Design Document for Demonscape MUD

written by Brian Green.

Ideas by Brian Green, Al Welle, Eric Kastengren and a wide host of others.


Copyright (C) 1997 by Brian Green, Al Welle and Eric Kastengren. All Rights Reserved.


Table of Contents




Purpose of this Document

This document is a record of the development of the Demonscape MUD. This document is intended to have a dual purpose. First, we desire to keep a record of how we arrived at certain design decisions and to have an accurate perspective when changing or modifying some aspect of the MUD. Second, we hope this will serve as a guide to others to help with the process of designing MUDs and increase the thought put into the design of MUDs. Currently, this design document contains on the basic conceptual ideas from the Demonscape development team, but will expand dynamically (via updates to this document) as we develop more of the game. Although this document is currently sparse, it will expand to fully describe the dynamic environment of Demonscape MUD.

Background

Here is my attempt to give some information about the Demonscape Team and MUDs in general. Excessive detailed discussion has been avoided as not to bore those already familiar with the subjects.

History:

Demonscape is the ambitious MUD design project undertaken by Brian Green, Al Welle, and Eric Kastengren. We are the primary creators and initiators of the MUD. Each of us has contributed various aspects ideas to the MUD and have worked hard at creating what we hope will be an interesting and fun MUD. Since we are all very busy, this project progresses very slowly but very surely. As of the current writing of this document on March 6, 1997, we have been designing different aspects of Demonscape for about one to one and a half years. As a note, all "we" references in this document refer to these three people in particular and quite a few others that have contributed suggestions as we have developed Demonscape.

Environment:

Demonscape is MUD, a multi-user text-based game on the Internet. For the benefit of the uninitiated, there will be a bit of explanation about a few aspects of MUDs that are important when considering the design of Demonscape.

There are several different types of multi-user domains available on the Internet. Most are referred to by the term "MUD". The overall definition of a MUD is: a text-based form of virtual reality where one can meet and interact with other people. Demonscape is specifically a game MUD, a type commonly called an "LP-MUD".

Most LP-MUDs are similar to traditional tabletop role-playing games (RPGs for short) where people use a system of mechanics to play a character that interacts with a game environment. Typically MUDs are based loosely on rules from TSR's Dungeons & Dragons, however the specific mechanics can vary from MUD to MUD.

As a note, when the word "MUD" is used in this document, it refers to traditional LP-MUDs and other related games (such as Diku, Circle, etc.) and do not include other games and virtual environments such as MOOs, MUSEs, MUSHes, etc. which are often referred to as "MUDs" in a general sense. These other games have their own interesting dynamics which we have not studied as closely. We are more interested in designing a new LP-MUD than the ultimate "generic MUD". The generalizations about "MUDs" contained in this document refer specifically to LP-MUDs and other on-line games of the type explained above. And as always, remember what generalizations really are. There are obviously counterexamples to many of the generalizations in this document; however, they are often not as wide-spread as they should be or, in our honest opinion, not implemented to the degree they should be.

Most MUDs are fantasy-based where players are in a world similar to the historical Middle Ages, except that wizardry and divine intervention are powerful forces in the world. Players can pick characters that take up weapons and skills to bravely defend themselves from attacks from evil monsters. The goal of some LP-MUDs is to advance "levels" (a general measurement of advancement) until the players reach maximum level and can become part of the organization that adds to the world the players interact with.

One of the most important aspects of MUDs in the opinions of the designers is the dynamic environment that it allows. MUDs can always change and add more to the existing world. That is why they are more interesting than traditional, static computer games. This dynamic environment allows multiple users to come on and interact with others in a game that is like a paper role-playing game in respect to interaction, but also like a computer game for it's ordered rules and use of computation to run the game mechanics.

One of the most important things to remember about MUDs is that people (usually) are not playing all the time. Everyone must sleep and do other important activities in real life. Therefore, there must be "down time" for the character when the player logs out of the game. It is important to remember that international players and other players with different schedules play at different times of the day. Although the dynamic environment changes with or without them, most players also do not want their characters affected unless they have at least some slight control over it. Therefore, it is important that the character's "down time" isn't counter-productive to the goals of the player, such as having the character be vulnerable to attacks (and able to be killed) when the player is not logged in.

LP-MUDs have changed in the last few years. More MUDs are becoming more complex and breaking away from the traditional standards thus becoming diverse. New ideas are becoming more commonplace and people are taking more interest in the design of the games. Although many current MUDs have dealt with the issues of computer decision of mechanics, few have successfully tackled issues of human interaction, specifically the area of "role-playing" or the taking up of a specific role of a citizen in the world and playing it out which is commonly present in traditional RPGs. Many people have tackled this issue and have tried to implement a stronger sense of role-playing into the game.

Another problem with many current MUDs is the inability to break the assumptions and paradigms that are common in the community. Many MUD administrators (the ones that start and often design the MUD) do not use any new ideas to enhance their world; instead, they take old ideas and give them "new coats of paint" to make them look more interesting on the surface. This leads to many MUDs sharing similar characteristics, none being particularly interesting or original. Often administrators do little if anything to change the starting appearance of a MUD, thus creating what is known as a "stock MUD". These MUDs often appeal to people for reasons of familiarity. Of course, different stock MUDs are subtly different due to the different players to interact with; however, for a player who likes a rich world to interact with, these MUDs are sadly lacking. This is not to say that some MUDs do not have interesting ideas that break common perceptions but that few dare develop new ideas outside the paradigm in order to stay "popular".

