                   . .. ... The Medievia ... .. .
 
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                                             Updated January 17, 1996
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The following is an interesting email I responded to which may help all in 
one way or another.

> Suggested a standard travel system, if u want to go from med to 
>trellor then you should be able to rent passage aboard (a flying boat, a 
>Giant Slug, etc) an established transportation method.  This wouldn't be 
>for trading, just for ordinary citizens wanting to travel...charge them.
>Shal disliked this idea, but has a similar one about ships going to and 
>from port cities.

In the area you know as the main continent there is NO easy travel.  This 
is due to the large amounts of bad critters ( and soon to be dragons).  The 
whole trading idea is to get brave warriors like you to get things from a 
to b.  There will be good dragons you can fly on but you WILL need to know 
the way.

> Clans are going to lose comraderie with the breaking up thing, you 
>want to make clans more together but this breaks them apart.  The reason 
>I'm close with my clan is because they are friends, not because of the 
>same clan name.  When we stop talking clans will mean nothing.

If this happens it happens.  I think clans will become even closer.  The 
whole clan issue has not been totally resolved.  I agree, where I am taking 
clans at this moment is directionless.  We have discussed many war 
scenarios, pk clan scenarios and the like.  In the future clans will have a 
bigger role.  In medievia IV we had to BREAK DOWN many things to have the 
ability to build bigger things (BIG WILDERNESS).  After it is played a 
while I am SURE we will all have many awsome ideas to bring clans into the 
overall plan.  Med IV may be great but MED 4.1 and 4.2 will be much better.

> Consider keeping pk, its an essential part of the game for some. My 
>suggestion is this, have pk flags...people with 30+pks are pkers and can 
>be wayleighed in the forest...or anywhere that's not a town.  An added 
>method would be have it voluntary UNLESS a multi, lvl 23+ with 
>30+pks...then you are fair game.
>This makes clans more important, makes going through the forest in groups 
>important, and protects the newbie.  If someone is pked in the forest 
>then their pack animal should be able to be stolen.  You take their 
>animal and their goods.

I have thought about MANY pk ideas.  We came THIS close to making this 
whole east vs west pk war.  Pk is in my head more then ever.  We will see 
what comes of it.

> I see what you've done, and its very impressive.  IV is the most 
>impressive mud I've seen but I'm going to be brutally honest, if you want 
>playtesters to kiss your ass and say "I love it" then you sign up EDITED OUT 
>or EDITED OUT and you listen to their advice, me I'm gonna tell you what I 
>think. If you don't like it remove me from IV and I'll have no hard 
>feelings. Back to the point,

I want the good the bad and the ugly.  BUT I want it where it belongs, NOT 
on med iii.  Mediv is not to be judged in anyway until it is out and open.  
This common playtest rule is in place for any software in development.

>	IV is the best coded mud right now, its world is huge and I like 
>that to a point, but you either went to far in my opinion or not far 
>enough.  I spent 5 hours going from med to tarvalon and back, fine thats 
>realism.  But if I met a player along the way I coulda said hi, thats 
>all. Thats not realism...if this is supposed to be role playing of a sort 
>I wanna be that bad bastard Highwayman...I wanna kill the guy and take 
>his stuff.  I'm evil, thats what I do.

I am like you here.  When we have 200-1000 people online my ideas of what a 
mud should be and what mediv is will start to make sense.  Role playing is 
what a mud is.  You will have to make friends along the way.  The fact that 
you dont see as many people or have the ability to talk to as many people 
is in the design from day one.  When all is balanced it will be better.  

>	I like playtesting IV, I'm gonna do my job and find bugs.  Right 
>now I enjoy it, its fun because its new.  But the novelty's going to wear 
>off, its going to be Ultima...sure real people will play but I won't be 
>able to communicate with them.  I'm not a trader, I don't want to hire a 
>cart and walk it for 2rl days to trellor talking to no one except for the 
>few times I go into medlink.  If I want to do a tor run I don't want to 
>have to tell people meet there on wednesday and hope for a reset.

You have to understand that under playtest conditions there are at most 5
people online.  This is a far cry from 200.  People will be everywhere. 
Also the more traveled a road is means the LESS critters there are being a
pain.  As they have been killed.  This is very realistic.  The code is VERY
DEEP.  Since under play test conditions we restart a LOT there are a lotta
critters, even on common roads.  Things will be different under normal
conditions.  Once the game is up a few hours I doubt you will see many
critters on the roads....cept maybe DRAGONS....  at this point you may have
to ditch your goods for a while and head into the forest or desert or
whatever....into many bad things... 

>These are quirks I dislike, maybe others will love them...in fact I'm 
>sure they will. But I'm betting that its a pretty even split.  IV has the 
>potential to be the best ever, but it also could be 'complexity 9/10  
>playability 6/10'  

It will take getting used to.  Most people play just one med.  MANY 
medievites have only ever played med.  They are just lucky we were their 
first as we are one of the best.  People that play medievia iv+ from pure 
newbie on will love it.  It is designed ONLY for these people.  I promise 
if ANY of these people see any other mud they will come screaming back.  
Please try and look at medievia iv with all its strangness(to you)..look at 
it from the view of your very first mud.  It has MUCH to offer.

>This last half sounded like I was ripping IV horribly, and maybe I 
>was...but the point is I love med, and I'll love IV with some tweaks but 
>right now I think my like of it is a novelty.

Muds are a novelty.  Truth is most people find a mud.  LOVE IT.  Get 
totally addicted...play for 3-18 months, play often and hard,  and STOP.  
Muds are like that and mediv will be like that.  Mediv is for real role 
players and people REALLY wanting to dissapear into a book type fantasy for 
a while.  Mediv offers that kind of size and complexity.  It also we hope 
will be a huge mud with 100's of people online.   BUT, in the end, you are 
right, it IS just a mud.  
