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

[coder at ibm.net]

On 12/12/97 at 10:49 PM, Derrick Jones <gunther at online1.magnus1.com> said:
>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.  

Actually you mean player-body associations.  Its impossible to track them,
true, but I also expect players to often reveal and lie about them at the
same time.  

>Dunno if that's such a positive thing. 

Agreed.  This is one of the reasons I like it -- it fractures the player
community and introduces doubt, misaprehension, and misidentification.  It
also allows many fascinating avenues for players to subvert, manipulate,
or corrupt character relationships.

>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
>...

There are two sides due to the fact that there are two forms of
communication:

  You can comminicate to a body, or you can communicate to a character
(analagous to soul).  

They are different.  If you want to be absolutely certain you have the
right chap, talk to the name you have assigned to their character.  You'll
have to trust them that the body they say they are controlling is actually
theirs.  Or, and its quite a bit cheaper and easier, you can talk to the
body and hope you're getting the right character.  

>On a side note, how do you handle spam?  

I don't.

>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.

This is one of the deliberate disadvantages of running multiple bodies. 
It essentially mechanically simulates division of attention.

--
J C Lawrence                               Internet: claw at null.net
----------(*)                              Internet: coder at ibm.net
...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...