One of the driving forces behind Demonscape is to keep the positive aspects of MUDs (the dynamic environment, the use of a computer to run the mechanics, the player interaction) while introducing new ideas to break old, outdated perceptions and ways of doing things. Our goal was to create an original game using our game world to be enjoyed by other players. We hope that our MUD will give players the opportunity to play in a unique and exciting environment.

Demonscape Mission Statement

Demonscape was started with the purpose of expressing our vision of a dynamic fantasy world in a concrete game in which other players may participate. We want to create a MUD for the satisfaction of creating a fun game and to introduce new and unique ideas to the MUD community.

Basic Game Design

We set about designing various aspects of the game, deciding the most important and far-reaching aspects first, then working on more specific areas as necessary. Below are the overriding design decisions that we made relating to specific goals we had for the MUD. They are generally prioritized with the first ones being more important than the following goals, helping us to make a decision when an element conflicts with two or more of the following goals.

Fun:

Our first and foremost goal was to make a fun game. If the game is not fun then people will take no interest in it and we will not be happy with it. Everything we have done is to ensure that the people interested in our MUD will have fun playing the game and interacting with the environment. This is our primary goal.

But some ask, what is fun? Different people have different definitions of fun. To put it in general terms, a game is fun if it provides entertainment and challenge to the player. A good environment and good role-playing will entertain the player the same way a good book or movie entertains a viewer. The game mechanics will challenge the player allowing him or her to develop a character within the game and have a feeling of accomplishment. Of course, these two elements must work together to keep the player interested in the game. MUDs thrive on players who regularly play the game and know the system well. This will provide the "fun" that we desire.

Role-Playing:

We also decided that the game should encourage the role-playing of a character. Therefore, all choices we make will hopefully increase the interaction between players and increase the importance of playing a role within the game instead of playing a character with various combat abilities. Although this seems to be a common goal to many MUD designers and administrators, we have tried hard to make this an important aspect of our game.

Theme:

An important priority before even picking a name for the MUD was to choose a suitable theme to agree with our intentions of promoting fun and role-playing. Our interests have always been in the realm of Swords and Sorcery, also known as High Fantasy. We are all fans of Tolkien, have played on several fantasy-based MUDs and like a good game of AD&D (or another fantasy-based RPG) every once in a while. So, we decided we had the most knowledge and expertise in this area and decided to use it as a basic theme.

Next, we chose some other aspects to include, such as gothic horror. The heroic stories, the pure good vs. the terrible evil in High Fantasy with the dark, brooding personal horror of a gothic setting makes a great story line and setting. If the basically "good" players worked against a basically "evil" environment, this would lead to some good role-playing and give the MUD the necessary feel. Choosing a theme and including these other aspects helped to define much of the specific descriptions we wanted to include in the MUD.

Originality:

We decided we wanted to be original, but not at the sake of being completely unfamiliar to players. We decided a good way to include both originality and familiarity would be to present familiar concepts in new ways and with new names. For example, our races follow along the lines of those found in traditional fantasy yet are a bit different and have original names. We approached designing the "planet" the game is set on in the same manner, using natural elements such as mountain ranges and rivers, but giving them unique names. More detailed examples can be found in the World Description found below.

Dynamic Environment:

As is expected, we wanted to take advantage of all the resources we had. MUDs are dynamic by nature and much more interesting than static computer games because of the human-interaction and social possibilities on the MUD. We wanted to have the game change through time, and allow players to make meaningful changes to the world as they interact with it. Therefore, we made plans for players to design and construct cities (at great cost) to expand into known territories. We also wanted a dynamic system of leadership to allow players to run the governments and other major organizations within the world. Although all actions are not possible in a MUD world, we wanted to allow for various possibilities and not hinder player creativity.

Basic World Design

Next we set about designing the world the characters will exist in, Kaerth. It is very important that we provide a logical, consistent world for the players to interact with in order to provide good role-playing opportunities. One should note that this is a dynamic process. Although we may not make major changes, specific changes will always occur within the world. Also, in order to maintain a sense of originality we are allowing different people to design different aspects. In many cases, a single person designing multiple creative aspects of a game tends to design things that become repetitive and uninteresting.

The focus of world design is "How will the player understand and use this in the game?" A real and detailed world is important if we are to provide a suitable background for players to interact in. Every aspect of the world design must keep players in mind since it will affect them in every way possible.

Origin:

We first wrote a basic story of creation for the world. This is important, because it helps create the proper mood and enforce our chosen theme in the world.

The basic story is as follows: The original inhabitant in the universe was Time. Time had an image of the World, and set about creating it. Using available resources, he allowed other Powers to come and help to create a perfect world. However, one of the Powers was corrupted by Darkness. It sought to create the world in another form, one more suitable to this Dark Power. Time saw this and bound the Dark Power into the creation, thus introducing flaws into the perfect world. Time then went about ensuring that the Mortals of the world would be able to fight against the Dark Power (now called Demons) that inhabited the world. Thus, the Good Races were empowered with the ability to fight the Demons.

