Distribution schemes (was Re: [MUD-Dev] Languages for MUD drivers)
Ian Macintosh
iman at issystems.co.nz
Sat Nov 20 07:48:25 CET 1999
> Koster, Raph wrote:
> Sent: Friday, 19 November 1999 05:00
>
> > From: Ian Macintosh [mailto:iman at issystems.co.nz]
> > Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 1999 8:49 PM
> >
> > You have a few properties on mobs. Thirst, Hunger,
> Fear. Now each
> > mob will only obey one 'drive' at a time. Each drive
> gets a chance to
> > calculate it's importance, and the one with the
> highest value wins.
> > That way, the thirstier an antelope gets, the closer
> and closer it
> > gets to the waterhole, even though it can see the
> lions. Finally, the
> > lions nail one of the antelope, and the rest get to drink.
> >
> Stop now. :) We went down this road with Ultima Online.
> With a model very
> similar to what you describe (though we used food,
> shelter, desire, taken
> from Maslow).
My focus is very much the bottom rung of Maslow. I don't plan go very
high either. Anything higher than base motivations are *real* AI, and
I'm not aiming there.
> Ask yourself whether anyone cares if an antelope falls
> in the woods if there
> is nobody there to see it. Then assess your design and
> ask yourself some
> tough questions about your objectives with the system.
The example I used was just generic to convey the idea. You are quite
right re the importance, and I'm steering clear of that like the
plague. I am just focusing on a more goal oriented, non-linear, event
driven approach to mob-progs than the traditional canned brain-dead
and puppet-like automation found everywhere else. I am trying to aim
for an opponent with smarts. About the highest I think I'll go on the
intelligence scale is a revenge motivation. I do want mobs to learn a
bit from experience as well, via a simple reward/punishment filter.
If I find it un-workable in practice, I'll just lobotomise the
ancestor object :^)
I must admit that some of the drive I have in playing in this area is
just plain fun, nice to fiddle with, I enjoy it stuff. On the cold
hearted business front, my only justification is seeing how hard I can
push the envelope.
Thanks for the advice :-)
Regards,
Ian.
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