[MUD-Dev] Player control of NPCs

[rayzam]

> Mordengaard wrote:

>> I'm considering implementing a system whereby players with
>> sufficient rank/position can be put in charge of NPCs or groups
>> of NPCs, giving them orders either via direct commands (says,
>> tells, that kind of thing) or through other NPCs (runners,
>> buglers etc).  This would allow me to have sheriffs who can set
>> up the patrols of his deputies and watchmen, generals with
>> control over whole armies of men, necromancers with hordes of
>> undead, etc.  Does anyone, either through experience or
>> imagination, have any advice for me, or know of any pitfalls that
>> I should avoid?

We've implemented this in a variety of ways, and have had to modify
them due to player, grief & balance issues.

  1) pets: 

    Rangers can call animals from the wild, appropriate to the
    terrain they're in. Druid's can do the same for animals or fae
    [celtic style druids]. Mages can summon up elementals [these are
    not as powerful as D&D elementals], etc.

    The animals can follow the person, fight with the person, and be
    used in combo attacks with the person [person has skill
    use]. The animals can be healed by the person, or sent back to
    the wild. The person is limited to only one of these at a time,
    of a type. Thus a ranger/druid can have a ranger animal, a druid
    animal and a druid faerie at the same time, bu tnot 2 ranger
    animals. Experience gained from the kill is slightly
    reduced. Having the animal die penalizes the person's exp
    directly too. Some animals have their own special attacks or
    skills. Some can be used as mounts or pack animals.  Druid fae
    have some other abilities: their own spells, ability to be used
    as a mount, etc.

    Mage elementals automatically follow the mage and cannot be left
    around in another room. They have special attacks and abilities
    based on their element.

    When NPCs are attacked or attack these, they'll also attack the
    owner.  They're not stupid :) I'd suggest adding that feature.
    These are labelled as to the owner: 'Rayzam's rock wolf'. That's
    to prevent anonymity in PvP. Another feature that is worth
    adding, especially to tag grief players.

    Don't give free reign in terms of being able to give them any
    command at all. A simple thing is don't let them use the 'score'
    command, as that puts out all the individual stats of the
    monster to straight view [but this ties into the hiding the
    numbers. We feel that minions for the most part should have
    hidden numbers and that this enhances play with them. They
    become more individual and not numbers :)]

    Also, prevent them from spoofing on channels.
 
    Furthermore, require the owner of the minion to be on hand. Why? 
    Remote control of a minion can lead to more player grief and
    thievery. Very safe to be somewhere out of reach and have your
    minion wander through town, grabbing things that are dropped,
    steal kills or attack people. This does come from our limited
    PvP, and anti-player-conflict/thievery ideology.  If you have an
    experience system, don't give experience to the owner if the
    minion kills something while the owner is elsewhere. they have
    to be around/participate in the kill. [Remember, being in the
    room, with the minion attacking an NPC means the NPC attacks
    both the player and the minion, in our system].

Now for minions with alterations from these basic rules:

  2) Necromancer undead/hordes. 

    The necromancer can create a variety of undead types. Each type
    [skeleton, zombie, reaper, etc], has a unique skill/spell. Each
    has different abilities, and different roles [tank, blaster,
    etc]. They are created from corpses. They are also upgradable
    with more corpses. [actually it's all based on corpse energy,
    which the necromancer stores up]. You can increase the power,
    abilities, skills, spells of the undead. These save of
    course. You can name the undead. corpse energy from magical
    flight creatures can be used to give an undead flight ability.

    The necromancer can control a horde, instead of getting just a
    single minion. The necromancer can control these remotely. The
    undead/horde engaging an NPC in combat does not initiate combat
    with the necromancer.  Why the difference? The necromancer is
    maintaining complete control over the undead. Everything they
    do, including walking from one room to another is done under the
    supervision of the necromancer. It costs spell points. The
    undead decay, and need to be patched. The more they do, the more
    decay, the more patching. ON the other side, due to this
    control, the necromancer does not need to be reachable to
    perform these actions.

    Issues here: 

      When you allow a necromancer to name an undead, beware
      spoofing a player name, especially if you log by names. Thus
      make the name <name given> the <undeadtype>.  Boffo the
      Skeleton.

