[MUD-Dev] Re: Marion's Tailor Problem

[Damion Schubert]

-----Original Message-----
From: s001gmu at nova.wright.edu <s001gmu at nova.wright.edu>


>Ya.  Exactly.  Put in strong deterants, like police, wanted lists,
>perma-death. 

I've never been pleased with the outcomes of deterrants I have
used in my worlds.  In general, deterrants appear to be more 
effective at stopping vigilantes (player-killer killers) than player
killers.  My maxim: If you make some sort of player behavior
possible, the players will surprise you and make it frequent.
If you make it possible to outrun guards, for example, the 
experts of the game with the fastest reflexes, best macros, and
greatest game know-how will escape this situation 99.5% of 
the time.

Permadeath is also not a solution, until you make it so that 
that player can never re-enter the game.  Period.   An expert 
of your game can usually advance to the point where he is 
ready to kill in an astonishingly short period of time.  Never 
underestimate the player's expertise in the game you design. =)

> Also, as I advocated in another message, build in positive
>reinforcements.  Make the tailor do something that the players NEED.

This is actually tougher than you would suppose it would be.
Consider this: how often do you need a windbreaker in real
life?  Do you need more than one?  How often do you need
to replace that windbreaker?  And why on earth would 
you (as a player killer) ask a stranger/potential victim for a 
windbreaker, when you could simply (a) create a mule tailor
for all of your guild's clothings needs or (b) kill someone and
take their windbreaker? 

On Meridian, we attempted to make weapons menders more
valuable by having weapons degrade faster.  Only once weapons
degraded at an insanely fast rate (i.e. good to crappy in about
two hours) did we have enough mending business to support
more than two menders online at a time.  Which is to say, the 
other challenging half of the 'Tailor' problem has astonishingly
little to do with player-killers!

--damion