[MUD-Dev] Re: Less numbers, more roleplaying.

[Vadim Tkachenko]

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coder at ibm.net wrote:
> 
> On 27/11/97 at 11:28 AM, Richard Woolcock <KaVir at dial.pipex.com> said:
> >Appologies for the length of the examples in this mail...
> >Adam Wiggins wrote:
> >>
> >> [Richard Woolcock:]
> 
> >> > So called 'Intelligent' mobs should go for the weakest opponent.
> >>
> >> They should?  I consider myself intelligent, yet I always consider
> >> the most dangerous opponent to be my first target in a combat
> >> situation.
> 
> >Hmmmm I'm not sure now.  Certainly, you'd be more worried about the most
> >dangerous opponent, but equally, which would you rather have?
> 
> Run some examples thru a simulator.  This is actually a non-trivial
> simultaneous equation.  Some variables under consideration for each
> protagonist are:
> 
>   How much X damages you per blow.
>   How many blows from you required to remove X.
>   Damage to your defences from X per blow.
>   How much are X's blows affected by the damage you inflict on X?
>   How much are your blows afftect by the damage X inflicts on you?
>   etc...

And, you may have to recalculate it after each interaction if there's a
non-linear dependency between the blow strength and the current
condition

> It gets even worse if the values for each of the above are actually curves
> which decay based on the state of X.  It could very easily end up with the
> optimal order of attack changing ov every blow, requiring the entire
> equation set to be re-solved each time.

Given the current tendency to hide the opponent's stats from you, it
will be really difficult to implement any kind of algorithm which will
work IC. Of course, everything is relative,
and depends on skills.

There are several obstacles which may make the combat strategy funny:

- It's not always possible event to detect the opponent's property, just
because you're not too experienced to do it.
- For other reason, too: opponent may 'bluff' (let's pretend it to be a
spell which makes him/her apparently more powerful than in reality) to
prevent you from attacking (but this also will have the lethal
consequences if current strategy is 'go for the strongest' :-)), or
'deceive' (make him/herself appear weaker, to draw the attack and, say,
prevent others from taking the damage)

> J C Lawrence

--
Still alive and smile stays on,
Vadim Tkachenko <VadimT at 4CS.Com>
--
UNIX _is_ user friendly, he's just very picky about who his friends are
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