[MUD-Dev] Alignment

[Ling]

Here is a novel way to handle alignment.  The help file is directly ripped
off from DartMUD.  Did it just now.  So don't steal it.

Which reminds me, DartMUD should be put into the FAQ as one of the muds to
investigate, even just for background knowledge purposes.

However, when I tried starting my own mud, I met up with stiff resistance
from AD&D die hards.  Damn them.

DartMUD @ dartmud.com 2525

----- log start here -----
help alignment

Alignment:  Every intelligent creature has a Belief.  This belief is represent-
ed by a position on the circle of beliefs:


               War/aggression
                   ....
  Destruction .....    .....     Passion/optimism
           ...              ...
          .                    .
          .         0          .
          .                    .
           ...              ...
 Death/       .....    .....   Life/Renewal
   fatalism        ....
                   Peace/calm


T
aggression, with a major Deity ascribed to each.  There are three major
and peace (opposite aggression).

A belief is denoted by a position on the circle, which consists of (a)
the distance from the center (called "exceptionality"), and (b) number
of degrees from zero (called "alignment").

Note that there is a natural progression/cycle of belief systems on the
circle.  Fatalism leads to calm, which leads to psychological renewal,
which leads to passion, which leads to war, which leads to destruct
which leads to despair/fatalism.  In fact, beliefs "decay" in just this
way over time (in mortals); the alignment precesses counterclockwise,
and exceptionality diminishes.

Every living creature has an adjust_alignment() function.  When you
perform an act which is typical of a belief (picking a lock is an act of
Mischief, which falls between Passion and War; killing a monster is an
act of belief opposite to the belief of the monster, tinged by
Destruction.  So for example killing a Destructiv
Renewal, tinged by the f

* Examples.  An exceptionally extreme Pacifist picks a lock.  This is
Mischievous, and thus he becomes slightly less Pacifistic, and a touch
more Passionate.  Or:  an extremely Destructive player kills a mildly
Renewal-believing creature.  This doesn't affect the player's beliefs.

A quick question-and-answer session follows, in which I answer questions
I made up, which is a heck of a lot easier than answering real
questions:

Q.  How is this implemente
A.  I favor a polar 
    is the alignment.  It may be reasonable to have a three-dimensional
    system instead, with the dimensions being Aggression, Fatalism, and
    Renewal.

Q.  What is the purpose of the belief system?
A.  It's a way of going out on a limb.  Gods have beliefs, and in order
    to get along with your God, you'd damn well better have the same

Q.  What does the player get out of beliefs?
A.  Certainly not extra experience, or anything silly like that.  No,
    just divine recognition, friendliness from certain monsters, and a
    special title for the extremes of each alignment (the Warlord, the
    Destroyer, the Pacifist, the Reverent, the Romantic, the
    Disillusioned).

> 


  |    Ling Lo, freshwater fish (cod variant)
_O_O_  EEE, Loughborough University, England          Another 'Screemer!