This story reinforces our basic Theme decisions (Good vs. Evil, Mortals vs. Demons). It also gives a better sense for the background we want to provide for the players. Using this story, we can then logically decide what aspects of the world we should add.

Races:

Next, we focused upon the good races that will be played by the players. These are the forces of good that exist on the world of Demonscape. They will fight against the Demons who will try to corrupt or destroy them.

In designing these races, we took familiar concepts from traditional fantasy races and made them more unique. We also used original names in order to avoid player stereotyping based upon names. For example, players assume from experience from other games that a "Dwarf" is a good fighting race that makes excellent Warriors and Priests, but poor Thieves and Mages. However, we want to eliminate this stereotyping and allow any race to be whatever they want to in terms of profession. It is true that some races will have a natural affinity for certain skills, but this can help a player's character to succeed at skills they may learn that fall outside their primary profession.

Racial Descriptions

Kaerthan are often called "Humans" in other worlds. Kaerthan are one of the most numerous of the good races and have been the organizers in the fight against the encroaching Evil. They are probably the most civilized, having a great ability to organize efficiently. Kaerthan can excel at any ability they choose to learn, often versatile enough to learn more skills than expected. Although they are all about moderate size, the Kaerthan seem to have no limit on their variation of appearance.

Lelra are called "Elves" on other worlds. They are the spirits of the trees that have taken physical form in order to fight the Evil that is corrupting the forests. They are magical beings, being the stuff of starlight and forests. Adept at the magical arts, the Lelra make some of the greatest magic-users the good races have ever known. They are extremely aware of what is happening to the world and the corruption of the forests. A typical Lelra is a moderate sized biped with greenish plant-like hair and rough bark-like skin.

Korodan are known as "Dwarves" to inhabitants of other worlds. They are rather small compared to the other good races, but no less able to fight against the Demons. In fact, they are some of the mightiest warriors that the good races have ever seen, rivaling even the Mauletta. They are believed by other races to be the spirits of the mountains and rocks in living form. Although the Korodan have no history of this transformation from rock to living being, the belief is reinforced by their gray-tinted skin with crystalline highlights and amazing resistance to damage that increases with age.

Mauletta are large feline bipeds. Preferring to use their natural weaponry, claws and fangs, they are some of the fiercest hunters and most accurate warriors for the good races. They seem to be the most tribal of all the good races, relying on a large community for the growth of the young instead of building a large, organized, permanent settlement like the other races. Mauletta tower over most of the other good races with their huge, muscular frame. They are not to be trifled with easily.

Schalar are often mistaken for the "Centaurs" of other worlds at first glance. Although they share the features of both equines and humanoids, they are quite different than the other horse-men. Their four powerful, muscular legs support their large body and allow much more stability and maneuverability at the expense of speed. A Schalar's agility is nothing short of amazing, making them very graceful creatures to watch in action. They will never take a rider on their back, however, since it is a taboo in their culture that shows the Schalar has lost his or her freedom. Additionally, carrying too much weight (such as a rider) on their back can damage their backbone which is very near to the skin.

Racial Abilities

The races are rated in general terms in their efficiency in five major areas. These areas are fighting ability, physical ability, mental ability, magical ability and faith ability. Fighting ability describes the general ability of the race to use weapons and armor, although a lack of this ability does not indicate a complete inability. Physical ability describes the race's general ability to perform physical tasks, including stealth, crafts, etc. Mental ability shows the relative intelligence of the race as a whole, affecting social and knowledge skills. Magical and faith ability show the race's affinity with each of these powers. These areas are rated on a scale of ++, +, 0, -. A ++ indicates a generally exceptional ability of the race excels at and a - indicates a skill the race will have to put more dedication into in order to achieve the highest levels.

FightingPhysicalMental MagicalFaith
Kaerthan00+0+
Korodan++-0-+
Lelra-0+++0
Mauletta+++-0-
Schalar0+0+0

So, according to this chart, a Korodan would have little problems learning various fighting skills, but would have to dedicate much time and effort into learning physical or magical abilities. Faith abilities would come naturally while purely mental abilities would be average for the Korodan.

Professions:

Another important aspect that determines what a player is like are the professions. Often referred to as "classes" on other MUDs, they determine what skills a player may learn and what path they will follow. Each profession has its own hierarchy of leaders that help guide and organize the characters.

Why limit characters in their choices of character with an artificial concept of a "profession"? We feel this is the best way to make characters unique and to easily balance the skills. If all skills were available to all characters, players would generally learn the "best" skills available. This would decrease the amount of variety in characters and lead to every character being exactly the same. In addition, professions will give each character a focus for character development as well as allow him or her to participate in a specialized organization in order to meet others interested in similar character development and to share wisdom with younger and older members of the character's profession.

We decided to use the traditional "basic" four classes, but to give them a new twist. The primary profession for a player will determine what skills he or she may learn as offered by their organization. Players may also learn skills from other professions to customize their character. More on this can be found in the Gameplay discussion below under the heading Customization.

One way we broke with the traditional was to rename and redefine the "Thieves". On other MUDs, the Thieves are usually played by people who want to choose an "evil" role in the game. They often take things from other players in order to advance their own standing and material possessions. Since all characters are to represent the "good" side of the war, we want to eliminate this aspect.

