[MUD-Dev] PK again (was: Character evolution)

[Adam Wiggins]

[Jon L:]
> It just find the fantasy of it very hard to swallow that when I 
> pull the trigger of my gun two very different things happen depending 
> on whether it's pointing at Bubba the PC or Boffo the NPC.

Yup.  Not only this, but it would be very difficult for me to code a PC/NPC
check in such a low-level function as Damage().  As far as the system is
concerned, there is only object type 'character', and a 'brain' where all
the output goes to and all the input comes from.  Whether that brain is a
person sitting at a keyboard or a script executing is irrelevant to the
general physics functionality; not only that, but brains get swapped in and
out at will, and there may even be multiple brains, since an immort 'debugging'
a NPC script just attaches their own brain to the character in question to
watch what is happening...

Anyhow, the only potential answer I can see to this question (that is,
whether or not it's possible to have a no-PK mud and still have it be
realistic and/or consistant) is that you need to change the entire focus of
the mud.  Ie, have something fundamentally different about players from NPCs
(like, players are angels or deities or demons, while NPCs are just normal
mortals), or get rid of harm and death altogether, and move the focus to
something completely abstract.