[MUD-Dev] Re: Combat Was Re: Leaving characters in play

[Adam Wiggins]

On Mon, 18 May 1998, Oliver Jowett wrote:
> On Mon, 18 May 1998, Orion Henry wrote:
> > Yes, this was brought system was brougt up over a year ago.  Its been so
> > long since we have talked combat systems and we have so many new
> > subscribers I didnt feel bad about recycling it.  Also all the luck stuff
> > at the end was new and I was curious as to what people thought.
> 
> I actually meant the "how do you work out which actions are appropriate"
> idea - I'm sure I saw a thread to do with climbing trees vs. finding
> healers at one point. WebGlimpse on the archives is spitting internal
> server errors at me currently, and the other search engine is timing out, 
> so I can't find it :(

Yeah, that was between JC and myself.  Its scope quickly left that of our
task system.  Tasks are pretty basic operations.  JC wanted to know how
our system decides that climbing a tree is more important than fighting
Bubba since there's a tidal wave about to wipe out the area.  The answer
is: it doesn't.  We didn't intend it to.  We're not trying to replace the
player's ability to respond to stimuli, we're trying to provide a better
way to order and execute the various physical actions the player commands
the character to execute.  Climbing the tree to escape the tidal wave just
requires a "climb tree!" command.  This of course could mean that the
player gets cut down from behind as he tries to climb the tree, but the
server doesn't try to decide danger levels.  It just goes by what priority
a given task usually takes.

> There's an element of "people don't -do- that!" in here too. Having
> players eat apples while fighting off dragons and opening chests in the
> breaks in combat seems vaguely obsessive-compulsive to me. "Ooh, he's
> pausing to cast a fireball, I can open another chest! <creak> <boom>"

Well, as long as you are in combat you don't do any menial tasks, because
you get a combat task which supercedes that.  Here's a simple example
(server notes are in braces):

% who am i
You are Boffo, mighty slayer of small rodents.
% kill bubba
You leap to attack Bubba!
{boffo gets task: combat on bubba}
Bubba draws his sword and prepares to fight.
{bubba gets task: combat on boffo}
[...]
You raise your weapon and prepare to attack.
{boffo gets task: attack bubba}
Your deadly mace of rodent slaying crashes down on Bubba's head!
{boffo task finished: attack bubba}
Bubba reels with pain.
{bubba gets task: reel in pain}
You raise your weapon and prepare to attack.
Bubba recovers his wits.
{bubba task finished: reel in pain}
{boffo gets task: attack bubba}
Your deadly mace of rodent slaying sends Bubba's head flying!
{boffo task finished: attack bubba}
Bubba collapses, dead.
{bubba task finished: combat on boffo}
{boffo task finished: combat on bubba}
%

Any "open chest" command typed by either player during the fight would
have been put off until the end of the fight unless it had been "open
chest!"

Adam



--
MUD-Dev: Advancing an unrealised future.