http://www.zalanthas.org/blogs/brideofson/archives/001412.html

Thinking up names is Serious Business.

Domino: I need help thinking up names for the Adevari settlement.

Domino: because corada sounds like a beer.

Adhira: She needs a non-beer related name.

Morgenes: ok, how about: gihness

Adhira: Mor-gihness?

Domino: Grylsch.

Morgenes: or: buhdlyt

Vanth: Pahbzt

Shalooonsh [M40097]: Grylsch...

Morgenes: yes please

Xygax: Lesgihness, Morbass, Blactan

Vanth: High Nakin.

Domino: Xyngling.

Adhira: Ohhh Xyngling!

Morgenes: emgeedee

Vanth: D'Osekis.

Xygax: Never order a black&tan in front of an Irishman, also, if you'll pardon the seeming non-sequitur.

Domino: You guys are hopeless.

Morgenes: ya, Hope died a long time ago

Adhira: Call it Hope!

Xygax: Hefvisen

Adhira: Then it can be like a soap opera town.

Domino: that's actually the best idea I've heard so far. but doesn't really fit their history.

Morgenes: actually looks like Hope didn't die, she just quit playing around 1999

Morgenes: *misses having Hope leave the world of Armageddon*

Tiernan: Hope has forsaken Armageddon

Vanth: make it a 2-word name, like Gol Krathu or Vrun Driath.

Adhira: Haha. That's great.

Adhira: I like the 2-word name idea.

Morgenes: how do you know if you're old staff?

Domino: Now I just need to make a character named Hope.

Xygax: Wow, Hope was a (class edited out)

Morgenes: you remember Hope leaving Armageddon

Shalooonsh [M40097]: Grylsch-Schlaggah

Adhira: Mor Gihness

Xygax: In the (clan edited out)

Xygax: Which explains a lot.

Domino: "Hope has entered the world of Zalanthas in the Gladiator and Gaj tavern."

Morgenes: Moor Gihness

Domino: Hah, that's neat.

Xygax: Hope is a (edited out) woman.

Adhira: She sounds spooky.

Domino: Totally.

Xygax: I wish my dumb cstat code didn't smash keywords.... I should fix that.

Morgenes: apparently Hal didn't think much of her roleplaying

Xygax: I just typed "purge hope", and the game said "Ok."

Domino: Looon, you're my only hope. I need two-word names.

Morgenes: Ok

Domino: *grin*

Xygax: And then I typed it again, and the game said, "I don't know anyone or anything by that name."

Adhira: Hope was Crazy.

Shalooonsh [M40097]: Serious about the Grylsch-Schlaggah... or Omi-Yullara

Domino: Hope was wild.

Morgenes: Beh Eer

Xygax: Yager.

Shalooonsh [M40097]: Gol-Thryzdu

Domino: siiiigh.

Shalooonsh [M40097]: (if the thryzyn have anything to do with it)

Adhira: Vrun Hope.

Adhira: It's an elven settlement,

Adhira: Maybe your delves!

Adhira: Vrun Elan.

Vanth: Dar Hopa

Shalooonsh [M40097]: DOH... Adevari, right! Ha!

Morgenes: Darth Chad

Shalooonsh [M40097]: okay, let me grind something out, gimme a minute, in scene here

Adhira: Or just Elan.

Adhira: That's classy - it has Elan.

Vanth: Hopa Vari.

Shalooonsh [M40097]: Abi'situn could work (Dusk of the Land)

Domino: We're probably going to do away or mostly away with the (edited out), though.

Vanth: Elan Vari.

Xygax: Beerbelly

Domino: I want something that sorta translates into "we're tough motherfuckers, and we've survived the worst, and this place is our rock to cling to."

Domino: So, uh, fit that into two words.

Morgenes: kehgger

Domino: Perfect.

Adhira: Jager Meister

Vanth: Deh Waryurz.

Morgenes: Kanking Heroes

Domino: I'm seriously tempted to blog all this for the players.

Morgenes: Serenity

Vanth: Deh Ayteem.

Vanth: you should.

Morgenes: Mehk Guyer

Tiernan: The Chad is Rad

Domino: Someone duct tape Morgenes.

Shalooonsh [M40097]: Jee eye Joh

Vanth: Bee Esgee

Domino: Dude.

Tiernan: Koh Brawr

Domino: And then I can have an NPC named Jinx.

Morgenes: Bee Esgee Ray Zoor

Morgenes: oh, I know, call it Chuck

Domino: Elan sounds like a possibility.

Morgenes: oooh, or Bob

Morgenes: Planet Bob

Vanth: Bayoh Bob.

Tiernan: What are we making up names for again?

Morgenes: Degobah

Vanth: the Adevari settlement.

Tiernan: Like NPC names or what?

Domino: It's in the northwest tablelands.

Domino: nah, the settlement itself.

Domino: The original name sounds like a beer.

Vanth: the settlement name itself, it was Coruna, then Corada, but they both sound too much like Corona.

Domino: Corona. I mean, Corada.

Morgenes: Coruscant

Tiernan: Whatever you do, avoid apostrophes

Morgenes: Adevaria

Tiernan: Nothing worse that trying to talke about M'Rhgf'hgashs'hgashd'-smith

Vanth: that sounds like an Iron Realms game.

Domino: Planned to avoid em, yeah. Thinking of going with a two-word name though.

Tiernan: Helm's Deep

Tiernan: Oh wait, LotR

Domino: Everyone will shorten it to one name anyway.

