Why is treasure sometimes worth less? Thumbnail

Q:

Why is treasure sometimes worth less?

A:

The value of practically all treasures is scaled. Except for a select few items (eg. coins), all treasure has a minimum value and a maximum value. The more (visible) players there are in the game at the time, the closer to its maximum it will be. This reflects the increased difficulty in finding treasures when there are many people competing for them. So, an object will be worth more if there are more people playing.

That's not the end of the story, though: there is a second type of scaling involved. Every 105 minutes or so, MUD resets, which entails throwing all the players off for a few moments while objects and puzzles are replaced in their starting configurations. It stands to reason, then, that treasure will be easier to find immediately after a reset than later on when much of it has be claimed. To account for this, the value of treasure is scaled by a factor which increases as more treasure is dropped in the swamp.

The VALUE command combines both these scaling factors where appropriate.

Also, as mentioned earlier, some treasures (those of class trinket) are only worth points to low-ranking players. If you have gone up a level since you last valued them, they might not be worth the same - in fact, they could be worth a NEGATIVE number of points to you! This is a second way that treasures can sometimes be worth less.


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21st January 1998: q17.htm