[MUD-Dev] Re: [DESIGN] Antagonizing players

[Richard Woolcock]

quzah wrote:
> 
> Ben Greear wrote:
> >Lars Duening wrote:
> >> The recent discussion about the ethics of playerkilling made me think
> >> about a possibility of setting up players against each other without
> >> them noticing it.
> >>
> >> My idea is setting up a mud in a way that it is accessible under two
> >> different addresses (different names, different IPs). Depending on the
> >> address a player logs in, he is assigned the one or the other race. The
> >> point now is that in the mud all members of 'the other race', meaning
> >> all players logging in under the alternative address, are depicted as
> >> NPCs.

[snip]

> >Neat idea!  I think you would have some ppl think you were the greatest
> >coder ever for a minute or two!  But, you'd probably have a pretty
> >sparse
> >world, player/NPC wise.
> >
> >Might be an interesting social experiment, but I'm not sure you could
> >ever iron enough wrinkles out to make it a stable playing environment.
> >
> >Might give ppl a new perspective of the harsh life that is the lot of
> >NPC though!
> 
> I had this same idea a while ago, however I was going to do it a bit
> differently. I was planning [Ah, the plans... too bad I don't have

[snip interesting suggestion about under/overground muds meeting]

I also had (have?) plans along these lines, except I was planning to
have a sort of 'sub mud' - a Hell - a pure PK demon-vs-demon style
mud, which could run alongside my roleplay mud.  The idea then was
that, when a player in the rp world decided to summon a demon, it
would create a gateway to the Hell mud and suck one (or more) demons
through.

Would that piss off the demons?  Very probably.  How do summoned demons
react when summoned in most roleplaying games?  Very pissed off.  The
intended result... intelligent, dangerous, well roleplayed demons that
the roleplayers think are mobs (the demons would probably figure it out
quick enough).  Further possibilities for this idea include the ability for
demons to grant gifts to people in the roleplaying world (in exchange for
their souls), and to provide a great place to send obnoxious players from
the roleplaying mud.

> I think it would work great. It would actually give people an idea
> of good vs evil depending on their preception of it. (Just like ye
> ol' christian crusaders going to purge the 'holyland' of the army
> that had invaded it.) It would all just depend on your perception.

Indeed; it would certainly be a better alternative to alignment.

[snip]

> ('A' world finally meets 'B' world in a clash of blood )
> 
> At any rate, I had planned on something like that, to the
> members of the dark world, Quzah would be their god of rest
> and slumber. The overworld would view Quzah as the god of
> death and darkness. It is all a matter of perception.
> 
> It should work great if you give all of your npc's mob
> programs, and implement languages. The darkworld persons
> would see the overworld members as mobiles speaking random
> unknown languages, and would see them as strange demons,
> the same way they would be percieved by the overworld.

Certainly - if the pc's act too randomly, then it will become
apparent that they are not mobs.  Having languages would be
an easier solution than coding mobs that pass the turing test;)

> I would make the entire 'A' world hate or at least be
> opposed to the 'B' world, so if an earth-golem from below
> wandered into the forest, the wimpy stuff (deer, rabbit)
> would run, while the big stuff would fight it.

Interesting...but does that mean moles would get attacked by
mice?

> Never would the two ('A' and 'B') show up on the same
> 'who' or 'where' listings. The mud would treat them as
> two different worlds.
> 
> Alas, I have not the current ability, and so it is on
> my  'to-do-"If I ever am able..."' list.

Alas, I do not have the time and have way too much other stuff 
to do, so its right down the bottom of my 'to do' list...

KaVir.