Vanth: Ade Lehmon.

Morgenes: use a name generator, there's plenty out htere

Domino: Are there any "allundean" words that translate to "refuge"

Shalooonsh [M40097]: yes

Domino: yeah, and they all suck, but it's a possibility

Vanth: there's an allundean lexicon?

The inordinately young-spirited Shalooonsh [M40097] sends:

"I'll fire you a list of good ones in a moment here"

Tiernan: Milliways

Domino: awesome

Shalooonsh [M40097]: not a whole lexicon, but I believe refuge/safety are covered in the Sun Runner docs, if not I'll configure something

Morgenes: http://nine.frenchboys.net/country.php

Domino: whoa, morgenes rocks.

Domino: Definitely staying away from 'B' names

Morgenes: Utul Marsunas

Morgenes: Iteos Ursor

Tiernan: Nydia

Relleu: that was a weird point in the conversation for me to log in... nine frenchboys.net... definitely staying away from B names!

Tiernan: I googled "latin refuge" and got this hit:

Tiernan: Nydia : NIH-de-yuh : latin "refuge"

Domino: Neat.

Adhira: Wai Tangi

Tiernan: The Chronicles of Nydia

Domino: Good point

Domino: But that would be kinda fun, roll up a scribe

Relleu: I knew a Nidia in school, and I had a Nithia as a student

Domino: Write 'the chronicles of Nydia' and stick it in a library.

Vanth: Ombaal is the (info edited out).

Domino: That's a neat one.

Vanth: and Sejah is (edited out).

Vanth: alternate spelling of Ombaal in same docs is Oombaal

Shalooonsh: in game it's typically Oombaal

Domino: Actually, access to the d-elf tribal documents would be a huge help in writing the Adevari docs, because I want to pull in flavor from all of them, as well as from some of the human tribes, to make up one comprehensive whole.

Domino: A huge mish-mash of previous arm culture, shaken and stirred.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mudreading/~3/233546891/three-space

Approximating three-dimensional space is an interesting challenge in a text-based game. It is very easy to create a simple, sufficient model. Complications run the risk of confusing players and piling on the work for builders. I’m going to look at a few approaches, their advantages and disadvantages, and talk about an idea that I haven’t seen used.

The standard MUD approach is to use weight as its only measure of not only weight, but also size. The capacity of a container is judged by how much weight it can contain, and a character’s encumbrance is simply their total carry-weight versus a maximum, generally derived from their various attributes.

This works well in general, and is conveniently simple, but there are a few cases that throw this system off.

First, object shape is not taken into account. In my experience long, skinny objects cause the most weirdness, as the game mechanics don’t see any reason to protest putting a spear in a belt pouch.

Second, objects that vary wildly in density can cause confusion. If a player has a bag that can carry an entire wardrobe of silk they may be suddenly confused when a 7 pound sword cannot fit inside.

I have seen a few attempts to solve the size problem. The simplest is a single “size” field, separate from weight, that is then used instead of weight when determining the amount of space taken up in a location or container. This works well enough as it represents density, but it does not help our spear scenario.

In some cases further size fields are added. In the next step we start to approximate each object as a geometric shape. With two fields, width and length, you effectively consider every object a cylinder. This works well: it is able to represent those troublesome spears, and a cylinder with equal length and width is sufficient for less exotically shaped objects.

The other approach I’ve seen is including a height, width, and length: a cube. In terms of MUDs, the difference between this and the cylinder representation is not extremely great. Generally the most important checks on size involve fitting objects through openings such a door or a chest’s lid. Since such an opening is two dimensional, the smallest dimension does not play into the calculation.

I haven’t seen an attempt to create any more complex representation of size and shape. Allowing an object to be one of various geometric shapes would be maddening for a builder, much less do any calculations with, and the advantages of this level of simulation are unclear.

I’d like to propose a different approach to shape and density. I assume this is not a truly novel idea, but in my experience I haven’t seen it done in a MUD. If you know of a MUD that does this I would be fascinated, so please leave a comment about it!

Lets assume (as I always do) that we want to minimize builder effort and have extremely consistent objects in our game. We will have size and weight, as they are both useful pieces of data, and we are going to use width and height for size, as this is a sufficient representation of shape for our purposes.

The implied field is density. Say we have an object that is 12 inches high, 6 inches wide, and weighs 3 pounds. Approximating its shape as a cylinder, the object’s density is about .0088 pounds per cubic inch. Every object will have a density, based on the builder-supplied height, width, and weight.

An inconsistency has arisen, be it a subtle one. Lets say two builders create iron swords. They approximate the dimensions and weight as best they can, and each value seems appropriate. However, the density for each object is different due to the natural deviation you would expect in such an approximation. In reality, iron, as a substance, has a given density that does not vary so much.

We can remove this inconsistency and reduce builder effort at the same time. Assuming objects have a material type (most MUDs I’ve seen do) we can attach a density rating to each material type. A quick look on Google shows me that the actual density of iron is around 0.284 pounds per cubic inch, so lets use that.

Now, we can figure out everything we need to know simply by asking the builder the height, width, and material of an item. The weight can be determined automatically.

Lets say I create a sword of height 3 feet, width 1 inch, and material iron. A little math on the game’s part tells us that such an item should weigh eight pounds. This is about what a three foot sword weighs in real life!

36 * π * .5^2 * .284 = ~8

This approach sounds good to me, and I’d love to see it used in the future. I’ll leave an open question though: What MUD features might require a more complex representation of size, and how would it be done?