[MUD-Dev] New Topic: Butthead features

[Matt Chatterley]

On Wed, 13 Aug 1997 clawrenc at cup.hp.com wrote:

>    at 08:06 AM, "Jon A. Lambert" <jlsysinc at ix.netcom.com> said:
> 
> >I'd be interested on your thoughts on legal systems.  
> 
> Were I to do a legal system I suspect it would be something as
> follows:
> 
>   "Crimes" would be deliberately vaguely defined.

I think this is a must - I'm pondering defining 'criminal elements' which
make up crimes, and which the system can put together on the fly to
categorise what the player has done. This would also allow for regional
customisation (for instance, a place where busking is illegal).
 
>   The system would erraticly and unpredictably cycle between
> ultra-strict enforcement and ultra-relaxed enforcement of crime
> detection.

For me, this will also vary regionally, and on the guard/judge you get -
they will have randomly varient 'leniency' scores.
 
>   An increased percentage of guilty verdicts would tend to sway the
> system towards stricter enforcement.

The system will be somewhat biased for me too - they will assume you are
guilty unless there is some evidence to the contrary, unless there are
extra factors, for instance you being very rich or powerful, or extremely
well known as a hero (unless of course they don't *like* the stories about
you!)
 
>   Users can report crimes to the system.  

Definitely.
 
>   Depending on the above, not all reports would be acted upon.

Yup. If some scruffy dodgy looking bloke reports that some rich powerful
noble (new player, thief, and old player, fighter who is a rich noble)
stole from him, he's more likely to get arrested (the first bloke) for
wasting the guards time.
 
>   The system would internally detect crimes.  This would take place
> via mobiles or other similar coded systems viewing a crime in progress
> or the results of a crime.

A nice way of doing it; I'm pondering something similar, rather than just
having commands make the call. Possibly commands will do it if there are
witnesses.
 
>   Again, not all would be acted upon.

Yup.
 
>   All crimes would be recorded and tagged against the assumed perp (DB
> rollbacks are wonderful).

This will also happen for me, but less specifically (no really accurate
records are kept in the lands). The spreading of rumours and gossip will
of course damage reputation.
 
>   Upon a crime handling being started, the assumed perpetrator would
> be charged with all the unresolved and unhandled crimes against his
> name.

Yeah.
 
>   Crime handling would be specific to various societies. 

Some would not even have 'law' as we understand it - some would be very
different.
 
>   Societies would be user defined, but system administered (membership
> primarily).  

Neat.
 
>   Upon a criminal handling commencing, a random selection of the
> currently logged in members of the society in question would be tagged
> as jurors.  

Potentially cool.
 
>   The jurors would be told that the system will teleport them to a
> court room at a pre-defined time (30 RL mins later) in the future to
> stand judgement.

What do you do if one or more juror leaves within this period?
 
>   The juror list is openly published at the same time.
> 
>   The accused is informed that he is accused and when the trial will
> be.
> 
>   Jurors may sell or transfer their juror position to any other
> society member, including the accused, prior to the trial.

Aha.

>   Death or non-attendance of all jurors prior to a trial defaults to a
> not-guilty verdict.
> 
>   The case of all the jurors being the accused defaults to a
> non-guilty verdict.

Neato.

>   Non-attending jurors are tagged with the crime of non-attendance,
> and may or may not be called to stand trial for that crime.

This is a bit iffy - does non-attendence mean logged in, but didn't show
up?
 
>   The courtroom consists of a room containing four areas:
> 
>     1) A exitless pen which contains the accused, suitably immobilised
> (ie he has no control over his character other than speech).
> 
>     2) An open pen marked "Guilty".  
> 
>     3) An open pen marked "Innocent".
> 
>     4) A free space surrounding the guilty/innocent pens.
> 
>   The guilty and innocent pens each contain a single button marked,
> "Verdict".

Heh. Heh.
 
>   The courtroom has no entrances and no exits.  There is no possiblity
> to view an in-progress court case unless one of the jurors brings in a
> remote camera object.
> 
>   Shortly before the trial commences all jurors are so warned.
> 
>   Upon the trial commencement all jurors are teleported to the open
> free area of the courtroom, and the accused is immobilised and put in
> the pen.
> 
>   Jurors are teleported with everything they happen to be carrying at
> that time.
> 
>   There are no controls and no supervision of what happens in the
> courtroom.  
> 
>   Crimes in the courtroom are not recorded.

Eep.
     
>   The verdict is determined by all surviving jurors gathering in a
> single pen, guilty or innocent, and the verdict button being pushed.
> 
>   If the verdict is innocent, the accused is freed, and the jurors
> returned to the locations they were summoned from.  Any dead/injured
> jurors remain dead/injured etc.  EQ is left where it was at the
> instant the button was pushed.
> 
>   Any EQ left in the courtroom is given to the accused.
> 
>   If the verdict is guilty the innocent pen dissappears, and the guilt
> pen is renamed "penalised".  The accused's EQ is made available to the
> jurors to do with as they wish (ie everything he is carrying or in a
> location he controls).  If one of the crimes is deemed suitably
> serious, the accused stats are made available to the jurors for
> editing as they wish.
> 
>   Guilty processing terminates when all surviving jurors enter the
> penalised pen and the button is pressed.
> 
>   Any EQ left in the courtroom when the button is pressed and all
> jurors teleported back is given to the accused.
> 
> ............................................
> 
> It should be amusing at the least, wonderfully chaotic at best, and
> intensely unfair and primitive at its ideal scene.

I'd love to see what happened with this.

Regards,
	-Matt Chatterley
	http://user.itl.net/~neddy/index.html
"Speak softly and carry a big stick." -Theodore Roosevelt