[MUD-Dev] AI not worth doing in our games?

[David H. Loeser Jr.]

From: Damion Schubert

> I've been on several muds with shops that closed.  Ultima Online
> had shop owners that could move.  The players hated it, in both
> cases.
 
> Players have no problem taking a break from slaughtering rats to
> go sell stuff, but dammit, they sure better be able to do that on
> _their_ schedule.

Most of the time, it didn't matter if a merchant was in a store -
they simply refused to buy from you - so what's the difference in
the end?  You _still_ didn't make a sell.
 
> In EverQuest, human shopkeepers wouldn't sell to dark elves based
> upon their race, and human guards would attack them on sight.
> That was also one of the more despised features of the game, as
> huge parts of the game became nigh-unreachable for low level dark
> elves.

It may have been a despised feature of the game but all the same I
think that it is believable... Given all that we know about dark
elves... if you choose to play a dark elf, shouldn't you expect some
adversity?

> And I don't buy that simply changing out the visual appearance of
> a shopkeeper will make players say 'hey! this is new, fresh and
> interesting!'

I think that you may have overlooked the point I was trying to make
and latched onto an example that I gave...

There are 'things' that we can design/code that will make the AI
more believable.  For example, when you run through a group of MOBs
and one of them chases you... isn't it more realistic that the
entire group would chase after you?  Or how about when you meet up
with two MOBs and you attack one of them - wouldn't the other one
run to get help?  Or maybe help his companion and attack you?  These
actions would be more realistic (for certain races) and would cause
players to devise different/new strategies when it comes to combat
with MOBs.  (Yes, I realize that creating MOBs that behave as I have
described above would probably anger many players - but would this
not be a more believable system?)

I think that we can code AI that is more believable and realistic
with out having to bring someone like Steve Grand in to code the
system using neural networks... Do not misunderstand me, I'm not
saying that NNs aren't the way to go - I'm really saying that AI is
worth doing... and the AI exist, in part, to make the overall game
feel more realistic...  with out an AI... would it be a game?

David




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