| Board | Ideas.old [context] |
|---|---|
| Sender | Astark |
| Date | Wed May 7 11:16:51 2014 |
| To | all |
| Subject | re vodur |
| As I see it, the main reason to stay with the current way (other than it being easier to keep it than change it) is because it has a historical connection to D&D (and old MUDs). However, even D&D switched so that increasing armor strength gives higher positive numbers, obliterating the useful connection through history. So, this is one argument supporting the idea of switching to positive AC. If a new player comes and has a history with D&D, chances are, they won't find any comfort in the negative numbers, because they'd be used to positive. If a new player hasn't played anything like this, positive numbers would be more intuitive. If a new player comes from another MUD, it's likely that person is used to the negative numbers and would be fine with it... but it wouldn't be hard to switch, mentally, to positive, because I suspect people already do that in their heads anyways. So, this is another argument in favour of switching to positive AC. But from a coding point of view, how much effort would be required, and for how little return? Would every mention of armor be modified in the code, everywhere? Or would it involve sleight-of-hand, just changing where it is visible to players? Either way, I can see how just searching for the relevant parts would be fairly straightforward, and the actual switch itself wouldn't be *hard*, though it would take awhile. Are there any additional improvements to the system that you could work into the change? If so, then there might be some justification to doing this. But if not... it's hard to say whether it would be valuable. I suspect indifference will reign in the opinions of veteran players. But as an ex-coder myself... I do see the temptation to just go ahead and do it. Logic is lovely. I should've signed that post, "--Wordy Quirky". |