Therefore, the Thieves were renamed "Hunters", referring to the name given to Bounty Hunters, Treasure Hunters, Woodland Hunters, etc. Although they still have a focus on stealth and critical attacks, they use these for the advancement of the good races. Although stealing from players will be available (we will code the option), there will be various coded and role-playing restrictions on this activity.

Descriptions of Professions

Warriors are the followers of the path of war. They are the type that learn how to use heavy weapons and armor in order to better fight the evil using steel and strength. Some Warriors do focus on the unarmed martial arts, learning how to strike an opponent without the extra encumbrance of weapons and armor. Skills typical to a Warrior are weapon and armor forging, combat movement and dodging, knowledge of critical strikes, animal riding, survival skills, and the exceptional ability to ignore damage. Warriors will have a pool of points to assign to different combat aspects in order to excel at battle. This will simulate different fighting stances (full offensive, defensive, etc.) and make the Warriors the best in hand-to-hand combat.

Hunters are the stealthy forces for good. They are the bounty hunters, the treasure hunters, the woodland hunters that stalk their prey and bring it back for the good of everyone. They focus on hiding and sneaking, making them invaluable scouts for the good races. They can also take things unnoticed from others so that they may take from the evil races to aid the good races. Skills of a typical Hunter would include stealth, critical strikes, weapon abilities, social abilities, knowledge of the area and history, and a heightened awareness of their surroundings. Hunters will have extensive resources to find out new information and to gain goods at a considerable discount.

Priests are the powers of good embodied in flesh. They draw upon the good of the community to use defensive and protective powers. Although they can use offensive powers in the name of good, they are far better at protecting others. They can create various healing and utility items to help others. Skills of a typical Priest would include skills that enhance their ability to use beneficial powers. Priests will have a pool of divine power to draw upon to add additional effect to their powers. This will make them the masters of defensive abilities.

Mages are the practitioners of the arts of Magic. They are the masters of attack spells that harm foes. They are also the users of mystic powers to make the much sought-after magical items that help others in battles against the evil. Mages are masters of all things magical, but lack the strong defensive ability of the priests. Mages have skills that will increase their ability to cast spells and to create magical items. Mages will have a reserve of mystic energy to give their spells additional power. They will therefore be the masters of the arcane arts.

Organization of Professions

Players will be under the leadership of others that are more senior to them. Apprentice Mages will have to learn from the Archmages and other masters. These systems must be developed in order to provide a structure for the player to participate in. However, our designs have not reached depth of detail, and specific organizations are still being developed. Some aspects of this topic will be determined by gameplay decisions that are not yet made.

Topology:

The physical world must also be designed in order to give the players a world to interact in. We wish to have a world with various natural features for the characters to live and travel in. However, our design has not reached this level of detail, and the specific topology of the world is still being discussed.

Basic Gameplay Design

After designing the world that the players will interact with, we then decided to determine how the specific mechanics of the game will work. This is obviously an important aspect of the game and it is critical that we design this without major flaws so that our work in designing a dynamic world will not be misinterpreted or totally wasted.

Abstractions:

One of the most debated topics in MUDs today is the question of "realism". Some advocate that the best way to create a game world that will have the necessary logic and consistency to appeal to players is to eliminate abstractions from the game and model "real world" occurrences in the game. Some have coded simulations of real world occurrences into their MUDs using the known laws of physics, economics, and other sciences.

However, we advocate that abstractions are a necessary part of the game due to player expectations. If one perfectly models the mechanical nature of the game using real world physics, then the player expects that it will work according to what they know. If there is an error, this harms the suspension of disbelief necessary to play a role within the game. In addition, if there is an unfitting abstraction in another area (for example, if the languages are not very developed), the person who has high expectations due to another highly developed area will be rather disappointed.

In our opinion, the best way to handle this is to provide consistent, logical abstractions of the occurrences. If someone floods the market with weapons they find by killing monsters, the shopkeeper is not going to want to buy them all if he cannot sell them. One does not have to read through economic texts in order to find an equation to adjust the price when the supply of one item is too high. One can simulate this by offering/having the shopkeeper offer a slightly lower price for an item if he already has some of the item in stock. The shopkeeper will probably offer more to buy the first longsword he is offered, while he will most likely offer much less for the tenth if the product is not selling. Likewise, he might ask for a higher price of a buyer if he has only one sword as opposed to having 10 he needs to get rid of. Although these rules aren't precisely modeled on exact economic equations, it is something the player can understand and come to expect.

Another reason to use universal abstractions instead of specific real world models is that most MUD developers who do this for a hobby (such as ourselves) rarely have the resources to consult with physicists, economists, sociologists, and a whole range of scientists to make sure their world is consistent with the real world. Rarely will all the disciplines necessary be represented by the developers of a world, either. Therefore, some aspects of the game will have to be abstracted.

Exploration:

We want the world to be interesting to explore, but easy to navigate. Too often MUDs seem to be massive jungles of spaghetti-like paths that lead to some distant area to kill a monster. We want to avoid people getting lost in pointless, winding wilderness paths but still have the fun of exploring the world.

