🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <39uml4$5...@news.ycc.yale.edu>,
Daniel Starr <dst...@minerva.cis.yale.edu> wrote:
>I.  Interface suggestions
>II.  Plot suggestions

Beautiful.  I heartily second everything Daniel had to say.  Especially the
plot suggestions.  Everything he suggested seems to be doable, and would
also add a lot to the game.

I would like to add one thing:

>11.  Genuine time pressure.
>     Repeatedly emphasize the urgency of the situation - "The
>BigNastyFolks take more of us away each day."  Count the number
>of visits I've made to cities so far.  Trigger something
>upsetting every N+(1-4) visits.  An army blockade?  A fire?  Lots
>of ways to make players' lives unpleasant without making the game
>unwinnable.  Just make sure we know the time pressure exists.

"It's never tomorrow, it's always today."  Bring back Ultima 5-like seasons.
Time should pass!  In Ultima 7, there was a plaque that announced the
presence of 'The Avatars,' a musical group -- the date was always the same!
In addition to using Daniel's excellent city/movement-based model for
event triggering, add in a minimum time for each event to occur.  I.e., if
I walk back and forth through the gates of Britain, I don't want an army
to suddenly start marching for the city.  Put a minimum time frame in there
as well; once I walk into the city once, the counter isn't incremented
again until x time units have passed.

-Jim Little  (ji...@teleport.com)