[MUD-Dev] Character evolution

[clawrenc at cup.hp.com]

In <33F759E3.BE3 at dial.pipex.com>, on 08/17/97 
   at 05:01 AM, Richard Woolcock <KaVir at dial.pipex.com> said:

>On another (perhaps offtopic - sorry - but this just reminded me of
>it) subject, I was thinking of actually having the players as
>'permanent' people in the world who go around doing their everyday
>chores.  Thus if you are a baker, while you are not playing online
>your character would be going around making bread (and thus bringing
>in an income for you to use).  I would have to ensure that your
>character could not be killed while you were not playing them (for
>sake of fairness), but I think this could still prove rather fun. 
>Imagine you're just about to buy some bread off the shopkeeper (who,
>as far as you're concerned just seems to be a MOB who sits there
>selling stuff), except today you've been playing the mud later than
>you usually do.  Suddenly the shopkeeper tells you to get out, grabs
>a sword, and walks out the door of his shop.  Particularly with the
>'personal recognition' code where the player wouldn't 'know' the
>shopkeeper and thus wouldn't even have realised he was a player (who
>just wasn't logged on at the time).

I currently do this, tho a little differently, and with far fewer
protections.

For me characters are not removed from the game when they log out.  It
is up to the players to suitably arrange for their characters
protection and survival.  Typically this will require user programming
os combat defences, castles and the like, or the in-game purchase of
such.  

As such I don't offer much in the way of default automations or even
handlers for logged-out players.  Currently the body of a logged out
cahracter will stand there like a zombie until someone does something
to it.  There are basic defense routines, mostly just run-like-hell
and hit with anything at hand, but that's about it.

--
J C Lawrence                           Internet: claw at null.net
(Contractor)                           Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------------(*)               Internet: clawrenc at cup.hp.com
...Honorary Member Clan McFUD -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...