Vision

A drow walks around in daylight then finds himself in need of a Light spell at dusk. A dwarven thief exploring a cave quaffs a Potion of Infravision to see his way around. An elf lights a torch in the twilight to make his way through the forest. Who can tell me what is wrong with this picture?

Drow should see perfectly in total darkness, yet be blinded by daylight. Elves should see equally well under a starry sky and under the sun. Dwarves should see best in low light levels, suffering modest sight penalties in utter darkness or full daylight. So why are all races in every MUD I have ever seen treated like they have human vision?

There is an easy way to solve this dilemna. Light levels already exist in the game code, so just add extra visiob levels: standard, fair, poor blind. Standard sees all objects and MOBs.

Fair sees MOBs but not objects. Poor sees MOBs and other characters as "someone". Blind sees nothing. Then set each race to the appropriate vision level for each light level. Easy.

Thus you would find Drow and Orcs and the like skulking around at night. And if racial (in)tolerance were also programmed, the MUD world would be much more sensible. The penalties and such of some races would be balanced by restoring their bonuses, like giving dwarves a superhigh Constitution, extreme resistance to magic, and being well-armored against blunt attacks even when level 1 and naked. Drow should have their dark power, etc etc.