[MUD-Dev] Mob (NPC) behavior

[Sasha Hart]

[William Murdick]

> To that end we're implementing a lot of NPC interaction (you can't
> just list for products at the shops, you have to greet then
> examine and maybe even barter).

Hmm, when I tried this out in my game, even just testing it myself,
I found it frustrating. It comes down to "I am sick of this much
typing."  As I recall it was pretty shocking to realize how much I
hated my own idea when I actually played with it.

What all does your NPC interaction system entail, if you are at
liberty to say? I have a terrible problem keeping the interface
under control while still offering many options - I have mostly
dropped the idea of standardized social interactions for my text
server in favor of just scripting them more or less per-NPC/type,
and leaving the standardized code stuff to the physical, tactical,
economic bits which are easier to get a full grasp on.

> The thing we came upon was how to get mobs to perform tasks such
> as hunting down criminals without having to manually do this.

I think as you suggest you can put some mobs on watch for certain
kinds of information to pop up, then react to it (of course, you
also have to be pumping the information in from the other side in a
plausible way.)

>Or how to get mobs to talk to each other without forcing them.

...

> The overall goal is to get a situation where a player kills a
> shopkeeper (for example). Another NPC witnesses this event and
> this then becomes a rumor which spreads throughout the city (like
> a disease of sorts).

As much as this is attractive to me, I always cringe at the amount
of number crunching this involves, and want to have a better way.

Maybe you don't have to actually simulate NPC contact head per head.
This gets done in a pretty cheesy way with things like the KILLER
and THIEF flags in diku: everyone knows instantaneously.

So, my thinking ran a few months ago:

  -- Make it so everyone doesn't figure it out; some people just
  don't get the information. (e.g. a "subscriber's list.")

  -- If they do, it's not instantaneous, but the delay relates in
  some way (e.g. proportional to distance) that is somewhat
  plausible as an abstracted model of the info getting around.

Even so I'm not sure that you couldn't just throw full on simulation
at it successfully, it really depends on the neat effects you can
get and how fast it runs. I think this would work great if your game
were just a very detailed hamlet or something, but if your
population sizes are as ambitious as your realism then you will want
to free up cycles for other stuff, too.

> Eventually this reaches the town guards and they may choose to act
> on it by tracing back down the list of witnesses to the source, at
> each point inquiring if each NPC has seen the PC and where. The
> goal is to simply get the feel of guards going about their duty
> trying to locate a criminal.

This would be immensely funny to watch. I can imagine the cityguards
plodding along their beat, systematically interrogating the
citzenry, every time someone killed a shopkeeper. I would have a
ball. ;)

Seriously, a little detail here could make a whole game out of
getting away with things, helping friends out of jams, a PvP game of
framing people, an economic hook of investment via bribes, etc. But
you don't want to set this stuff up if it doesn't ultimately matter,
there are more effective ways of invoking the atmosphere if you
don't need the whole thing.

> Aside from the obvious monumental task of getting all of these
> various parts coded and working properly, what are people's
> opinions on this idea and potential implementation?

I seriously recommend doing some silly simulations outside of the
MUD, even if they be 30min. BASIC programs.

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