and even that has some evil
bugs that I (and a few other avid fans) have been posting like mad to
comp.sources.games.bugs to patch up. I do like the game immensely, and I
have become a total winner, but it does have a number of large gaping cheats
that are impossible to patch without huge changes to the code.
However, I'm wondering what the legal/moral/philosophical implications of
taking ideas, either in the abstract form of concepts or the more concrete
form of direct code transplant. How does this interact with the original
author's cpoyright? I don't mean to infer that taking a look at the Omega
code would be bad, I just think that it's an interesting question. And
furthermore, what are the implications of taking ideas from physical games
with more concrete copyrights (AD&D, GURPS, Fantasy Hero, etc.)?
As far as my personal opinions about this genre go, I have the following
opinions (derived from far too much time spent gaming on computers and
elsewhere):
1. Magic should not be so much more or less powerful than a sword that
either is adopted exclusively by anyone.
2. The enemies should be capable of doing anything that the player can.
3. Magic should be a rather concrete, well-defined thing. Many games shroud
the workings of magic in mystery--however, in a world where magic works, I
believe that its capabilities and limitations would be well known.
4. The rather `open-ended' nature of Omega, as compared with its
goal-oriented predecessors, is an interesting point. I'm sure I like the
fact that the "home base" of Rampart is a true, explorable city and not a
two-dimensional place with four buildings. I'm not as sure I like the
plethora of various conflicting goals.
5. Have the game end before the characters gain enough power to flatten
everything in the game. Larn doesn't, and the hellfire spell in Omega is
just plain silly.
6. DON'T make starvation common. I HATE HATE HATE starving. It's the most
pointless death, and there generally isn't anything you can do about it.
7. Include spam. Lots of spam.
8. Have an even distribution of monsters as the levels get higher. In Larn,
as you get higher and higher level, you eventually are facing a handful of
monsters all the time. This gets remarkably tedious...
9. Allow the player to create a .rc file with many interesting options,
including the renaming of monsters.
I'm also working on writing one of these programs. Small world, eh? But
I intend to include a number of features that I haven't seen in the public
domain, including multiple characters.
BTW, this Amiga owner wants all the freely-distributable programs he can get
his GRUBBY LITTLE HANDS ON! Submit them to comp.sources.amiga real soon.
It'd make me a very happy person.
Scott Storkel
all you do in Hack, Moria, etc. is wander around and endless dungeon and kill
things. The cool thing about Ultima was you could wander around an entire
world, visit cities (each of which was different!), sail the seas, talk to
people, and if you got bored go to a few dungeons. Lets just say there was a
whole lot to do in the game. There was also a PLOT. Yes, a number of challenges
besides just killing monsters and grabbing gold! You had to talk to the people
in the game to get clues about how to accomplish your quest. Why isn't there
anything like this around?
Another suggestion is to make the code fairly general so that other people can
easily design new dugeons/scenarios without having to rewrite all of the code
from scratch.
Scott Storkel
Macintosh Software Development
Rice University
Jon W{tte
>However, I'm wondering what the legal/moral/philosophical implications of
>taking ideas, either in the abstract form of concepts or the more concrete
>form of direct code transplant. How does this interact with the original
>author's cpoyright? I don't mean to infer that taking a look at the Omega
>code would be bad, I just think that it's an interesting question. And
>furthermore, what are the implications of taking ideas from physical games
>with more concrete copyrights (AD&D, GURPS, Fantasy Hero, etc.)?
So, here we are. In the USA, the copyright laws are quite complex,
but in the civilized world, the following aplies:
You CAN'T copyright an algorithm, but you CAN copyright any
implementation of it.
You CAN'T copyright a concept (remember Apple's "Look and Feel"
"Copyright" of the Macintosh Toolbox ?) but you
CAN copyright the code generating it.
That is, go ahead and steal ideas, as long as you DON'T copy
code or large bits of interaction.
Oh, by the way, some trivia:
The game TETRIS (Nice game) WAS actually invented by a russian
researcher (also member of World SF) and then shamefully stolen
by some American company (Oh, no, I didn't mean it THAT way.
This is a FLAME posting. I'm not slandering anybody!) and implemented
on various computers. (The four-voice digital synthesis and color on
the Mac looks quite nice...) The Russian researcher got... Nothing!