To do this, we have designed a system that has two scopes: a local and a global scope for the game. The local scope is what you normally see on a MUD. When you go "north" from the doorway of one shop and arrive next to the doorway of another shop, you are moving in the local scope. This scope will allow people to move rather fast without much resistance. This will be the scope used for towns, areas, specific locations, etc.

When one exits a the local scope (exits a town, for example) one enters the global scope. This is the scope for moving long distances, from one city to the next. This is to simulate a sense of real distance and direction. So, one might describe the Kobold caverns as "a bit east of Proto, the main city" instead of "12 east, 5 north, up, 10 east, 3 north, 5 east, 2 south from the center of Proto" just like someone would describe Denver, CO as "quite a distance west and up the mountains from Des Moines, IA" instead of "354 west..." etc.

It is our goal that people will be able to find areas faster (or, at least, spend much less tedious time finding them) and spend more time exploring the areas that are coded. Tougher monsters with the "best equipment" should not be found quickly in order to make the better equipment rarer. Extensive areas with good descriptions that avoid excessive, pointless detail will be the standard on Demonscape. With high standards for area coding, we hope that the areas will become the interesting aspect of the MUD. Hopefully, people will spend more time in the creative areas and less time blundering around a confusing town or countryside with repetitive, meaningless and boring descriptions.

Skills:

We are designing a skill system to represent the knowledge a player has about the skills within their profession. With greater levels of skill the character is able to do more impressive things with that skill.

Players will be limited as to the total amount of skills they will be able to learn. The system we are favoring currently would give a player of a certain level a limited number of skill "slots". These slots can be used to learn a new skill, or to continue advanced training on an already known skill (mastery). These slots are spent only on specific skills at the lowest end of the tier (see the follow explanation).

The skill system is planned to be tiered in which a broad skill has several skills related to it which in turn have several specific skills related to them. For example, a Mage is primarily interested in the broad skill of Magic. Under magic, they might want to learn how to control Elemental effects. Perhaps they wish to learn how to cast fire spells under Elemental effects. A mage's actual skill at casting Fire spells would be his or her Fire skill with modifiers determined by Magic and Elemental skills, profession and race.

A character will be able to train every skill level. However, since an increase in broader skills will result in a greater overall increase to ability, they will be harder and more expensive to train. Every level of a skill will have a limit to how high it can reach normally. So, a Mage cannot become proficient at every Magic sub-skill by merely training Magic. The character must still spend skill slots on acquiring specific skills.

This system will allow people to train general categories to a high level of competency while allowing them to specialize in specific areas. A Warrior might learn the broad skill of Combat to high levels in order to be reasonably able to handle any combat situation, but might focus on learning the specific skill of Grappling under Unarmed in order to become a renown wrestler.

Customization:

We want the player to have an active role in the world, and we want each character to be unique. Too many times on other MUDs, one Dwarven Fighter is very similar to another. The only meaningful difference between the two characters is the name or relative level of power. Or worse, on some MUDs there is a "correct" way to build the best character, and those that do not follow this way are doomed in the end to have a weaker character than the others. In addition, the input and creativity of players is largely ignored on traditional MUDs. The additions of players are usually small and insignificant in the overall gameplay of the MUD.

We have tried to correct these problems, as we see them. Players should be unique and should have an impact on the MUD. We have developed some ways that we feel correct these problems.

Customizing Characters

First, we have made all character and profession combinations possible and attractive. A particular race may not be as adept in a primary profession as another, but their unique abilities will help them to compensate for a lower natural ability. For example, a Korodan may not have the bonuses to magical skill that the Lelra do, but their resistance to damage is something that make the physically weak Lelra very jealous. Although the Lelra Mage may be able to cast bigger spells faster, they are at the mercy of their attacker if they should be damaged. A Korodan is less likely to be damaged and incapacitated, allowing them to cast their relatively weaker spells for a longer time.

In addition, the Korodan may have an affinity for weapons. So, they will be more adept at using the weapons available to a Mage, or may be able to learn the use of heavier weapons than the Lelra is able to. This will compensate (and perhaps in some people's opinions even surpass) the magical bonuses the Lelra receive.

So, what will make the Korodan Mage different from the Korodan Warrior if both have the same affinity and may learn similar skills? The Korodan Mage will have bonuses to spell casting while the Korodan Warrior will have bonuses to combat as described in the Professions section above. Also, each profession will have certain unique skills that are only available to the most disciplined. These skills will never be available to those outside the profession, making those that have the skill important to others. These aspects will make these two characters unique and varied.

Another way we seek to customize the characters is to allow them to learn skills outside their professions, within certain limits. All of the basic professional organizations will offer training in lower-level skills for payment up to a certain adjustable maximum. The adjustments will be made by the leaders of each organization and will depend on how the other organizations interact with them. For example, the Warriors may offer the Mages more training on the wielding of heavy swords if the Mages teach the Warriors how to cast simple fire spells. Thus, characters may learn skills outside their primary profession.

However, there is a limit on what one may learn from another profession. Higher-level powers that require more discipline in the profession (such as high-level spells for Mages, greater divine power for Priests, advanced weapons and weapon-styles for Warriors, etc.) will only be available to the members of that profession. This will allow each profession to keep some skills to make them unique and needed by others.

