[MUD-Dev] Realism and NPCs

[Christopher Allen]

Ben wrote:
>     I have tried out dartmud, and the idea of giving each npc a brain is
> interesting.  But the obvious problem that I can see is the kind of ram and
> space it would take up.  Does anyone know of anyones of solving this
> problem?

I was never really involved with the brain system software directly, however, as
I recall the basic technique was to make break up brains into more objects.

As I imagine it working from the specifications that I saw when I was briefly
creator there, at the bottom would be the unique brain that each NPC would
have -- it would typically be fairly small and override only default behaviors
for the specific purpose of the unique NPC.

Above the unique brain would be a more general brain that would be less
specific, say to the occupation of the NPC (guard brain, merchant brain,
wandering brain, etc.). This would handle things like ordering guards to block a
door, merchants buying and selling, and wandering minstrels.

Above that brain was a brain that handled how it dealt with combat and danger
(wimpy brain, fighter brain, mage brain, etc.) For instance, both wandering
brain and merchant brain use wimpy brain as a parent.

Finally at the top is a brain file that all NPCs share that contains all the
functions that are unique to a race -- for instance, humans and dragons.

As the higher level objects are not unique, this method should be relatively
memory efficient.

-- Chris

------------------------------------------------------------------------
.. Christopher Allen                                 Skotos Tech Inc. ..
..                           1512 Walnut St., Berkeley, CA 94709-1513 ..
.. <http://www.Skotos.net>               o510/647-2760  f510/647-2761 ..




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