[MUD-Dev] Guilds & Politics

[Koster]

On Wednesday, December 17, 1997 3:36 PM, Maddy[SMTP:maddy at fysh.org] 
wrote:
> On Thu, 11 Dec 1997, Koster, Raph wrote:
>
> > On Wednesday, December 10, 1997 10:43 AM, Stephen
> > Zepp[SMTP:zoran at enid.com] wrote:
> > > >A description of the system in place in UO:
> > >
> > >
> > > Umm, ever consider black marks/suspicions, and "righteous 
combat"?
> >
> > Sure, we've considered them. Basically, every extension to this 
system
> > has to be unabusable in any way, or it doesn't go in. Define an 
"act
> > of war" in such a way that requires no admin intervention 
whatsoever,
> > and that is capable of limiting the freedom from notoriety effects 
to
> > only members of the opposing army, wherein said army can ONLY be
> > joined by those who have valid cause to join it... you get the 
idea.
> > It's quickly much tougher than it seems.
>
> Well if you take a large band of "fighters" as being an "army" and 
assume
> that an "act of war" is combat between two such "armies" then I 
don't see
> any way that it could be abused (at least not at this moment in 
time).
> Then if a band of raiders attacks a village, it'll be an army 
against a
> group of villagers and hence the army would gain noteriety?

Define "fighter" in a classless system. Then define "band" in a system 
that does not have experience points and thus has no grouping. Then 
define "combat" in a system complex enough where you can cause 
significant harm via pretty indirect actions... Yes, it's 
theoretically possible to arrive at definitions for all the above, but 
as I said before, it does get tough.

> > >  If I
> > > attack to defend my home/possessions, I'm probably gonna receive 
> > _more_
> > > positive noteriety,
> >
> > Unless you make your living by luring people into your house and
> > butchering them...
>
> Well that would imply you have attacked first, rather than the 
"invader"
> of your home having attacked you or stolen from you.

Lure someone in, then shut the door on them and lock it, and refuse to 
let them out. They attack you out of frustration, you kill them with 
no penalty... etc. :) This of course isn't really a huge issue, but I 
mention it just to illustrate how every seemingly simple situation 
leads to this sort of thing. We've had MANY cases on UO of people 
spoofing the messages for theft attempts in order to get someone to 
attack them, then calling the guards. :)

-Raph