[MUD-Dev] Modeling spells/skills as collections of affects

[Maddy]

Previously, Shawn Halpenny wrote....

[Snip]

> * The post a wee bit ago about tying a rope to an object could be done
> something like this:
> 
> - Bubba tries to move a rock, but find he can't get a grip on it
>   (let's say that the rock determines his dex must be 20 to move the
>   rock) Bubba ties some rope to the rock (the rope creates an
>   I-have-a-rope-tied-to-me modifier and attaches it to the rock. 
>   There's also some virtual container or some such magic going on
>   that associates the actual rope object with the rock as well so
>   they move as one entity.)

I've actually had a good ponder over it now and have came up with a few
ideas.  Essientally both the rope and rock would get a new attribute
"attached to" which would point to the rock and rope respectively.
Getting them to move (or to restrict movement) is probably a little bit more
complicated, but would involve the rope/rock/person holding rock querying
each other about whether they can move or not.

> - Bubba pulls the rope and the rock moves (the rock receives a
>   message to be moved (probably came from the rope) and queries its
>   list of modifiers.  Rock sees the rope modifier and calls a method
>   on it that lowers the dex required by the action by 3 (and perhaps
>   spews out a message fragment about being able to move the rock now
>   that the rope is tied to it).  Execution returns to the move rock
>   method and the action succeeds since Bubba's dex was 17.)

The way I see it, is that when Bubba (who is holding the rope) tries to move
away from the rock, before it does lets him, it first tries and moves the
rope.  The rope since it has the "attached to" attribute, will then also
check to see if what it is "attached to" can move and is not the object that
was checking to see if it can move.  Same goes for the rock.  Unfortunately
I hadn't thought about using strength or dex to limit whether the rock could
be moved.

I guess the rock would "ask" the rope what strength it had, who in turn
would "ask" bubba, since the rope wasn't the original object who was moving.
What if Boffo comes along and starts pulling the rope as well?

Maddy