Another way to learn additional skills is to find a character that is master of the skill you want to learn that will teach you. If a Warrior desires to expand his magical knowledge, he or she may find a higher-level Mage to teach the inner mysteries of magic. This will require time and effort to learn higher levels of a skill, but it will be worth it for anyone who desires additional, special abilities for their character to be unique.

In addition, a system of random abilities will be assigned to a character without the player's knowledge. So, a player might find out that the character is "magically talented" or perhaps "magically inept", able to learn increased amounts of magic or little magic at all. Perhaps the player finds that the character can read minds, or can master an unknown power called "psionics". Some of these abilities will materialize at higher levels, avoiding the practice of generating a character until it has the best benefits and fewest penalties.

One goal of this whole complex system is for people to truly customize their characters without having to have everything coded for them. If someone wishes to be a holy Paladin, a warrior who has dedicated his or her life to the divine forces, then it is possible under our system. That person can become a Warrior, then learn as many Priest spells as possible to show their dedication to the divine arts. What if someone thinks that it would be better to be a priest with some weapons skills instead? Then, they can do that. No one is limited by the vision of a "guild coder", they are only limited by their ability to find a suitable teacher.

Customizing Player Contribution

It will be very important for players to contribute to the dynamic world we are building. This will give them the sense that they are able to contribute to the world and have a significant impact. Therefore, there will be some mechanics in place to allow players to contribute to the development of Demonscape.

One such mechanic will be player-developed cities. New players will start in the various racial cities and will be cared for by others of their own race. They will be able to learn from the professional organizations established in each city and will grow through training. However, what happens when they grow as much as possible in their city, and desire to learn more? Then, these experienced players will go out and build cities on land claimed from the evil Demons. They will have to run the city, taking care to maintain it against the advancing evil and protecting the citizens from harm.

A person might even use a city to focus a group of people on a certain goal. For example, a Warrior might create a city using funds from his or her adventures. That Warrior might then call upon Priests to teach and other Warriors to learn the divine arts. Likewise, this Warrior might have higher-level Warriors (such as him or herself) teach these priests some of the martial skills necessary to fight for purity and good. The leader of this city has therefore created a monastery for Paladins who roam the lands and eliminate the evil. This will allow more customization of professions and allow players to make decisions about how a profession should be created.

Interaction:

The basis of good role-playing is interaction. Therefore, we have designed various methods for characters to interact with other characters within the environment.

Interaction Through Player Killing

One important area is the realm of player killing (called PK for short). PK is a very important topic because it has some vital and far-reaching consequences. Often it is an abused aspect of other MUDs, where people use killing to harass other players for their personal pleasure. Included in this topic is the subject of Player Stealing, or the taking of objects by characters from other characters. We discussed this topic and how it would influence the game in great depth.

Since we wanted the players to be the force of good in the world, we obviously did not want the players to be fighting against themselves while ignoring the "true" threat of the Demons. However, we wanted there to be a way to punish and eliminate the "rogues" that do not fully understand the cooperation that should exist between the good races. Also, in the course of the game, perhaps a champion of good will start to be corrupted by unknown powers. It is up to the others to make this character see the error of his or her ways. If they cannot be reasoned with, obviously the source of evil should be eliminated.

Therefore, we decided to allow PK. It will be (generally) unrestricted due to the wild nature of the world. However, the generally neutral administrators will keep a careful eye on the activities of known player killers to make sure they themselves do not fall under the control of evil while advocating the name of "justice".

One problem that most MUDs experience that player vs. player attacks tend to be tremendously damaging. Monsters are given a large amount of hit points due to their relative inability to defend themselves intelligently. Therefore, damages from weapons and skills must be enough to do significant damage to monsters. However, this amount is sometimes enough to seriously cripple if not kill a player character outright. This is obviously not desired.

Our idea is to have weapons and other sources of damage do a percent of total damage to players. Therefore, a sword will take as many hits to kill an experienced character as a weaker one. A magic user will have to cast the same number of spells to kill a battle veteran as to kill a new trainee. This is to give all players a fighting chance against those who might chose to take their lives. A high-level player will be less likely to slay newbies for fun if he or she realizes the newbie could do a considerable amount of damage. Of course, this system will still favor the higher-level player with more ability and skills, but it will not immediately eliminate the lower-level people from a combat.

Interaction with the Administration

As this author has written in a comment in the January 1997 issue of the Journal of MUD Research, the interactions between player and administrator are important so that the administration of a MUD do not lose touch. It is important for the administrators to have a practical and real experience with the game that they design. This means they must interact with players frequently on the level of the player in order to remain "in touch" with the game.

In addition, it is important to control the "killer" aspects of the player base. (The definition of "killers" is explained in the article "Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who Suit MUDs" by Richard Bartle from the June 1996 issue of the Journal of MUD Research) Since every other group is related to the amount of killers in the MUD, we decided it would be a good idea to actively control the number of killers. We have done this by eliminating the need for players that are "killers" and have replaced them with the higher-level administrators that will act as the human-controlled antagonists, the "Demons". This will not only provide a way to limit the amount of "killers" in the game, but will provide the "Human as a DM/referee" that people seem to want in a game.

