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

[Sauron]

Stephen Zepp wrote:
> 
> 
> 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
>

A few comments here. The most important reason in my situation to do
this is that I do not expect nor want any player at any time to
completely understand all of the implications of their actions. I don't
want Bubba the Recluse who's been sitting in a cave all of his life to
understand all of the underlying plots, counterplots, and inner minds of
the "major" characters. In the world as it is to day, I do not know all
of the plans of any leader. To then expect any AI I come up with to be
able to understand at least a majority of these so that their actions
can achieve a given goal is a bit of a stretch. In this situation I
don't want the world to be self-sustaining. 

The concept is such that the MU* will be a type of interactive story
where your actions can influence what is going to happen, however, if
the Dark Lord was planning to take over a town it is unlikely you could
do anything to stop him. The story forwards itself according to the
admin's "vision" and though players may have roles in what that vision
is and may help to carry it out, they really cannot prevent it. The real
key is to make it so that they don't realize the futility of opposing an
action that is already in progress, though things sometimes do happen
:)  

I also don't want to put the future of an important char in any set of
algorithms hands. The characters motivations, personal goals, outlooks
on life will be predefined, but it will still take an excellent
roleplayer to pull off the effect that they are a living, breathing,
important part of the history of the world. I don't believe any AI as of
now could acheive that to a degree that would be satisfactory to me.
Sure, the char could be AI run during normal day-to-day operation, but
for anything important, into human hands.

As to the little War2 comment, I love the game personally, but never for
a moment did it's back story "enthrall" me as the story with this mu* is
going to (well at least hopefully). Sure, things become slightly less
"realistic" (in an RL way) but the intent if for you to get the epic
feeling as with LotR or Dune, the feeling that you are a part of
something greater that will last for eons to come.

-Sauron