I must be crazy

[altivo]

Introducing Transmontania MUSH, a North American wildlife simulation role play.

I have one hoof poised over the precipice. MUSH site established and running. Rudimentary web page describing it was thrown together this evening.

Now there's a contact address, and a login screen (and logins for the god Manitou and his wizard assistants Loon, Coyote, and Equus have been established.) Guest logins that will let you view the first scenery will follow in a day or two, I hope.

I don't foresee this giving any competition to FurryMUCK, because it's much more limited and controlled. But let's see if there's enough interest to make it fly for a while...

Comments

[marzolan.livejournal.com]

I'm actually interested to see where you go with this and might be interested in playing.

[chibiabos.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing Terrayme is welcome but Ironhoof isn't? :P

[altivo.livejournal.com]

That's a fair guess, yeah. While I'll be doing my best to de-emphasize both yiff and dramatics, I'm sure I can't block them completely. I do want to stress more cooperative RP rather than the powerplays and one-upsmanships that were so common on WS.

There will be no land or territorial ownership at all. Everything will be laid out by a builder wiz whose responsibility consists of providing sufficient and suitable habitat for the species that appear. No doubt we'll see some squabbling over leadership, just as you find in real animal society, but nothing like the culture wars that incinerated WS, I hope. The emphasis is on interaction and cooperation. Terrayme did that. So did Klondike and Zetan at times. At the beginning I'm going to ask potential players to limit themselves to just two characters, though. The species list will be tightly restricted at first, and the number of top carnivores rigidly controlled in order to maintain a lifelike balance. Probably no cougars will be accepted until there are a fair number of other species flourishing. Yes, there will be a number of slots for wolves, coyotes, and foxes, as well as a bobcat or two and perhaps an eagle or two once the aerial environment exists. I'll provide automated small prey in some unobtrusive form, because everyone is going to have to eat regularly or suffer health consequences. I'm planning to use the ubiquitous "money" of the MUSH to serve as health and welfare points. Characters will be "paid" for grazing or browsing (in the case of herbivores) or for successful hunting or fishing (in the case of the predator) and "charged" for strenuous activity (like climbing mountain trails or running to escape threats.) Altruism and barter will be possible. Outright robbery may not be permitted, but con games and swindles probably will occur if it gets rolling with enough players. It will be possible to die of starvation, thirst, illness or injury. Those who choose to mark themselves as potential prey may choose as well to die if a predator should attack them. If they do that, the successful hunter will receive a percentage of their "life points." No combat rules or judges though. Such an outcome must be mutually agreed upon by the participants or it won't happen.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you'd make a fun and interesting player, so do keep it in mind if you can. ;D

[drelonek.livejournal.com]

Sounds intriguing.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Watch this spot.

[shadow-stallion.livejournal.com]

Best wishes on pulling this off Tivo. :)

However, I doubt you will see Storm around there since I gave up on the MUCKs years ago.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

You're not on Tapestries any more? Well, you'd be an interesting contributor, but I won't beg. XD

I'm using the MUSH environment to achieve something here, but it's not intended to be like a typical MUCK. There's actually a set of specific goals.

[shadow-stallion.livejournal.com]

I have not had a character on Tapestries for nearly two years now. I appreciate that you think I would be an interesting contributor but I simply don't have the time to devote to it.

I will say that I always liked the MUCK environment far better than Second Life. I never really got the appeal of SL nor why people would devote so much time, energy and money into something like that.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Due to bandwidth requirements, I've never even seen what SL is like, but it does seem to me that it would be rather limiting to the imagination. The difference, if you will, between television and reading a book. I prefer the book.

I have seen WoW demonstrated several times. The actual play of the game is quite repellent to me, but I will admit that the amount of artwork that has gone into scenery is staggering.

[shadow-stallion.livejournal.com]

*grins* Once again, you had me right up until the very end. ;)

While I have never played WoW, I do play Everquest II and I adore the gameplay and artwork. To me it is a fancy version of DnD to some extent.

I have never seen SL either. I refused to buy into that whole deal even though I have a friend or two that are hooves deep into. I'm pretty sure that Shadow still owns/operates several things there.

*nods* Indeed. I agree on the comparision of television to a book. A text based MUCK seems far more stimulating to the imagination than some web/pc based simulator like SL where you get to show off your coding skills or spend hours upon hours just tweaking how your avatar looks.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, I'll admit I spent many hours on coding for MUSH in the past. Things like seasonal changes to the description for locations (automatic updates for each of the 12 months) or sky areas where birds could fly and see but not hear what was happening below. If anyone on the ground looked up, they could see the birds up there but not hear them, and the sky background was appropriate to the time of day. I'm not sure anyone really noticed all of it even.

It's been several years, but fortunately I think I have all my code backed up so I can steal from it if need be. This idea will require some rather different coding of a type I've never had to do, not having been a wiz before.

[songcoyote.livejournal.com]

What a fascinating idea!

This would be therianthropic roleplaying, yes? I have ties to predator and prey concepts, so I could get into whatever roles were appropriate.

I am sorely tempted... please keep me updated (and include me on any mailing list for this you may create). I currently have occasional time devoted to other games and would gladly shift focus :)

Light and laughter,
SongCoyote

[cetasdolphin.livejournal.com]

as I said before in the other post I would be interested in trying this I admit just might have a slight problem in picking what to be species wise if things are going to be limited.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I plan to offer a list of about 18 species to choose from at the start. Eventually we can expand that if we get enough activity. There will be small and large herbivores, a selection of carnivore and omnivorous species (including bear and wolf) and at least two or three flying types, probably hawk, raven, and bat. The cougar is an obligatory carnivore that belongs in this mix, but doesn't make sense unless the population and territory is pretty large, so I'll omit them at the start. Likewise the bison, which should have big ranges and live in substantial herd groups. Horse and deer will be the large herbivores.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought of calling it therianthropic, but you're right, in at least one sense it is just that. You'd be a welcome participant, I'm sure. Working on developing a little geography and scenery now, and setting up the "guest" logins so people can try sightseeing. There's some heavy coding and documentation ahead before it reaches a rudimentary playing stage though.