The United States has NOT signed a global copyright act that most
other countries in the world has signed (Russia included) and so
there was nothing to do. I had this from a fairly reliable source
(Swedish SF author who knows the russian researcher)
--
h...@nada.kth.se <>,, "Hmm. What's this green fish called? I think I will
Jon W{tte (:))))=- call it Lunch. Hi, Lunch!" -- A fish called Wanda
Oh NO! A bug! <>'' -Take it, what time is it? -It's Time For A House.
Dizco me to XtaC! -OH LA LAAA! -- Jack to the sound of the underground
SysOp
.....
>
> However, I'm wondering what the legal/moral/philosophical implications of
> taking ideas, either in the abstract form of concepts or the more concrete
> form of direct code transplant. How does this interact with the original
> author's cpoyright? I don't mean to infer that taking a look at the Omega
> code would be bad, I just think that it's an interesting question. And
> furthermore, what are the implications of taking ideas from physical games
> with more concrete copyrights (AD&D, GURPS, Fantasy Hero, etc.)?
Question: I've been thinking of making a character generator for an RPG and
releasing it as Shareware/Freeware/PD/something. I've gotten the impression
that if you use the D&D rules, you can't distribute a D&D character gen.,
for instance. But, is this so? (The character generators I've already
made, I just use myself, and didn't distribute them.) Is this like the use
of software, where you can make copies for yourself, but not distribute
them? If it were legal to distribute such playing-aids, I would think that
there would be more floating around. Perhaps RPG companies should encourage
such aids, since you'd still need the original rules, and any activity
would encourage more demand for the game.
>
> As far as my personal opinions about this genre go, I have the following
> opinions (derived from far too much time spent gaming on computers and
> elsewhere):
....
> 3. Magic should be a rather concrete, well-defined thing. Many games shroud
> the workings of magic in mystery--however, in a world where magic works, I
> believe that its capabilities and limitations would be well known.
Unless in this "world" in which magic works, the definition of magic is
related to randomness or chaos. Might make for an interesting twist to have
some unpredictability. Else, why have magic at all? Just stick to swords,
bows, etc. Well it's a thought...
....
> 6. DON'T make starvation common. I HATE HATE HATE starving. It's the most
> pointless death, and there generally isn't anything you can do about it.
I hate this too! I'd rather have it say, "Gee, I've decided your game is over"
and be honest about it. ;-)
....
> BTW, this Amiga owner wants all the freely-distributable programs he can get
> his GRUBBY LITTLE HANDS ON! Submit them to comp.sources.amiga real soon.
> It'd make me a very happy person.
Hey! A fellow Amiga owner! :-)
Ok, I have a couple of more thoughts. I like Moria and HACK, but agree that
it gets tiresome to have Endless Dungeon Mazes, with lower levels having
harder-to-kill monsters. I like the system, but after a while it all looks
the same (or at least to me, who can't get below a few levels). I am very
impressed with what Moria and HACK are capable of. (I guess, this is one
motivation for me making the multi-user game that y'all may remember me
rambling about a bit ago.... People are always interesting!)
M.CONNICK
> Oh, by the way, some trivia:
> The game TETRIS (Nice game) WAS actually invented by a russian
> researcher (also member of World SF) and then shamefully stolen
> by some American company (Oh, no, I didn't mean it THAT way.
> This is a FLAME posting. I'm not slandering anybody!) and implemented
> on various computers. (The four-voice digital synthesis and color on
> the Mac looks quite nice...) The Russian researcher got... Nothing!
> The United States has NOT signed a global copyright act that most
> other countries in the world has signed (Russia included) and so
> there was nothing to do. I had this from a fairly reliable source
> (Swedish SF author who knows the russian researcher)
You've got it completely backwards! The Soviet Union and most Eastern
countries have not signed the International Copyright Convention that
most of the world adheres to. Actually I believe that they may have
done so recently, but certainly it's only been within the last year if
they have.
I used to live in Vienna, Austria. I could take a Czech hydrofoil down
the Danube to Bratislava, Czechoslovakia and buy books VERY cheaply
for hard currency. The books were unauthorized editions printed in
East Germany of books originally published in the United States and
the UK. They were sold in government "hard currency" shops and the
authors got zip for these sales.
