[MUD-Dev] Fear of magic (was:Usability and interface)

[Stephen Zepp]

>[snip various comments on player/npc/monster powers]
>
>This very situation (admin taking control of NPC) is going to be
>essential in my MU*. With the fact that unless we have some extremely
>talented players who are great at RP, it will be up to the admin to
>initiate tinyplots usually involoving the infamous people in the realm. 
>
>For a quick overview of my world (as is now) there will be a number of
>factions, some opposing, some allied, some neutral, all of which have
>their own agendas. Players can either cooperate with a given group,
>remain neutral, or go around double-crossing everyone if they wish. So
>say I want to start a war between group A and group B and want a player
>viewable reason. So I take the great wizard Whomever (who was hired by
>Prince Anonymous) and attack King Whatshisname causing a war between the
>wizard's and Prince's combined forces against the King's. The King
>defeated, the wizard then kills the prince and takes over his kingdom as
>well. The players are the everyday citizens/soldiers/gov't officials who
>end up dying for this war. Of course the real twist goes in when General
>PC gets fed up and attacks his leader the wizard Whomever which upsets
>the entire balance of power in the world. (of course General PC is
>usually going to have to have some special help in order to accomlish
>this, which tends to be done through admin authorization). 
>


Wel, here's my question...why do you need an imm type person ( background
tinyplot creator ) to take "admin control" of the npc to start the war off?
 Commercial games make decisions, Warcraft II decides when to attack,
Civilization wasn't too bad at deciding how to handle diplomatic
situations...muds can, too.  Give your actors ( actor: ( n )-- an entity in
a mu* environment that can assess their environment, decide on a goal and
act to modify their environment to achieve this goal, can be human or ai
driven ) the ability to make long term diplomatic decisions as well as
short term ones, and have them develop persistent behaviour
characteristics, and the plots develop on their own.

Zoran