{MUD} Mobile behaviour

[Chris Lawrence]

A good post from r.g.m.admin, heavily edited for relevance as an excerpt,
posted as food for thought:


From: raz at mushroom.demon.co.uk (Raz)
Subject: Re: Realistic MUDs: Mob behavior
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 1996 23:57:55 GMT

...<snip>...

With respect, I think its easy to confuse 'true' AI (whatever that may be)
with the ACT_ and AFF_ bitvectors of DIKU/derivative codebases - they aren't
the same.

...<snip>...

(I want to choose my words carefully here; even so, the following would be
easy to take personally, but, honestly, it isn't meant to be)

That isn't the same kind of stuff as Scott (Anderson) was talking about,
though.  Again, all of the above is achieved with Boolean bits that have
existed in the Diku mob structure since time immemorial =)  It's psuedo-AI
at best - it works at a superficial level, but is situation dependant.

Take city guards 'calling for help'.  In a city, the existing code is great
- you attack a grunt, he screams for his mates to help him, whereupon some
may drift over and join him in giving you a kicking.

Now think about this and other situations.  If he can't take you on by
himself in the first place, surely a good bet is for him to run as fast as
he can back to his guardhouse, whereupon he can alert the rest of his unit
to your cheeky shenanigans?  Setting ACT_WIMPY does not provide this
functionality, nor does ACT_CALLS_FOR_HELP.

How about a guard posted outside the city gates with his partner?  The pair
are alerted to furtive movement in the nearby woodland and poor Gully Bul
draws the short straw to investigate.  As he passes the first tree, you and
your cronies set upon him - now, Gul *can't* call for his partner, Safen
Sound, to join the fight, as it would mean leaving the city gate unguarded,
but he *can* shout for Safen to alert the garrison to dispatch help.  Thing
is, Gully never did fare well in the brains department.  Will it even occur
to him to get Safen to relay the cry?

These are all things that can be done with AI, but not with ACT_ flags.

...<snip>...


--
J C Lawrence                           Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------------(*)               Internet: clawrenc at cup.hp.com
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