[MUD-Dev] New Topic: Butthead features

[Jon A. Lambert]

> From: Matt Chatterley <root at mpc.dyn.ml.org>
> Subject: [MUD-Dev] New Topic: Butthead features
> 
> On Mon, 4 Aug 1997, Jon A. Lambert wrote:
> 
> > We will have imprisonment, trials and all that.  If no one is on who
> > can play judge, players rot in their cells until it's convenient.
> 
> I don't by default plan on using players heavily inside the judging
> process, though.
>

I'd be interested on your thoughts on legal systems.  I've been thinking
a detailed and interesting subgame could be played out in this arena.  
I've got some starting ideas and will post some of these when I get back 
from holiday. :)
 
> 
> Wiznet? Similar to Intermud[2|3]?
> 

No Wiznet is much like a in-mud communication channel.  You can turn it on 
or off and you can configure it for the types of events you would like to 
listen for.  The server writes event messages to the wiznet channel.  Events 
like when a character logs in, when a character is killed, an npc is killed, 
site banning, spamming attempts, character deletion, altering object 
attributes, etc.  It was a nice administrator tool and I am adopting the 
concept.  I'll be having two such channels, wiznet (events) and debugnet 
(method tracing).  I'll also be using them to produce logfiles for later
browsing.  

> 
> Theres an approach to staffing relevant to all games (but perhaps
> prominent in RP intense games), whereby the powers you have for your
> status are vastly less important than your responsibilities, which 
> involve people as much as, or more than code.
> 

Exacto mundo.  Promotion does not necessarily give in-game power.  I 
guess a get a little distressed at the notion that you have powerless 
untrustworthy players on one hand and powerful trusted staff on the 
other.  In this case, an accidental promotion of a major butthead has
immediate and very bad consequences.  I would guess that many muds 
have exactly this sort of power leap when promotion occurs.   

They very first level of promotion can be one where a player assumes
the persona of very localized NPCs.  Here is a player promotion scenario
that is pretty conservative:

   The player is allowed to assume control of NPCs of the Grunt & Grime
tavern.  In particular the player can jump into One-eye McGillycuddy
the barkeep, Boopsie the waitress, and Bruno the bouncer.  The player
has access to the cashbox and inventory has been taken.  These 
NPCs are most likely less powerful than the player's own characters.  
They have the responsibility for playing them in-persona, interacting 
with other characters, etc.  There's really not a lot of in-game power 
here and there's quite a bit more responsibility.

Now should one enter the tavern and find it littered with the carnage 
of PC bodies, stacks of stolen boodle hidden under the bar, not a drop
of liquor in the place, and the corpses of the tavern's employees at 
the bottom of Crator Lake, one might want to reconsider the promotion.

There are a heck of a lot of different scenarios you can put interested
players through before you give them teleport anywhere, slay anything, 
irritate anyone. 

JL