[MUD-Dev] Re: How to handle log-outs in a totally dynamic world.

[Dan Shiovitz]

On Mon, 11 May 1998, Richard Woolcock wrote:
> Ben Greear wrote:
[..]
> > Basically, I'll use the same AI engine for the logged off characters
> > as I would for the NPC characters.  Might tweak things a little, but
> > hopefully I won't have to.
> 
> I believe this was discussed quite a long time ago...the real problem IMO
> is how to deal with PK (or even accidental death) when the player is not
> logged on (particularly if you have permanent death).  How would you feel
> if you logged on your several-month-old character, only to find you had
> died?  This would be a particular problem for me, as I am using a WoD 
> theme, where Vampires hunt each other down in order to commit Diablerie;
> Vampire cannibalism.  This means that every minute you are not in control
> of your character, you're a sitting duck (unless the AI was as tactical
> as the player).  I may just have the Vampires fall into torpor (sort of 
> like a very deep sleep) when they are not playing - thus making it very
> important to create elaberate defences...but even if I do this, I'll still
> need a system for mortals to use.

Hmm. One idea is to let people "fade into the crowd" eventually and
take them out of the game after, say, a week real-time. This isn't a
great method if you have 100% accurate means of locating people at any
time, anywhere (ie, divine intervention or something), but otherwise I
think it's workable. I don't think this is too unrealistic, either, as
if you don't know where someone is for a week, the trail's probably
too cold to track them down later. If you track reputation/notoriety,
it would be pretty plausible to make the fade-out time proportional to
their reputation; wanted killers whose faces are shown on tv are going
to have a harder time disappearing than, say, I would. You can also
make the disappearance time related to where the people are living,
too, so it's easier to disappear in the city or whatever. And, of
course, people don't have to disappear if they don't want
to. Low-level characters will probably prefer to just keep running
their shops or whatever, since who would be hunting for them? 

Since the premise is that the characters haven't really left the game
world, they're just hiding, you have to be a little careful about
this. If I go into hiding here in Madison and then someone levels the
city with a bomb, I should still get wasted. On the other hand, if
there's a riot in the city, I might come out of hiding and I might
not, depending on where the riot is. Hmm. This is getting a little too
detailed, frankly, and I'm losing the advantage of removing people
from the game. 

I dunno. Anyone else got a better idea?

> KaVir.
--
(Dan Shiovitz) (dbs at cs.wisc.edu) (look, I have a new e-mail address)
(http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~dbs) (and a new web page also)
(the content, of course, is the same)



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MUD-Dev: Advancing an unrealised future.