[MUD-Dev] Toward a Craftier Dragon

[Travis Nixon]

From: "Maximus" <Maximus at Vaultnetwork.com>

> That is an excellent idea! The only things I see wrong with it are
> game balance issues.

>   1) A lot of people would want to play the dragon, so I guess
>   some kind of limited number would have to made available and
>   fairly given out.

>   2) Enough dragons would have to exist to balance the number of
>   players so they at least had a chance to survive. Imagining a
>   hundred people ganging up to slay it.

> Other than that, I personally would really look forward to
> something like that.

My own ideas in this vein run something like this:

Allow players to control monsters, but put it on some sort of
advancement scale, so that in the beginning they could only play the
lowliest of creatures.  Obviously, some hefty logging would have to
be going on, because advancement would be more a matter of proving
you can play the system without abusing it.  Of course, with enough
people playing this way, it would be difficult if not impossible to
review all the logs, so it might end up being a matter of trying to
flag certain actions as being worthy of further investigation, and
relying on complaints, althought that second path is rather
frightening.  ("Mr GM, he was most definatly not playing a goblin
like a goblin should be played.  They are stupid and should
practically impale themselves on my sword, but he very nearly killed
me!")

I haven't really thought through all the mechanics, how it would
work or why it wouldn't, but I think something like this could add
an interesting new dimension.

Of course, you'd have the possible problem of somebody who ran
through the entire system flawlessly just so they could get to the
point where they could give their guild the dragon's treasure.  But
then of course, you always have the option of controlling the dragon
yourself later, and attacking to retrieve it.  Or, if they killed
it, sending a vengeful brother or whatnot.  And of course, banning
the player from the "instant action" option in the future, if it's
determined they did in fact give the treasure away willingly.

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