Therefore, the Demons as played by the administrators will be the "killers" that the players will have to work against. Although administrators will generally be neutral and will work to keep the game in balance, they can take up the role of an evil Demon to interact with the players. This will allow administrators to control the "killer" population while allowing much needed administrator-player interaction. It is important to have opponents with human cunning in order to entertain those players that seek more than mindless slaying of "stupid" computer monsters. The role of the Demons will be to be the traditional tempters of evil; they will seek to destroy the good races by tempting their heroes and corrupting their souls. This will be part of a regulated system where Demons offer power to the players in exchange for certain services. The Demons must expend personal power to empower the player with an ability or an object, but will get power when the player completes a task. A general strategy is to gain the trust of the character by offering moderate power for low cost. The character will then begin to depend on the power in exchange for services done to the Demon. Eventually, their soul will be corrupted, leading to various disadvantages (healing spells being less effective, players shunning or wanting to kill them, holy relics rejecting their touch, etc.).

There are two important aspects of this interaction that will add some excitement to it. Obviously a player won't want to work with a Demon if "bad things" will happen. So, we will not allow the player to directly know to what level his or her soul has been corrupted. There will be no "corruption" statistic that the player can keep track of. This information will only be available by the player noticing various "disadvantages" that start to appear with the character. A second aspect will be the hiding of the Demons true motives. Was that Elven Bard who gave me a magical sword for the spell components I stole a nice NPC or...? This will keep players "playing the game" of corruption with Demons.

As explained before, there must be strict controls over this interaction. A Demon should not be able to "cut good deals" with people they like and should not be able to violate the rules of interaction by simply killing the player. Another reason to control this is because it will create players as killers that work against other players. These roles should be limited to those that can truly role-play, not just use the power to harass others. These would be detrimental to role-playing instead of adding to it.

Standardization:

We have always been advocates of standardization on MUDs. It seems silly to have a weapon from one part of a MUD to be vastly different in terms of power from another similar weapon from another part. Why should a normal longsword from a monster be twice as good as a similar longsword of the same material from a town guard? One would expect that the town guard would probably have weapons of better quality.

In addition, it is hard to simulate the knowledge of quality in a text-based MUD environment. In general, players rarely know what weapon is better than another unless they learn the information from other players or from their friends that are coders on the MUD. This seems to ruin some of the believability of the game when players can't figure out which weapon is superior to another.

So, we have established a system of standardization. We have made it so all weapons of a type will be roughly equivalent in terms of ability and power. This standardization extends to all of the objects that a player will interact with on the MUD, including armor, spells, skills, etc. No one single skill will have a significant advantage over others. The differences will be in execution of the skill. For example, one skill might do more damage, but would require a special object or cost more "energy" to use. Differences for items will be accounted for by a standardized system of quality and magical enhancements. Therefore, differences between the two long swords described above will include sharpness or dullness (quality of the blade) and magical enchantments placed upon the weapon.

Programming Requirements

There are several technical aspects we still need to complete in order to make Demonscape a fully functional game world. We must code the mechanics in order to allow characters to interact with the world without constant human intervention. Listed in this section are some of the necessary programming requirements we need to fulfill before opening Demonscape up to the full public.

Driver and Library:

We are still in the process of making a firm decision on which MUD driver and Library to use. A driver and library are the software that the MUD needs to run. The driver handles basic machine-level duties while a library (also called a "lib") defines the more specific details of the game visible to a player while interacting with the computer through the driver. Our current choice for driver is DGD, which provides a nice, clean driver without a lot of backwards compatible baggage to weigh the game down. We are also using the Melville library currently for development. We are waiting for the release of a DGD-compatible library called Bogolib from Robert Jones (robertjo@scf-fs.usc.edu). Robert is a skilled programmer that has a very keen interest in the aspects of MUD library development. By considering our input, he is coding a library that will be in all respects more functional than the Melville library.

Inheritables:

LP-MUDs have an very good way of allowing different versions of a similar item to exist. For example, a bronze sword from a monster will have some of the same functionality as a steel sword created by a player. Although these swords may have different in-game aspects (such as relative damage power), they will both have similar function from a programming point-of-view (wieldable in the hand, used during combat, stores values relating to the condition of the sword, stores values relating to the power of the sword, etc.)

This is accomplished by inheriting objects, an extremely object-orientated concept. All objects inheriting the primary object will have the same functions, but will be an independent object. So, a bronze sword from a monster is merely an object that inherited a general weapon object, then had certain variables set to describe it as such.

One primary goal is to write all these inheritables. The inheritables will be what people use to construct the areas and items that will be part of the world. This will also determine how objects such as players will interact with the environment and will allow us to set the standards.

Currently, we are working to "prototype" the functions within these inheritables. Since we are looking at other possible drivers and libraries, the specific implementation of these functions will change. However, the names can be determined so that coders can begin to construct areas even if they cannot load the objects into the game with any functionality.

Areas:

We are also in need of areas for players to explore and conquer. This is a highly creative endeavor. One problem is that while this is quite a bit of work the coder can expect little except recognition for their work after coding an area. We are not a commercial MUD and are unable to gather resources to pay people for their creative time and effort. Luckily, there are others that think our vision is exciting enough to contribute code to.

Areas will have to fit under our strict Fantasy theme. Areas will also have to achieve a certain level of quality in order to contribute to the believability of the world instead of taking away from it. Although this may reduce the number of areas and area coders we have, it will keep the game interesting and fun for the players.

