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

[Ling]

On Mon, 11 May 1998, Dan Shiovitz wrote:
> 
> 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

This is prolly my favourite one as well.  Until the ex-pc-npc returns to a
saferoom, it is treated as a normal character.  Upon going home, the
chances of randomly seeing that character should be defined by a function.
(say, power law wrt time & distance seems appropriate, though need to
account for daily habits.)  Accidently seeing Bubba in a crowd after 3 wks
of gametime would add a bit of atmosphere...  (is it worth it?)

> 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. 

Uh-huh.... Events to the character should happen regularly, the severity
of the event should be regulated as well.  (again, power law seems
suitable.)  This is also an ideal place to put in 'stablisers' into the
game balance.  Those doing well could be subtly penalised and vice versa. 
I don't see why not, just to make the game more competitive (or percieved
to be to) - some conventional computer games of late put them in, it's
kinda obvious when I'm leading and my speedo says I'm going at 150 mph and
my opponent is overtaking whilst travelling at 140 mph. ;)
[Note: That's unsubtle stablising.]

> I dunno. Anyone else got a better idea?

No.  Just recycled from the last visit to this topic. :)

  |    Ling Lo of Remora (Top Banana)
_O_O_  Elec Eng Dept, Loughborough University, UK.     kllo at iee.org


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