[saythename.livejournal.com]

Hmm. *ponders*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Guest logins now functional. "Guest", "Guest2" and "Guest3" are available, all with password of "guest". A tiny bit of scenery is viewable, with hints at more to come.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

P.S. Guest2 is a male fox.

[cetasdolphin.livejournal.com]

Well after looking around a bit, I still wouldn't mind joining if you would have room for another horse that is.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Oh sure. I hope to have enough horses for some kind of herd group eventually, so no problem with that. There'll be more space than what you can see now of course. I'll be putting a form up on the web site that you can fill out to request a login, and I'll announce when it's ready. In the meantime, feel free to check in as guest every couple of days to see the new habitat and so forth.

[chibiabos.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I thought Borntobewild's death was one of the best I've seen, and it was more or less spontaneous and unplanned.

I'm glad building will be distinct from RP, there should be one master build with varied terrain, versus the spoke-wheel every-territory-has-grasslands-and-a-river crud.

Not so sure about the having to eat and graze thing, though. I much prefer freeform RP. Will see, though ... unfortunately still stuck without Internet access at home :(

[chibiabos.livejournal.com]

*peeks at the website*

Err, hmm ... "... The premise we are examining is the behavior of animals if they had sentient rationality and language communication similar to that of humans. ..."

Isn't the proper term sapient? I thought sentient, commonly confused with sapient, meant an ability to think, feel and make decisions, which qualifies most "real life" animal species whereas sapient describes an ability for complex reasoning and problemsolving?

[chibiabos.livejournal.com]

I haven't really roleplayed any of those characters in so long, I really don't think I could revive much any of them, with the sad exception of Ironhoof, though possibly Klondike.

I remember having fun playing Terrayme, but my memory is so poor and its been so long, I wouldn't have a clue to revive her.

I guess, in the end, it'd be best to just create new, original characters ... but for some reason that feels daunting to consider, as though I were somehow past my prime. I guess I'll see.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Sapient applies as well, and frankly, I already believe that many of the more complex species are sapient. We humans just don't recognize that fact because they lack our language abilities. I always stress sentient because so many people don't even believe that animals are sentient (except for themselves.) When you come right down to it, a lot of people don't even seem to believe that all humans are sentient.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, that sort of high drama isn't what I'm looking for, though I imagine some opportunities might arise.

Eating and drinking are an essential part of the environment because they enforce movement. Grazing creatures cannot hide out in one "safe" place indefinitely because their food sources will deteriorate. They have to move about. Predators are forced to move because their prey moves and because of territorial competition for prey. Weather conditions, wildfires, and so forth also affect the food supply and thus the distribution of species. I want to enter those elements, as well as seasonal weather effects, into the picture.

I don't anticipate anything as obtrusive as the robotic prey we saw on WS, though. Just that it will be necessary to find a spot where food is available and say something like "eat" or "hunt". Hunters will deal with a die roll and probability situation on whether they are successful on any given attempt. Everyone will expend some energy on looking for food and obtaining it. I believe even WoW contains elements similar to this. (I know those who have companion animals such as wolves or horses are required to find food for them, for instance.)

Territory is being built in a much more realistic sort of geography, and energy costs for moving about will be assessed, yes. I'm open to suggestions on the geography, though I reserve the right of ultimate control there. Species that normally build dens of some sort will be able to do so, of course.

[chibiabos.livejournal.com]

I hope it won't interfere in an existing scene, if you're RPing in a scene taking hours and suddenly some of the players start getting notified they're hungry, and they then have to leave the room or somesuch.

Will river crossings be considered? Easiest in late summer when the rivers are at their lowest, deep water in early spring with the melt and in the autumn if its very rainy with potential for flooding, potentially iced over during winter?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

As you may know, river crossings were one of my big coding things on WS, though I guess that might be after your time there. Also air space that can be used realistically by birds, and seasonal weather effects at least on the appearance of areas.

As for the need to eat, yep, if you RP something that takes literally hours you may start getting hunger pangs. You can choose to ignore them for a while though. Actually starving to death is going to take days or weeks for most critters. The need to drink is more urgent, but even that can usually be resisted for a couple of days. I'm after more realism wherever I can achieve it, because I'm interested in something that doesn't just ape human behavior. I want the "human sapience" (your choice of word) confined to a physical body with the limitations (and extra abilities) of an animal. In some rudimentary ways, I can enforce that by coding, and I'm going to give it a try.

Another way of putting this, borrowing the concept from songcoyote is that it will be therianthropic RP rather than anthropomorphic (as typified by Tapestries or FurryMUCK.) That's my goal. I think WildSpirits tried, to some extent, to achieve it, but failed in the end. I may not succeed either, but I'm going to try out some of my ideas and try to fix some of the things that I felt were just wrong about Puma's attempt (such as the inseparable connection between leadership, group, and physical territory.)

[ducktapeddonkey.livejournal.com]

Cool!

I haven't had time yet to check it out properly. I will. But I'm tempted to try something geeky myself and see if I can't figure out a way to fire up the old C64 and use that to connect.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Um, unless the C64 had an actual MUD client type of program, I'd advise against it. You really want a split screen half duplex type of program at the very least.

TinyFugue is the client of choice under Linux. I recommend MuckClient for use under Windoze. I think there's one for the Macintosh environment that's named after a seige engine or something: Trebuchet? I'm not sure of the name.