[MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) MOB or player? Re: Global Communications on Muds

[John Bertoglio]

-----Original Message-----
From: J C Lawrence <claw at under.engr.sgi.com>
To: mud-dev at kanga.nu <mud-dev at kanga.nu>
Cc: claw at under.engr.sgi.com <claw at under.engr.sgi.com>
Date: Tuesday, April 28, 1998 5:18 PM
Subject: [MUD-Dev] (fwd) MOB or player? Re: Global Communications on Muds


>'Twould seem relevant to the current PK rehash.
>
>From: Richard Woolcock <KaVir at dial.pipex.comNOSPAM>
>Newsgroups:
rec.games.mud.diku,rec.games.mud.lp,rec.games.mud.admin,rec.games.mud.tiny
>Subject: MOB or player? Re: Global Communications on Muds
>Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 20:28:13 -0700
>
>Arlie Stephens wrote:
>>
>
>[snip]
>
>> I also like my fellow players to be friendly. I don't want a world that
>> pits me against them, whether because some of us are "evil" or because
of
>> some built in "war" or clan system. If that were my game, I'd log into
>> a straight PK mud.
>
>[snip]
>
>> As for "mindless killing" ... there's a big difference between
diku-classic
>> (yawn) and interesting "mobs" that actually fight intelligently, react
to
>> players, etc..  It's not "mindless" when I have to figure out how to
kill
>> this particular individual NPC, and he summons friends, remembers my
>> habits of killing in his area (and reacts appropriately), and of course
>> behaves differently depending on his configuration.
>
>[snip]
>[snip mob examples]

>Now imagine an introduction system, so mobs and players look the same.
>Imagine that players don't necessarily appear on the who list, and that
>dead mobs don't come back (instead, the mud spawns new types of mob).

Required for an well designed big world (IMHO).

>Is that goblin standing in the room a linkdead player, or just a regular
>mob?  Is the dwarf charging around town a spec_prog or a bot?  Was that
>guy you grouped with earlier really a player, or was it the imp's new AI
>mob?

In our construct you will not know who is running the orc unless you detect
behavior that seems atypical. A player-run orc has the same tools as a
computer-run one. He talks alike, uses the same weapons and armor. Has the
same strengths and weaknesses. Normally, you can't tell the difference.

>You said you enjoy killing clever mobs, but not killing players.  My
>question to you is:  Why?
>

I would suggest it is the reverse of my original post: Nice people don't
like generating the negative vibes caused by killing player characters
because they empathise with those they kill. Therefore, they share the
pain. Blasting a few memory locations to a new state does not carry the
same onus.

The key to this situation is to create a world where characters (PC or NPC)
get killed because the need to get killed....i.e They oppose the goals of
the PC. The traditional PK is a pain, not because he kills but because of
the one-dimentional nature of the killing. If you were killed by a roving
band hired to protect a profitable gold mine, you would be angry you
stumbled into the wrong place but would probably accept it as a reasonable
IC result of excessive boldness. With all the hoopla over PKing in UO, the
only times my son has been PKed what when he did something "stupid" in the
context of the world.

John Bertoglio

>KaVir.
>
>--
>J C Lawrence                               Internet: claw at null.net
>(Contractor)                               Internet: coder at ibm.net
>---------(*)                     Internet: claw at under.engr.sgi.com
>...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...
>
>--
>MUD-Dev: Advancing an unrealised future.
>



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MUD-Dev: Advancing an unrealised future.