Current Status of Demonscape and Mileposts

We are currently finishing up the core design of different aspects of the world. Next we will divide these aspects between different creative people to add detail and other specifics. For example, we have one person not from the core group of developers expanding upon the Lelra and Schalar races, allowing her to develop different aspects of the race such as specific restrictions on appearance, the general hierarchy and organization of the races, etc.

We are also working on balance of different game factors. We are currently planning out specific skills that each profession will have and how each profession balances out due to these considerations. Balance is important so that players can have fun no matter what character they choose. A lack of balance forces people to pick a limited number of races or professions in order to compete against others for resources.

After the design team has developed the world, then it is time to translate the design into mechanics that can be coded into the game. Using the design and considering balance, we will code the specific implementation so that the computer can handle the mechanics. This will automate the game and allow the administration to handle player to player interaction issues. Of course, the mechanics will have to be updated and fixed should they become outdated or otherwise broken.

Another major project is setting down restrictions and regulations for area coders. Prototyping of the functions found in the inheritables will allow coders to begin coding areas even if they cannot be currently used in the game. The regulations will guide the coders and help them make good areas. We want areas to be interesting, not mere killing fields for the slaughtering of NPC monsters. By setting down good regulations, we will ensure that more areas are of the quality we wish to see.

As always, a current project will be to update the on-line version of this design document. It will catalogue our progress as we turn our ideas about MUD development and playing into the reality we call "Demonscape".

Mileposts:

Note that these milestones will not necessarily be completed in this order. Generally, later milestones do depend on various aspects included in previous milestones in order to have a foundation to work with. Many milestones will be worked on simultaneously, depending on availability of labor and necessities of cooperation.

Milestone 1 will be the completion of basic conceptual design. These concepts will include general descriptions of theme, history, basic game elements and the player view of the game. This milestone assumes that we find necessary resources to facilitate development and depends on the creative talents as well as the available time of the core Demonscape development team. Milestone 1 will be completed once the initial draft of the dynamic design document is completed. Completed on March 10, 1997.

Milestone 2 will be the completion of advanced conceptual design. These concepts will include specific descriptions of how the player interacts with the basic environment given in Milestone 1 including player interaction via organizations, player interaction with administration, player development of alterations to the game world, more detailed descriptions of game elements (like races and their cultures), and other detailed game elements from the player's point of view. This milestone assumes that the basic design has been completed from Milestone 1 and will depend on the availability of creative talent. Milestone 2 will be completed once the initial draft of this design document has been extended fully to include any new developments.

Milestone 3 will be the completion of specific numeric balance within the game. Along with the descriptive standards from Milestone 1, numeric representations and estimations will be attached to each game element to ensure the game is balance primarily from the player's point of view. This milestone assumes that the various elements may be quantitatively described and depends on the completion of the first and second milestone. Milestone 3 will be completed after the numbers are recorded and incorporated into the design document.

Milestone 4 will be the completion of basic MUD library elements. These basic elements include the implementation of inheritable objects, the implementation of various mechanics into the library such as combat and NPC interaction and the implementation of extended player commands to interact with the game environment. This milestone assumes that we have a basic lib to work with and expand and depends on the existence of this lib and the completion of Milestone 1. Milestone 4 will be completed after the code has been implemented and incorporated into the basic library with no errors.

Milestone 5 will be the completion of advanced elements of the MUD library. This will include extended player commands to increase how the player is able to interact with the game world, incorporating the advanced concepts form Milestone 2. The code will be necessary to allow and enhance the extended amount of interaction we desire from players. This milestone assumes that the advanced topics have been sufficiently developed and depends on the completion of Milestone 2 and error-free implementation of ideas from Milestone 4. Milestone 5 will be completed after the code has been implemented and incorporated into the mud library with no errors.

Milestone 6 will be the development of areas. This will be the focus of player interaction within the game not relying on other humans. This code will come from various creative people from outside the core development team. This milestones assumes that the basic design decisions, basic lib development, and balance issues are completed and therefore depends on Milestones 1, 3, and 4. Milestone 6 will be completed once Demonscape opens to the public as a fully functional game and will continue using the dynamic environment of the MUD.

General Comments About Design

While working on Demonscape, it has almost always been a team project. Honestly, this is the best way to tackle a project of this caliber. When one person designs the whole game the various aspects sometimes become repetitive and uninteresting when he or she runs out of creativity. In addition, one sometimes get attached to his or her pet ideas. With at least one other person to discuss the consequences of the idea, it is easier to either discard concepts that appear good but will ruin the game or to change them enough to enhance the game more. The creativity of several people (although they may argue and try to preserve the original idea) is often more potent than just one.

We think that more MUD development should be done as a close group instead of as an individual. When an individual works on a project in order to preserve his or her pure idea, there is often not enough thought and development dedicated to it other than the original concept and the implementation. One would be better advised to work with a small group in order to think through all possibilities. Yet, one should be wary of working in a group that is too large which makes agreeing on specific aspects difficult if not impossible.

In retrospect, it is doubtful Demonscape would reach its full potential without the creative work of each of us. If any one of us works on this project individually without the support and creativity of the others, Demonscape will probably never reach completion.


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