[MUD-Dev] Justifying twinking

[jolson at micron.net]

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Bertoglio" <jb at pulsepoll.com>
Date: Wednesday, April 19, 2000 0:25 am
Subject: RE: [MUD-Dev] Justifying twinking

> He is example based on the idea above:
> 
> Say the rats above take two successful blows from an experienced 
> player to
> dispatch. The advance player "softens up the rats" so the newbie could
> kill beasts which (if taken on alone) would probably nibble them 
> to death.
> Now, when the killing blow is struck, the database checks to see 
> what the
> level of all the participants was. If a helper is XX levels above the
> slayer, the helper gets a large EXP bonus. Since in a well 
> designed system
> they would get virtually no EXP from a rat, this makes newbies a 
> valuableresource to experienced players.

There's a problem, though: not every newbie is really a newbie. If the 
xp bonus for helping a newbie in this way is significant enough to 
compare to normal adventuring at the twinker's level, players will 
inevitably just take turns being newbies for each other for what 
amounts to free xp (unless the game in question is limited to one 
character per account, but that's another thread). 

The only solution I can think of offhand is to ensure that the reward 
isn't worthwhile for such a scheme, but that un-solves the original 
problem: how to make a higher level player *want* to help a newbie? If 
the reward isn't worth cheating for, it certainly isn't worth doing 
legitimately. 

The Asheron's Call system awards xp to patrons on a more long-term 
basis. So while it doesn't do much direct good for the patron to half-
kill a rat for his newbie vassal, the idea is that the loyalty earned 
from that vassal will pay off in the long run when the vassal advances 
in ability and starts generating significant xp for the patron. I 
think this long-term approach aligns better with the spirit of 
altruistic twinking, rather than twinking for the sake of instant 
reward.

> Take it a step higher: The newbies go deep in country on a 
> dangerous hunt
> with high level players. The newbies get large EXP chunks from the
> occasional solid whack on a critter that would normally eat them 
> in one
> gulp. If the experienced players can manage to arrange for the 
> newbie to
> get the killing blow, they get a huge bonus and the newbie gets 
> braggingrights for killing Foozle the Wizard. The high level 
> players will also
> be generous with healing, items and other help required to let the 
> newbiesurvive the encounter. Sounds like a win-win to me.

I would expect the AI to make a one-bite snack out of the newbie in 
such a case. :)

-Josh Olson






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