Daniel Lepage on Wed, 25 Jan 2006 20:32:43 -0600 (CST)


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Re: [s-d] Re: [auto] Antonio votes



On Jan 25, 2006, at 6:50 PM, Peter Cooper Jr. wrote:

Antonio Dolcetta <zagarna@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
it's not very clear if the pens in the pen pack are held by you or by
the pen pack or by both (but then you're holding the pen pack that
holds the pens and it gets terribly confusing and my brain goes on a
loop)

Well, as I stated sometime earlier this nweek (I think Triller brought
up the same confusion), I was assuming the holding an object wasn't
transitive, as there was nothing in the rules saying that it was. If
that's the case though, then the Torch doesn't work right, since it
describes the room that the Torch is in, not the room that the object
holding the torch is in.

We probably ought to settle this soon somehow.

Perhaps a distinction between "held by" and "in" is in order. The Torch is "in" the room, even though it isn't "held by" the room. Likewise, a coin in a bag in a large chest on the other side of a rip in spacetime that I carry in a locket around my neck is "in" my possession, even though to actually "hold" it I'd need to open the locket, reach through the rip to the chest, get out the bag, and remove the coin.

OTOH, the behavior may depend on the containers as well - a lit torch in my hand lights the room much better than a lit torch in the pocket dimension I keep in my wallet. Unless I have a transparent wallet and I'm holding it over my head.

I think in most MUDs (and our game is very much like a MUD at the moment) objects affect the whole room if they're in the room or in the possession of an object in the room, but at deeper levels their effects are masked unless the code for the objects specifically does otherwise.

Incidentally, the lighting effects problem could also be solved MUD- style. In most MUDs I've seen, each room has an integer representing how well lit it is. Torches, sunlight, and electric lights add to this integer, while clouds of ink, dark auras, and radiation dampeners subtract from it. In general, a player can see in any room with positive lighting, but the numbers allow for other interesting effects too - perhaps vampires can see in anything above -10 and actually start dying if exposed to more than +4, for example.

is it actually stated somewhere that objects can be held only by one
object at a time ?

No. In fact, for some objects, such as ministries, the object *is*
held by more than one object at a time.

It also might be worth distinguishing between physical objects and conceptual objects - a Ministry doesn't really have any location in the House, nor can it be given away, dropped, or otherwise physically manipulated. I would further contend that this is as it should be; if we want Ministries to have physical locations, then instead we should create physical objects such as badges representing them, and give every Minister a badge. The badge can be dropped or given away, perhaps, but the actual Ministry is really a static effect of holding the badge, not an object by itself.

Or we could make them rooms. That would also be interesting.

Anyway, the above are just some thoughts I had while reading the hundred or two messages that accumulated while I was out of the country. I'll probably be able to resume playing normally in a few more days. Homework permitting, of course.

--
Wonko

This is patently absurd; but whoever wishes to become a philosopher must learn not to be frightened by absurdities.
     -Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)

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