Also, I believe that the publishers of the commercial versions of
Tetris DO pay roylaties to the author(s) of the game. This I'm not
ABSOLUTELY sure of, but I seem to recall reading an article on the
game when it first came out talking about the authors in the Soviet
Union and how arranging royalty payments for them was something of a
first for a US software publisher.
-----------------------------------------------------
Michael Connick att!mtfmi!mec 201-957-3057
AT&T Bell Labs MT 3F-113 (Dept. 79153)
Robert S. Brewer
^The game TETRIS (Nice game) WAS actually invented by a russian
^researcher (also member of World SF) and then shamefully stolen
^by some American company (Oh, no, I didn't mean it THAT way.
^This is a FLAME posting. I'm not slandering anybody!) and implemented
^on various computers. (The four-voice digital synthesis and color on
^the Mac looks quite nice...) The Russian researcher got... Nothing!
^The United States has NOT signed a global copyright act that most
^other countries in the world has signed (Russia included) and so
^there was nothing to do. I had this from a fairly reliable source
^(Swedish SF author who knows the russian researcher)
I don't know this for sure, but I think the above is bogus. Spectrum Holobyte
is the company that has done the main implementation of Tetris. The Mac
version claims that it was developed in the USSR. They make a big deal about
it being from the USSR, which would be pretty dumb if they had obtained it in
such an illicit manner. Also, I heard from somebody on the net claim that
some of the profits from the game go to some Soviet computer club.
There are however many, many PD clones that have been written for every machine
under the sun. These may be in violation of copyright, or at least morally
unsound.
--
Robert S. Brewer Bitnet: RBR...@REED.BITNET, Usenet: rbr...@reed.UUCP
Student at Reed College GEnie : R.BREWER
"Thank you." - Lt. Commander Worf
13001...@uwovax.uwo.ca
> In article <9...@draken.nada.kth.se> d88...@nada.kth.se (Jon W{tte) writes:
>
>> Oh, by the way, some trivia:
Please do not abuse our Re: New D&D Game!!??!! header with
messages completely irrelevant to the program. This would
save us time--time we could be programming in--now used for
reading trivia. WE ARE NOT MAKING A TRIVIAL PURSUIT CLONE!
Jon W{tte
...
>You've got it completely backwards! The Soviet Union and most Eastern
>countries have not signed the International Copyright Convention that
>Also, I believe that the publishers of the commercial versions of
>Tetris DO pay roylaties to the author(s) of the game. This I'm not
Okay, I might have been wrong, but I know that the U.S. have different
copyright laws than the rest of the universe, and I had the rest of
the facts (including the signed/unsigned copyright treaty) from an
author and translator who knows the russian researcher.
>Michael Connick att!mtfmi!mec 201-957-3057
--
h...@nada.kth.se <>,, "Hmm. What's this green fish called? I think I will
Jon W{tte (:))))=- call it Lunch. Hi, Lunch!" -- A fish called Wanda
Oh NO! A bug! <>'' -Say Kids, what time is it? -It's Time For A House.
James E. Gary
>Question: I've been thinking of making a character generator for an RPG and
>releasing it as Shareware/Freeware/PD/something. I've gotten the impression
>that if you use the D&D rules, you can't distribute a D&D character gen.,
I have written a program for the amiga that assists the game master during
play of AD&D (tm TSR). I too was worried about distribution (public
domain was the plan - not even 'shareware'), so I wrote to TSR to get
their feedback about what kind of credits or disclaimers, etc. they
would like to see. I emphasized that the program was not in competition
with any of their products, was useless unless the user bought some of
their products, and should actually encourage people to play their game.
I also explained that I would make no profit on the program. The result:
no response. I can only assume they found my concerns not worthy of
response. If anyone has any insights into the legality of distribution
of such a program, please send e-mail. I will summarize if I get
authoritative responses and there is popular interest. BTW, is their
a more appropriate place for this sort of exchange? I was never sure
of the exact purpose of this group, is it a) where discussion of games
that involve programming (corewar, crobots, etc.) is carried out, or
2) where programmers of game related software discuss what's on their
minds?
