[MUD-Dev] UI Issues: Anti-scripting techniques

[clawrenc at cup.hp.com]

In <E0xGPqU-0004ON-00 at crucigera.fysh.org>, on 10/01/97 
   at 08:06 AM, Maddy <maddy at fysh.org> said:

>Previously, clawrenc at cup.hp.com wrote....

>> In <199709260444.3287300 at bedford.net>, on 09/26/97 
>>    at 12:15 AM, "Brian Price" <blprice at bedford.net> said:

>> Note: A key value here is the ability to interrupt such a stack of
>> entered commands.  Consider the case:
>> 
>>   > n,n,n,n,n,e,e,s,s,w,w,u,u,e,u,w,w,w,s,e
>>   Room 1.
>>   Room 2.
>>   Room 3.
>>   There is a huge pile of gold here.
>>   Room 4.
>>   Room 5
>>   Room 6
>>   Room 7
>>   ...etc.
>> 
>> Better would be:
>> 
>>   > n,n,n,n,n,e,e,s,s,w,w,u,u,e,u,w,w,w,s,e
>>   Room 1.
>>   Room 2.
>>   Room 3.
>>   There is a huge pile of gold here.
>>   Room 4.
>>   Room 5
>>   > !stop
>>   Room 5
>>   >back,back
>>   Room 3.
>>   There is a huge pile of gold here.
>>   > get gold
>>   ...etc.
>> 
>> This is of course an extension of the more general Panama Canal
>> scenario.

>The problem I have with the second example, is that it implies that
>the user has to notice something that their character has noticed. 

This centers on a core disagreement between myself and most of the
rest of the list: How closely should the human player be tied to his
character in brain, or if you wish, what level of inteliigence,
awareness, and cognisance should the character have as seperate from
its human player?

My preference is to view the character 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. 
If the player doesn't explicitly say to do something, in general, the
character will do nothing.  If the human does say to do somthing, the
character will attempt to comply (almost) without question.  The limit
here is that the character has small remnants of self-preservation
reactions, such as withdrawing from fire or pain, or ducking when
attempting to enter a low doorway.

>Surely if something interesting is spotted, the character should stop
>there and then offer the chance to resume the journey?  

Why should it?  It was already been instructed to walk on a
predetermined path.  Why should it stop?

Should the character stop because it saw something it deemed,
"interesting"?  What is interesting?  Should it stop because it saw
gold?  What if Boffo had seeded the entire path with small fragments
of gold leaf, thus causing Bubba to have to stop and examine each one,
while Boffo could run ahead?

For me this is all just other facets of the character intelligence and
autonomy question.  As soon as you grant characters any value outside
of their human players you have opened a pandora's box of
inconsistancies and paradoxes with no elegant or consistant solution.

--
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...