      Beware power.  A horde of undead can be powerful. Thus each
      individual undead needs to be low powered. Balance it as a
      group. Limit the horde size by the power level. So a lot of
      low powered skeletons can be 1 horde, or a few high powered
      reapers. Do allow for mix/matching of undead types of course.

      Decay/upkeep: any system that allows for increases like this,
      should have a requisite drain. Having decay be based on a
      per-command level, on undead 'death' [and reanimation], on
      storing and restoring the undead, means that there is a drain,
      and thus it isn't just a matter of time until every
      necromancer has a maxxed out horde. Thus a necromancer tends
      to level out at their own personal playing ability, in terms
      of horde.

    Problems we ran into: 

      again, limit the commands that can be given.  Frankly, this
      should be filtered, and you should only allow specific
      commands, instead of trying to disallow ones as they come
      up. It's always easier to add a command after it's been
      requested, and after reviewing the idea, than trying to plug
      all the holes in a leaky boat :)

      The undead had the ability to block an exit. Got
      removed. Really cheap and easy undead could make towns
      impossible for new characters. Grief galore.

  This undead/horde system could be used for any upgradable minion,
  regardless of theme. The necromancer could as easily be a
  beastmaster with a series of animals and have them be upgradable.

  3) mounts and pack animals:

    Mounts can carry riders, based on size/weight issues. Combat
    riding is different from regular riding. Mounted combat is
    different than regular combat. Affects overland travel. Other
    effects in terms of resting.  Pack animals: can carry more, but
    can't be 'ridden'. Nice way to carry stuff :)

    Neither can engage in combat for the person.. pack animals are
    led by the player. Mounts can be led if not being
    ridden. Led/ridden animals have a [ridden by Boffo]/[led by
    Boffo] tag on them. 'Ware being invisible but leaving your
    mount/pack animal visible.. it looks silly :) These are bought
    by the player, and can be housed in stables. They also require
    feeding :) Some have flight, some are water breathers or water
    dwellers. Nothing to terribly beware here, since they don't
    accept commands more than being mounted/led [except for the few
    combat mounts with the paladin using the 'charge' skill and a
    lance, etc].

  4) Alchemist castle golems:

    These are created by taking armor pieces with their abilities,
    and welding them into a humanoid shape [need the right pieces
    covering the right areas], then animating it with a player
    corpse's brain. The attributes of the armor determine the
    attributes and abilities of the animated golem. They can only
    exist within a player castle, to defend it from invaders. They
    can block exits or attack intruders, allowing those the castle
    owner/landlord/tenants list as friends.  The player corpse's
    brain has the ability to be programmed :) Thus the owner can set
    up specific skill/spell use by the golem in combat situations.
    The number of these preprogrammed attacks is dependent on the
    quality of the brain, which is dependent on the 'level' of the
    player it was taken from.

    Caveats: 

      in the system as listed here, there aren't many. It's already
      well restricted, in terms of the power and abilities.
      Benefits: Lots of choices in how to make one. Alchemists would
      make and name specific models :) Equipment drain :) [salvaging
      a golem that has been killed by castle intruders inevitably
      results in the loss of some of the pieces it was made from].
      Persistent regardless of castle owner being online.

    This system could be used for minions like the undead horde or
    animals.  However, these castle golems currently give no
    experience for any kill they make, and are defenders of the
    castle. This is due to a balance issue, where they can be more
    powerful than the other minions. They're used for defending
    against other NPCs, especially offline defense, as a castle and
    stored equipment persists and is at risk even when the castle
    owner is offline.  Thus, give them more power than we'd give if
    a player used them to kill NPCs for equipment or experience. And
    that's also why they're limited to an existance within castle
    walls.  Using it as the other minions are used would require
    scaling down the power, which is doable. It's just a tweak of
    the algorithms that convert the armor attributes to the golem's
    abilities.


  5) the start of armies. 

    These are mobs of NPCs which can be used to fight other mobs of
    NPCs. Individuals attacking them do very little [that magic
    missile only hits one of the soldiers out of a thousand!]. The
    mob can spawn off individuals to face individuals that do attack
    them. So individuals can pick away at a mob. These aren't fully
    implemented yet [neither are ballistae and catapults for the
    castles :)]. Some spells work on mobs [like stronger area effect
    spells, morale spells, etc].

Hope this helps.

Rayzam
www.retromud.org


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