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| James Gary jg...@ms.uky.edu | Stay fit. Eat right. |
| University of Kentucky | Die anyway. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
M.CONNICK
> Okay, I might have been wrong, but I know that the U.S. have different
> copyright laws than the rest of the universe, and I had the rest of
> the facts (including the signed/unsigned copyright treaty) from an
> author and translator who knows the russian researcher.
Spectrum Holobyte, publisher of Tetris, is paying royalties to two Soviet
university students who are the recognized authors of the game. I wonder
just how valid the claim of the "russion researcher" is on being the
author.
Again, it's my understanding of the "facts" that the US is a signer of
the International Copyright Convention, and the Soviet Union (at least
until fairly recently) was not.
Darren New
@>In article <12...@reed.UUCP>, ame...@reed.UUCP (Keith Steiger) writes:
@>> 3. Magic should be a rather concrete, well-defined thing. Many games shroud
@>> the workings of magic in mystery--however, in a world where magic works, I
@>> believe that its capabilities and limitations would be well known.
@>Unless in this "world" in which magic works, the definition of magic is
@>related to randomness or chaos. Might make for an interesting twist to have
Check out a book called "Real Magic" by P.I.E. Bonewits (sp?). This man has
a Master's in Magic from Harvard. He also published a book called
"Authentic Thamaturgy" which gives an excellent set of rules for very
interesting magic in either fantasy or SF settings (or real-world settings).
It gives basic abilities and then lets the magician combine these abilities
into spells. Thus, many people may have similar basic abilities but people
will generally not have the same spells, preventing "Hmmm, first level?
Better take a sleep spell" kind of scenarios (which I always hated).
This may be hard to automate, but then again maybe not.
As an example, I played a character that had Negapsi (reverse meaning
of a spell), Splodging (ability to produce magic "static") and
Clairvoyance, (amongst others) which I could combine into a spell
which would produce a blinding flash of light in the eyes of
any(one|thing) close enuf, even if his/her/its eyes were closed.
I took this to somebody who had Astral projection, which allowed
them to store such energy (and enuf energy to maintain the spell
for a few months) into a small glass globe, giving me "flashbulbs"
I could hurl.
Included are rules on generation of abilities and improvement
with practice. All based on "real" magic of Earth today.
Anyone that wants publisher info may mail me at n...@dewey.udel.edu
and I will reply when I dig out the book. If enuf requests come in,
I can post. -- Darren
Scott CBS Turner
>
>releasing it as Shareware/Freeware/PD/something. I've gotten the impression
>that if you use the D&D rules, you can't distribute a D&D character gen.,
Copyright law and adjudication is complex. But the bottom line is this:
you can't make copies of something unless you own the copyright to it.
Simple as that. If your program involves copying something from the
D&D manuals (such as tables), then you need permission from TSR.
On the other hand, it has been held that copyrights on games apply only
to the game board design and so on and that you cannot actually copyright
the rules. This is why people can make and produce those psuedo-Monopoly
games based on various towns (i.e., Chicago, Pittsburgh, etc.) you see
floating around.
Since your character generator will probably have to copy in some form
the tables in the D&D manuals, in my opinion this would be a violation
of TSR's copyright. Your mileage may vary.
-- Scott Turner
Ronnie Phillips
>We are starting work on a new dungeon exploration program, tentatively
>called Explore!. In concept the game will resemble Moria, Nethack, Rogue
>and others, but it will be (we hope!) better.
>
>We need some suggestions... What do you dislike about Moria, Nethack, Rogue?
I realize you are working on an IBM and with one-player mode, but
since the subject came up, the one thing I would LOVE to see is
a multiplayer D&D like Moria, Nethack or Rogue which would play
something like cosmos does on Unix systems. Where you can visually
see and/or battle other players across the screen. The possibilities
of this type of game would be endless and I would be glad to help
with design or ideas.
Ronnie
A SUN
>>gud...@arizona.edu (David Gudeman) writes:
>>> Before you do this, you _have_ to take a look at Omega. It is far and
>>> away the best game of the genre (if you ignore bugs). It was
>
The newest version of Omega is 0.75
Source and executable are available from brokaw.lcs.mit.edu
18.30.0.33
-----
A Sun
David Gudeman
characters, and don't automatically erase them when they die. A lot
of game designers seem to think that all players are competing
(against the game or against other players) but this isn't always the
case. I just like to go around bashing monsters. When I get killed,
I want to go back to just before I got into trouble, and see if I can
solve the problem that killed me. Starting all over is just too
tedious.
