Hazard Reviews

November 2nd, 2008
001 Hazard you are wonderful and lovely. I know you've done a TON of work in the past codewise and you're finally getting the recognition you deserve. You've always been the code-pillar holding us up, and I feel really safe with you in the build Wiz position. 

''Thanks! I think that last comment was needlessly inflammatory so I'm not posting it here. But otherwise, thank you for the kind words!''

002 Hazard is a pretty cool dude. I like that, in coding the new system, he operates in a triage system, going after the important bugs first and ignoring the irrelevant ones. It's good to see that kind of efficiency used. My criticism is that I do think that he and Mishap should be able to merge to form Haphazard. More seriously, the Hardcode Hack Helper is everywhere, such as on Monacus, and a lot of worlds have broken stuff. It don't doesn't impair the day to day running of the game, but it gets kind of annoying, after a while. Could he look into these things after he finishes the new combat system please?

''Yes, HHH is a pain in my ass too! It is an unfortunate side-effect for having alt-mode names. (e.g. when you look in a room and see 'Techno Jeep' instead of 'Hazard') The "old" 2k5 had a hacked PennMUSH source, which made things nice to look at, but made it impossible for us to upgrade our code. So, we are stuck with HHH but at least we are on the latest PennMUSH build. I will see what I can do about making it less annoying though! It's important that people point out the little things too -- sometimes they are just minor annoyances but sometimes they are symptoms of a larger problem.''

003 Kudos for working like a Constructicon on the new combat system.

''You're welcome! I will admit to being a bit beaten down by the whole thing in the past but I am having fun with it now. I attribute most of that to my overly-active beta testers. :)''

004 It's true that I don't personally know all of what you're up to but I do feel you are doing lots of behind the scenes stuff. On the new combat system, sounds like an awesome piece of coding, and it's obviously been a lot of work and probably a lot of pressure for you, so I appreciate the efforts. One thing I'm wondering about is how the changes are going to be rolled out, especially the parts where we have to make decisions about our characters. I'm hoping there's some way for us to try out different things before making a final decision, because for many of us the new system will be totally new so it's not likely we can make an informed decision right away. I would also echo the call some others have made for an OOC arena. Especially when the new combat system is unveiled I think this would be useful for people to learn the ins and outs. I wonder, do the combat testers helping you just trigger repeated coded attacks, or do they also make poses and RP using the new system? If it's been fun for them to make poses and RP during the course of the testing even though it's not officially IC, then I think it's a good indicator it would be fun to have an OOC arena too.

''OOC Arena is something I will certainly think about. I'm still not ready to discuss details of a roll-out plan, but I WILL say that I am trying my hardest to make sure it is fair and equitable across the board.''

005 I have to admit that I've grown increasingly wary of the new combat system. First, my general concern is that, while the MUSH's official stance has always been that code should act as an aid to roleplay and is subordinate to it, the increased complexity of the combat system code causes me to worry that there will be a corespondingly increased /focus/ on said code. My biggest concern with the combat system is with velocity dodging, however. It is already extremely difficult to get OCs, either newly made or through upgrades, with 10s in any combat stat. However, velocity of 10 is a prerequisite for space travel. This suggests to me that in the future, it will be next to impossible to make OCs that are space capable, while those who already are are going to be receiving a huge boost in combat capability that the rest of us can't hope to ever even strive for. What's more, I tend to feel that making velocity such a strong component in dodging will greatly decrease the value of agility in combat, making that AP/CP wasted for those who have focused on that stat instead to make combat-dodgy characters. That's about all I have to comment on, because I haven't been able to observe what you've done outside of the combat code. I'm sorry. :(

''Thank you for bringing this up. It's an important point to make and one that I sometimes forget: the point of code is to AID roleplaying. A lot of people have gotten hung-up on various features of the new system. There are a LOT of bells & whistles. But the way I see it -- these are the exception and NOT the rule. Most characters will look largely the same after the roll out. I'd say at least a third of the various special effects are just because I went nuts and decided to code them -- maybe they will be fun to use in a TP some day. But they will not be day-to-day events for your characters.

As for "velocity dodging" this has perhaps been a bit blown out of proportion. The 'bonus' is relatively small and does not apply in most situations. It's just a way to give people who spent extra points a little more bang for their buck. I'd rather not get into specific details in public and thereby open up a huge debate, but if you still feel unsure feel free to page me and we can talk.''