[MUD-Dev] Guilds & Politics [was Affecting the World]

[Matt Chatterley]

On Fri, 12 Dec 1997, Derrick Jones wrote:
> On Fri, 12 Dec 1997, Matt Chatterley wrote:
> > On Thu, 11 Dec 1997 coder at ibm.net wrote:
> > > On 09/12/97 at 01:42 AM, Derrick Jones <gunther at online1.magnus1.com> said:
> > > >On Mon, 8 Dec 1997, Vadim Tkachenko wrote:
> > > 
> > > >> I believe that if you wouldn't know WHAT exactly has killed you, it
> > > >> would be much easier to go with. In other words, you just can't
> > > >> differentiate the monster/NPC from the different player, nothing
> > > >> personal will be left.
> > > >This is no small task.  
> > > Actually it happens as a side effect for me.
> 
> Yeah, it would be in your system, as its impossible to track
> player-character associations.  Dunno if that's such a positive thing.  If
> Bubba asks me a question, I'd personally like to know that Bubba is the
> proper person to which the answer should be directed.  How do you deal
> with this?  Or do you?  It would add a bunch of interesting possibilities
> to the game:
> 
> 	Bubba asks you 'Want to join forces and stop that horde
> 	   approaching from the west?
> 	/* Horde controller takes over Bubba */
> 	#tell bubba sure, meet up at the west gate and bring every last
> 	  body you have
> ....

Heh. In theory, my NPCs will be able to converse after a limited fashion,
almost like PCs can (obviously they lack the sophistication of human
evolution). The system is three parts - a user interface where information
is delivered to and from NPCs, an interpreter, which uses a dictionary of
sorts of break down text and work out the two main topics of the sentence,
as well as any potentially useful words, and an NPC-side setup which
selects and adjusts an appropriate response from a database
(culturally/racially and locally sorted and changed).

It is possible to create custom function or two which uses the fact that
the NPC knows what it is talking about / being talk to about (obviously
not infallible), and make use of this in doing special things.

> On a side note, how do you handle spam?  I'd imagine getting output from
> 10 different bodies in 10 ifferent places(or even _different_ info from
> the same place) would make your screen fly by so quickly it would sever
> even the strongest connections...not to meantion directing separate input
> 10 different ways during a battle at the same time.  A slow reader would
> be doomed, not to meantion iffy connections.

It does sound a bit nasty. :)
 	
> > Yeah. It really depends on how you approach these things. Obviously if
> > people can pick player names off the 'who' list, or the game screams 'You
> > were PKED!!!!!!!!!!' at you after you die, its going to be obvious (unless
> > in the former case, the who list is huge).
> 
> The big difference on most muds is the way in which PCs and NPCs behave.
> PCs tend to issue more commands than NPCs, and PC actions tend to much
> more situation specific.  NPCs are typically named _in_theme_ while many
> muds don't demand the same of players.  Heck, a decent percentage of text
> muds show NPCs and PCs in different colors(something my current code is
> guilty of doing, however I allow a bunch of skills/magics to allow players
> to be shown in NPC colors when disguised/polymorphed).  PCs tend to have
> mismatched equipment, bits and pieces gathered from distant points in the
> game, most of which other PCs recognize on sight.  Pcs tend to time their
> attacks better (wait till you remove your weapon, begin a text-edit, ask
> you to look something up for them to make sure you're afk...)  Another big
> give-away is when PCs are _known_ to be PCs from past conversations.  Its
> _very_ difficult to fool a player for extended time.  (which of course
> doesn't apply to body-switching games)

This is all absolutely true. I have changed a few of these things, but of
course, several of them are really not feasible to change. On the note of
player trickering to commit character-murder (not strictly allowed), the
'afk' mode I will be enforcing will ensure your safety while you are away.
:)
 
> > I would like an environment where players care that they were
> > assassinated (or died), not if it was a PC or NPC that wrought their death
> > (Perhaps I will try to dissociate Player-Killing from being killed by a PC
> > - its all character killing?).
> 
> Actually, I believe the name comes from (as Marian so correctly pointed
> out) who makes the decision to kill.  This is the one aspect of PK that is
> unsettling, especially when the PK is an OOC attack.  Some player felt
> that their position in the gameworld would be better off if my character
> were dead, and because of this, I cannot trust new players that I meet,
> especially if death carries serious penalties.

Yes; I was actually asserting that. Player-killing is when the player
decides to use his character to kill another players character. This seems
by definition different than the player deciding that his character should
kill another character for an in-game reason. This is a moot point though,
since despite how I define things, people will try to subject the game to
their personal definitions.

[Snip]

Regards,
	-Matt Chatterley
	ICQ: 5580107
"I shall never believe that God plays dice with the world." -Einstein