[MUD-Dev] Integrating PK

[Adam Wiggins]

[Jeff K:]
> >[Adam:]
> >> Yes.  Well, of course, they aren't attacking characters (PC or NPC) for
> >> "no reason", they are attacking them in order to get money, experience,
> >> and equipment.  Take away this motivation, make combat extremely chancey,
> >> and suddenly there's much less reason to attack other people.  On top of
> 
> You left two big reasons out-- domination of and/or annoyance of others.
> If you make combat more costly to all combattants you actually INCREASE the
> value for these aims.

In theory, I agree with you.

In practice, I have played scores of muds, ranging from completely
non-PK to out-and-out free-for-all.  In that time I've made some interesting
observations.
First is that people are the most likely to 'screw' with you on a non-PK
mud.  After all, they've nothing to loose by being a jerk to you, because
there's absolutely nothing you can do, versus a less restricted mud where
you can cast silence on someone if they start to bug you.  Since those
that desire to annoy others are in the severe minority to 'real' players
in every case I've ever seen, it usually doesn't take long for some fed-up
cleric to wander by and toss off the silence spell.  On a no-PK mud
they can do and say whatever they like, for as long as they like, until
some admin person logs on and shuts the up with a 'mute' command or
whatever.
Secondly, in direct response to your statement, everything in my experience
has been exactly opposite of what you state.  Basically, you've got a
standard powermud AD&D-based combat system.  A person can get up a few
levels and then happily slaughter newbies all day long.  If the newbies
get lucky and actually manage to hit them (rare, thanks to the terrible
level 1 thac0) you can run off somewhere and rest for a while.  There is
zero risk involved, except for someone higher than you getting fed up
and coming after you.  Even then, you can usually flee or otherwise make
it away pretty easily, go rest for a bit, and go at it again (possibly
in a different town).  Unless the higher player is pretty dedicated to
tracking you down, they'll probably just throw up their arms and go back
to whatever they were doing before.
A combat system with a lot of chance, as I suggested, with no experience
and very little in the way of experience or equipment rewards means that
players are going to be less likely to fight, period.  First of all,
players rarely do things without some specific aim.  In fact, I'd say
almost never.  In the case of troublemakers, their aim is to (obviously)
make trouble, which is very easy to do whether you mud allows PK or not.
If I, for some strange reason, had the desire to stir up trouble somewhere,
I would pick the no-PK mud every time.  Much easier and safer, that way.
Anyhow, with the combat system I'm suggesting, someone out to make trouble
is going to find themselves in a lot of hot water very fast.  Even someone
who is a real player but just has a bad temper will also probably have
a hard time of things.  NPCs have long memories and players even longer.
An enemy made once is an enemy made forever.  This isn't an issue when you
know that a given enemy can't hit your AC and therefore can't hurt you,
ever.  When they could get a lucky dagger through your ribs when you're
not looking, things get a bit more interesting.
Finally, I will state that the advantage of no-PK muds is that the
atmosphere is very relaxed.  People are usually much more inclined to
help you out because it's more difficult to double-cross them or whatever,
although it certainly still happens.  Personally I enjoy the tension and
mood created by less general safety, but that's not for everyone.

At any rate, my experience (which is pretty formative) tells me that the
best way to make people kill each other constantly is to make death
trivial.  The best way to make people think twice is to make it not
trivial.  There's more to it than this, of course - it depends on your
entire flow of combat, game world, and game design, but given these as
supporting your level of PK correctly, I find that the above statement is
true nine out of ten times.