[MUD-Dev] Introduction Systems

[John Buehler]

Ben Chambers writes:

>>   3. Provide a mechanism that lets players accept a character's
>>   'chosen' name, eliminating the vast majority of your storage
>>   requirements, and permitting very long names.  Most people will
>>   just accept a character's offered name.

> I walk up to joe, say Hi, I am Ben.  Then I go to sue, and say I am
> Joe.  This is the offered name, but isn't the same.  This won't
> actually save any space, UNLESS you don't want to allow bluffing.

I'm relying on using mechanisms where the game knows whether I'm
bluffing but the other player doesn't.  So I can use the following
commands:

  /setname Tormanth
  /introduce
  /introduce
  /introduce
  /introduce Bob
  /setname Bob
  /introduce
  /introduce

The first command establishes my name for whatever purposes the game
uses that information for.  Internally, the game creates an identity
record with "Tormanth" in it and some magic number that will actually
be used.

The next three are my introducing myself.  Other characters see "Hi,
my name is Tormanth", with "Tormanth" highlighted so that they can
interact with it in order to get that introduction recorded.  They
will remember my character as being "Tormanth", and maybe that name
floats over my character's head when their character recognizes him.

The next command is me bluffing.  Other characters will see "Hi, my
name is Bob", with "Bob" highlighted as before.  Those who already
know me as "Tormanth" will get some indication of that from the game.
Either they'll see a character with the name "Tormanth" floating over
its head and saying that he's actually "Bob" or the introduction will
come across, followed by a game message (a thought by your character)
saying "But you know him as Tormanth".

The next command is me changing my identity to Bob.  It doesn't change
my appearance or anything else, just that internal identity notion.
In fact, it creates a new identity record.  I might be limited to some
number of identity records so that malicious players don't create
zillions of the things.  In any case, most players will only use one.

The next two commands will introduce me as "Bob".

A twist here is that I'd like to use client resources to store
character knowledge.  I was hoping to use a two-way encryption
algorithm to store items of information, but only to encrypt the magic
numbers that are so critical.  For names, it looks like I'd have to
encrypt the whole introduction item.  That is, 20349 versus 20349Bob.
The set of three introductions would produce the first form, while the
explicit "/introduce Bob" would produce the second.  I wouldn't want
players poking into their local, unencrypted data and noticing that
they were introduced to Bob, but that Bob was an alias.  That's
out-of-game discovery, and I don't want much of that.

Those who dislike the use of special mechanisms that are not as simple
as using

  /say Hi, my name is Tormanth

won't like this mechanism.  In truth, I don't *like* it, but it's what
I would consider a valuable or necessary pain in order to achieve the
effects that I'm after.  In this case, the ability to record
introductions.  If we don't go this route, then the guy introducing
himself just uses /say and the listener uses

  /identify this Tormanth

by clicking on my character and then issuing that command.  The game
could internally determine if there is a match on the text strings and
optimize the storage.  The /setname command offers the possibility
that there can be additional information associated with the notion of
an identity.  For example, disguises.  If a disguise mechanism were
introduced, it might be easily coupled with the identity notion.

JB

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