To make competitions more secure, you can always mark backup files to
show that the character was killed, and only put the first score in
the high-score file.
Steven J Owens
Some ideas and input on your new "hack" type game:
1. The best thing about Hack, far and away the favorite, was the rich
detail and variety. Try to keep this. Use lots of monsters, have
"legend" files about various creatures. Maybe take a leaf from
Skyrealms of Jorune and Talisantia and use non-standard monsters (or
maybe simply use monsters and mythology from a different culture -
indian or eastern, perhaps).
2. Magic. I like the ideas suggested by an earlier poster about a
flexible, customizable magic system. Something like this might be hard
to program, depending upon how flexible you make it, but it could add a
lot. At the very least, have variety, maybe try for something new in
magic as I suggest for monsters above.
3. Customizable - If you're worried about the players becoming too rich
or too powerful (or just too too) then allow them to build additional
dungeon sections. Assuming you're making this a "text graphic" game and
neither high resolution graphics nor "zork" type, this would have to be
limited. The best rationale I've heard for this (suggested by my
brother) is to have a troop of Gnomes or Dwarves who will take on the
job for a small fee (WAY beyond an average adventurer's cash level).
I'd make this not so much true customizing as a way for the player
to "add on" levels or mini-dungeons. This is, of course, assuming
it would be possible for other players to play with the same "dungeon"
map as the first player.
4. Speaking of which, multiple players might be nice. Hard to do, but
nice, and not the "one screen" kind either, multiple players at multiple
terminals at multiple points in the dungeon. Wandering around. Bumping
into each other. And monsters.
5. Smart monsters. Not so much intelligent as several (for example)
Dark Elves whho know how to cooperate. Maybe able to lay down alternate
fields of fire, one runs for help/reinforcements while the others lay in
ambush/get ready to pepper them with arrows. Put these guys on the LOW
levels, where the players should already be powerful to have gotten that
far. Otherwise they'll kill off everybody. You'd be suprised how far a
little "intelligence" can go.
6. Randomness. Most game shave monsters moving or attacking in a
"pattern". Avoid this, ormaye break it now and then, and you'll really
throw everybody.
gotta go now, out of time.
Steven J. Owens | Scratch@Pittvms | Scr...@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu
"I must have an attack and a finale. I'm like the old Hollywood gag,
"Start with an earthquake and build to a climax.""
-- Alfred Bester, _My_Affair_With_Science_Fiction_
Steven J Owens
Some more input on this game you're working on. Sorry about the typos
last time, I was dealing with a malfunctioning screen and the system was
thirty seconds from going down for the night when I saved the message.
In my previous post I reccomended smart monsters, and avoiding
patterns. I should clarify the latter. I don't necessarily mean that
monsters with a random pattern of behavior are better. Usually the
"random" behavior is just as predictable as a simple pattern. The
problem is, this predictability is a weakness, tactically speaking.
To solve the problem, I'd suggest using multiple patterns,
complex patterns, and having the monster choose between patterns either
randomly, or (if you're using a lot of patterns) semi-randomly, with
some conditions (location, number of orcs, etc) affecting the choice,
but still a lot of variety among the remaining choices. Probably, this
should only be done for one or two monsters (or sets of monsters, ie
orcs, goblins, drow elves, etc) both because it will be a pain for the
creator, and because it will probably prove a major headache for the
player.
Now, another idea: the setting. From what you've said, you
intend to have the exploring take place underground, in various dungeons
and passageways. I agree with this idea, but I suggest that you make it
a sort of "mini-world" with lots of variety. A sort of combination of
Omega and Hack. Some people have suggested that you should give the
game more structure, the way Omega has, more plots and more things to
do. On the other hand, sometimes I just feel like going into the
dungeons to explore and hack up monsters.
