[MUD-Dev] Mob AI

[clawrenc at cup.hp.com]

In <Pine.GSO.3.95.970626143929.13199A-100000 at merlin.sedona.net>, on
06/26/97 
   at 03:39 PM, Brandon Cline <brandon at merlin.sedona.net> said:

>  One idea I had for AI was to have a "Reaction system" for pc's and
>npc's alike, that when certain conditions were met, the system sent a
>short message telling them what was up.  So, say like you had a pc
>that was adicted to alchol (through character generation or
>something), and he hadn't had a drink for say two days, the reaction
>system would then begin  with messages like, "You sure could use a
>drink about now." then if you continue to ignore your "adiction" the
>messages would get more insistant until finally either yo uact on
>them, or the computer acts for you with some default action. 

...deletia...

I've already come out strongly against systems like this in the past. 
I find the idea personally abhorrent in a way I find difficult to
describe accurately.  Essentially it seems to come down to the debate
between whether you the human merely a background mentor for the
character in the MUD, or is the character in the MUD merely a proxy
for you the human (along with whatever personae etc you wish to
assume)?  Both models appear to offer RP support (note: I'm not an
RP'er) and have received agreement from those that describe themselves
as RP'ers here --  its just that the locality of the RP decisions
partly shifts to the server for one, and is entirely in the player's
headspace for the other.

To a certain extent this difference can be modelled by asking the
question, "Does the character in the MUD have any cognitive and/or
computational abilities outside of its human player?".  For me the
unquestionable answer is, "Hell no!".  The character itself is as dumb
as a post if not dumber.  It is effectively a virtual blob of
nerve-twitching meat awaiting instruction and guidance from its
"spirit" the human player.

--
J C Lawrence                           Internet: claw at null.net
(Contractor)                           Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------------(*)               Internet: clawrenc at cup.hp.com
...Honorary Member Clan McFUD -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...