FAQ: Personality Clash

[s001gmu at nova.wright.edu]

On Mon, 22 Dec 1997, Ling wrote:

> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Greg Underwood

<...>
 
> Game concept/features:
>     - Pkill & permanent deaths.

can we put "permanent" in quotes?  there is an afterlife, but you are by
no means immortal.  If you bite it in the aftelife, you bite the big one.

>     - Player characters will include self-preservation code/instincts, player
>         will have control 90-95% of the time (18/19 out of 20 commands?).

mmm... not really 18/19 out of 20 commands will be respected... it's not
as random as that makes it sound.  There are certain commands that will
result in a 'I don't think you want to do that' from the character, but
they can be overridden.  We've talked about such things in previous
threads... a 'grab burning coal from fire' command would result in a 'you
want me to do WHAT?', but could be overridden by 'grab burning coal from
fire!'.  As long as you don't attempt something that triggers the survival
instinct code, you have full control.  It's just when you want to do
something that the character thinks will result only in harm that you have
a minor loss of controll that you have to override.  And of course, to
avoid tedium, you can get around all of that by just using a ! on the end
of every command, or at least the commands you think/know will cause a
problem. :)

to be brief, I suppose you could say:

     -Player characters will include self perservation code/instincts,
         player can override instincts for complete controll, but without
         overriding can't get character to behave self destructively.

at least, that's the goal.  :)

-Greg