[MUD-Dev] Newbies

[MichelleThompson]

 [Michelle Thompson]
> >  Mainly what I am thinking of deals with reusability.  On most muds I have seen,
> >  you can assign what is essentially a class to a mob.  Commonly, it seems to be
> >  through an attachment to the mob as a special program.   What I was thinking
> >  might be interesting is if someone built character scripts that you could
> >  attach to mobs.  Ie, some kids would probably get a shy script, a drunk would
> >  have a bully script.  A small boy could possibly get a curious script.   The
> >  scripts would generally define how mobs reacted to specific actions by
> >  characters and other mobs.  They would also define actions that did not need
> >  triggering for that particular "personality."  Reusable personality scripts
> >  seems to be a good halfway point between the fact that a lot of mobs do not have
> >  a personality, they just stand there waiting, and have limited reactions to
> >  the players, and the fact that it would not be practical to write a personality
> >  script for every mob in the mud.
[Matthew Mihaly]
>  Ahh, right. That's the way our system works. You can make programs as
>  general or as specific as you want, and assign them to as few or as many
>  mobs as you want. We've got hundreds of programs, though most are only
>  used for one mobile. Our policy is essentially that any mobile with a
>  unique name gets a unique prog with, minimally, 3 or so random responses
>  to being greeted that are specific to that mob. Maximally, they can be
>  programmed to respond to a number of things: overhearing things being
>  said, being told to, being asked something, being given something, being
>  generally greeted, being attacked, dying, entry of a player, exit of a
>  player, and can be set to just randomly do things now and then. 
>  
Nod those are standard, programmable scripts that you can taylor to a mob. 
Most codebases have them.    Generally to introduce an interesting personality 
though, they would have to be quite lengthy.  Why not have base scripts for
certain personalities.  The personality scripts would handle how a personality
type would react to a large number of situtations, based on what players say or
do.  After assigning someone a basic personality you could add the type of
progs you mentioned above to make the mob an individual.   That way they  could
react in a large variety of ways instead of just several.  You could even 
assign a basic personality type to fodder mobs with very little overhead.

A small example of data that might be in a small personality script
Shy personality script
Player			Mob
Action			Reaction
wink mob		blush
taunt mob		cry
slap mob		leave room
pinch mob		say "Ow!"
look at mob		hide
hug mob		emote shifts uncomfortably
follow mob		run away
accuse mob		sob
bless mob		emote mumbles, "Thank you very quietly"
tell mob "thank you"	blush
smile mob		blush
grin mob		hide
nudge mob		emote rubs his/her arm.
threaten mob		leave room
follow mob		run, and hide
nod mob		nod player
grovel mob		emote looks uncomfortable.
sneeze			emote mumbles, "bless you"
poke mob		no reaction
whistle mob		hide

There are so many things that people react to.  There are so many things that
players do, especially to mobs when they are bored.  If you defined
action/reaction on say even a fourth of them into a specific personality
script (the list above is not even a fourth of what players can say or do to
mobs)  If you defined an action/reaction on every mob for say a fourth of
them, even for only several hundred mobs, it would quickly take up more space
than it was worth.    If you make several general personilty types, they could
be assigned to mobs.  The mobs could have some of the comparitively small
scripts like you described above as well.  Mobs generally do not react to that
much.  This is a possible way to have more mobs react more ways to different
things. 

Michelle Thompson



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