My suggestion is to make the dungeons entirely underground, like
Hack is, but larger than one screen apiece, and interconnected on
various levels. I'd not only have special "levels" as Hack does (an orc
level, a killer bee level, a nymph level, etc) but special "areas" of
the dnungeon to represent the various denizens of the deeps who reside
there. Thus, I'd have a drow city, basically a section with a large
number of drow elves, an orc city, etc. Maybe a Dragon's Lair
somewhere, a section of the dungeons laced with small underground
streams and ponds, and inhabited by mermen and sahaguin. Perhaps a
multi-level spanning cavern populated by flying gargoyles and giant
bats. Troglodyte tribes, etc.
I hope I'm getting my idea across clearly. Sometimes I can't
tell if I'm coherent or not :-) If yuo want to expend the effort,
adding lots of description that can be read by the player (optional for
the player, so he/she wuoldn't have to wade through it) might enhance
the atmosphere.
I'd also make the primary map semi-randomly generated. That is,
you know rougly what's going to be in the dungeon (the stuff I mentioned
above) but not where, nor how they will fit together. You could even
make parts of the subsections randomly generated: A special set of
geomorphs for each city type (orc, drow, sahaguin) and a random amount
of city types and monsters. Usually, though, the amount should be large
enough to be "self supporting" and to result in large clumps of same
type monsters instead of an even distribution of monsters randomly
througout the dungeons.
I realize that there is only so much you can do with text
graphics. I might suggest using more characters to represent the
mosnters and players, much like Wander does. I also liked the
"scrolling screen" that Wander uses. However, I realize that if played
at 1200 baud, this could be excruciatingly painful for some players. I
don't know. Making the game capable of two modes (one Hack-like, one
Wander-like) would be nice for the players, but a pain for the creators.
Well, hope I've helped with my ideas and advice. I know I tend
to think big (and complicated, and time consuming :-) but I think I
managed to keep these messages within at least the faint realm of
possibility. You can take what works, or downscale my suggestions. But
PLEASE, respons, let me know what you think of them, stimulate some more
discussion perhaps?
Steven J. Owens | Scratch@Pittvms | Scr...@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu
{ Discipline Pattern Sense Imagination }
Concept + { Experiment Drama Sense Extrapolation } = Story -> Statement
{ Experience Preparation Hysteria } <-
-- "The empiric equation for my science fiction writing - for all my
writing, in fact..." Alfred Bester, _My_Affair_With_Science_Fiction_
Thomas B Boutell
Further comment: The Russians do have a sense of humor about the copyright
business, apparently. According to Asimov's autobiography (book II), he
once contacted them concerning the many copies of his books they had published
without, of course, paying him. (You're right in saying that they haven't
signed the Berne conventions, unless it's a recent occurence.)
They said, "no problem. Just come get the money... in rubles, of course."
He went. They paid him. He found the whole thing pretty amusing, and had
several enjoyable shopping sprees around Moscow.
--
*ping!* KIDS, DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME! "in bed. EVERYTHING ends with 'in bed.'"
"Look, it's Scooby Doo in bondage!" DISCLAIMER: Datclaimer. Da wun ova there.
"Maybe we all is spiderman. Maybe dat's your pwoblem too." "Want a cookie?"
What happens if I decrement the user count? (scream in the distance.) *ping!*
Steven J Owens
>
>Further comment: The Russians do have a sense of humor about the copyright
Not to flame, but this is gettin' kinda irritating. I was
finding the discussion of the dungeons & dragons type game very
interesting. I understand the tendency to branch into different
subjects, but how much trouble can it be to hop up to the subject line
and chance it to "New Subject (Was Re:D&Detc)" ?
>--
>*ping!* KIDS, DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME! "in bed. EVERYTHING ends with 'in bed.'"
>"Look, it's Scooby Doo in bondage!" DISCLAIMER: Datclaimer. Da wun ova there.
>"Maybe we all is spiderman. Maybe dat's your pwoblem too." "Want a cookie?"
>What happens if I decrement the user count? (scream in the distance.) *ping!*
By the way (and on the regulation "completely unrelated comment") I like
your signature quotes. Bizarre, unusual, entertaining. Makes me sit up
nights wondering what the heck they're referring to :-)
Steven J. Owens | Scratch@Pittvms | Scr...@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu
"I guess it's just your nature. You're a violent man."
"No I'm not. I'm just good at it."
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