[MUD-Dev] Containing automation?

[Greg Miller]

Matthew Mihaly wrote:
> 
> Greg Miller wrote:
> > > People use automation for two things, in my experience. 1) doing things
> > > they don't like doing due to being repetitive and 2) automating things
> > > that they aren't good enough to do without automation. Our combat system
> > > falls under the second part. Most people can't think quickly enough to
> > > keep up with those who can fight properly, so they get cheesy and use
> > > automation.
> >
> > #2 alone doesn't completely describe it. People simply won't bother
> > with  #2 unless there's something else fun they want to get to by
> > automating combat.
> 
> Well, unless the fun thing you mean is the thrill of victory, you are
> wrong, as people often fight in our Arena, whether nothing can be gained
> from winning, except the sheer thrill of it.

That's one fun thing for most people. Obviously, nobody's going to
bother playing a mud unless they find parts of it fun, and they're going
to skip the parts that aren't fun if at all possible. That's
particularly true on a pay mud, so I have my doubts whether this trigger
paranoia many people suffer from accomplishes much other than
frustrating players. Few if any people will bother writing anything
other than the simplest imaginable triggers unless the game has some
hideously unpleasant game mechanic in an otherwise terrific game.

In particular, from the description you posted of your combat system
earlier, I doubt people who don't enjoy PK would be likely to play your
mud (or at least not the PK aspect of it), and the rest wouldn't want to
automate it. If they did, you might want to ask them why and try to fix
it in some other way before pouring in all the low-level anti-bot
techniques.

Granted, they're might be a few that would want to win just to laugh at
the losers, but I doubt you'd attract people like that since (as I
understand it), the penalty for PK death is little or nothing (assuming
your arena is similar to others in that respect).
--
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