[TML] New 3d computer simulation design

[Timothy Little]

On Sat, Dec 01, 2007 at 10:57:08AM +0100, Knapp wrote:
> I think you missed my point. If the GM wants he can add a ship to
> the things an NPC owns and then jump in an run the NPC thus he does
> have the power.

Yes, that was my point.  The ease of travel is up to the GM, not set
by how much it costs.


> Yes, but if the rules say you pay X amount to talk to someone in a
> different star system and then you go and use a free method to do it
> then it should be obvious that you are cheating.

*You* might view it as cheating, as the game designer.  The *players*
will simply view it as an unfortunate misfeature to be worked around.
At best you'll have allies in one or two players who harp on about how
everyone else cheats, but nobody will listen to them - or to you.

I'm not talking just from theory here - I've been in a few games where
the developers did design in communication restrictions.  In one case
the players told the developers how stupid it was in beta, and they
were removed before launch.  In the second, they were retained but
hardly noticed except by newbies.  Oddly enough, the developers later
even built an IRC client into the game (allowing anyone to communicate
in-game with anyone else via an external IRC server) but still didn't
remove the restrictions from the usual in-game communication channels.
In the third case it was just one of many misfeatures that the players
had to work around, and the game didn't last long anyway.


- Tim