[Divunal-author] tasty paste from toxic waste

[Allen Short]

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>>>>> "Glyph" == Glyph Lefkowitz <glyph@twistedmatrix.com> writes:

    > It makes sense to me - the formatting component can be a
    > different component, if you _really_ want your concerns
    > separated, but we do have the notion of objects knowing how to
    > describe themselves dynamically rather than being given static
    > descriptions.

This brings up the question of formatting descriptions beyond raw
strings. I've occasionally had the idea that descriptions should be
Woven templates but i'm not sure how great of a concept that is.

    > This does place more of a burden on the programmer, but
    > hopefully once we've got our writing hats on we can go through
    > and clean up a lot of the descriptive text.

I suppose i'm still thinking of a division between
"description-writing person" and "code-writing person", but for us
that's going to be a pretty minimal problem, true.

    > We should probably discuss his advice here.  Some of the things
    > he suggests are peculiar to a linear, directed plot (which we
    > don't have) and some are specific to a very slow-paced
    > single-player experience.  While we should be pushing online
    > gaming closer to those goals, we do have to make some
    > concessions to the fact that the game is real-time and
    > open-ended.

    > Examining each point he makes for its context with respect to
    > these ideas might yield some new and interesting conventions we
    > could follow.

Specifically, i was reading
http://www.inform-fiction.org/manual/html/s51.html -- the advice given
there seems pretty universal. 

    >> In specific, i wish two things were done differently:

    >> 1) not defaulting to listing exits by name and direction (I
    >> want to do this in the description)

    > I don't have an answer here yet, but I'm thinking that this is a
    > questionable UI decision.  Having them listed twice might make
    > sense (though in the telnet interface there should be a visual
    > distinction between "textual description" and "spatial layout
    > information").  Players are going to have the ability to add
    > additional exits to almost any room, and someone moving through
    > the map quickly could easily miss the existence of an exit.

True, though arguably adding those new exits to the description should
be enough.

    > Of course, I have no problem with rewarding attentiveness, but I
    > would rather make only things that would be non-obvious to a
    > casual observer in a real environment be non-obvious to a player
    > who is only skimming descriptions.

Hmm. I hadn't thought of that, but it's a good sort of proportionality
to aim for.

    > The inventory list should list all _portable_ items, methinks.

Probably.

I'm mainly thinking of these issues as a reaction against the horribly
flat descriptions prevalent in most MUDs. 

"You are standing on a road winding through the desert. 
Exits: north south east west 
Contents: There is a rock here. There is a gnoll here. There is a
spatula here."

Perhaps there's a compromise that can be struck between literary room
descriptions and utilitarian ones. I expect practice will yield the
best results.

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