NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/rec/arts/intfict/942

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-23 | 1.9 KB

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From: [e-mail] (Kludge)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Open-Ended Game Engine
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 23 Nov 92 14:45:16 GMT
References: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail] (USENET News System)
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
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  This idea sounds interesting...  I assume that there would be code
(in some sort of "metalanguage") for each plot - it wouldn't invent the plots
themselves, would it?  :)  I've been working on a role-playing game for
entirely too long and have decided to handle it like this:

 - There are 4-6 different (pre-designed) characters that you can pick to
   play.  All of these have different skills/backgrounds, and a different plot
   unfolds for each of them.

 - The other characters (the ones you aren't playing) are still in the game -
   computer-controlled (though you can go get in their way if you try hard
   enough, which could mean you get mixed up in somebody else's plot.)

 I don't think any game can be *entirely* open-ended, but your ideas seem
pretty close.  How do the smaller (sub-plots) get generated?  Is there a pool
of code for various people/actions that gets mixed together into a sub-
story?  The problem that I see with that is you'd be getting plots that
seemed... well... generated, instead of *written*.  In my RPG, there are
actually a couple of main plots (saving the world from destruction - the normal
thing, plus a bit of politics.)  Without at least one of those, I'm afraid
that a game would seem pointless and misguided - you'd just wander around
doing things... and they'd happen.  How would the scenario interact with
player action?

                                --Kludge