[MUD-Dev] PvP Systems

[rayzam]

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Buehler" <johnbue at msn.com>
To: "MUD-Dev" <mud-dev at kanga.nu>
Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2001 6:46 PM
Subject: [MUD-Dev] PvP Systems


> This may well be something that has been presented, considered and
> rejected in the past, but I'm still hunting for PvP systems that
> work.  'Working' means that players may engage in 'conflict actions'
> such that they are entertaining for all concerned.

> The idea is little more than a more granular treatment of PvP
> switches.

<SNIP>

> This can be extended to actions as well.  If I have 'assault' set to
> 'no', but 'theft' set to 'yes', when someone tries to steal from me,
> the law system for that area may permit me to assault just that one
> guy.  This is a dangerous mechanism because it results in elevation
> of hostilities, which might have been the player's original
> intentions - to start small and get the victim to get into a fight
> or a duel.  If the elevations happen automatically, this would
> definitely be a problem.  If they happen only by the victim
> initiating the elevations, then it should be controllable.

> A member of the justice system may always have approval by all
> players up to the limit of the law.  So if you are a member of the
> law, you may have the right to assault anyone you want - as well as
> other rights.  If you are a member of the law system, you are
> trusted by the game to conduct yourself reasonably.

Well, one issue is the lack of cross-sets. That is, currently only
thieves can steal from thieves. Or a thief could set himself to no
combat type aggression. I'd suggest having some hybrid settings. So
thieves can steal, and your 'law' people can attack thieves. This lets
the thieves steal from the law, and the law fight back with damage,
death, incarceration, whatever skills are flagged appropriately.  But
doesn't give the law rights to attack anyone. And this allows the
thieves to steal from the law, instead of only from others who set
themselves to theivery.

We had a system similar to this at one point in the past. A thief
steals from someone, that theft is noted in the game. If the person
stolen from noticed, or someone there noticed and informed them, then
they could get retribution. That is, they could hire a player[s] to
hunt the thief. If that player killed the thief, that player got
whatever was on the thief at the time of death [normally, eq goes with
you/resses back with you, so you don't have to go hunt your
corpse]. That one death cleared the bounty. This means that the bounty
hunter could be anyone in the game, and would have to pick the right
time to attack the thief [when he had the item, or enough of other
value].

Of course, the loophole is that the bounty hunters could be bought
off.  Or thieves would kill [or get their friends to kill] bounty
hunters, or those who they stole from, [if you send anyone after me,
I'll kill you into oblivion]. Two specific incidents escalated it to a
huge scale, a might makes right, Lord of the Flies place, which we
didn't want, which ended player thieving.

    Rayzam
    www.retromud.org

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