[MUD-Dev] Secondary characters as a mechanic

[Caliban Tiresias Darklock]

From: "Brian Hook" <brianhook at pyrogon.com>

> This is a wacky idea that someone has probably already thought of
> and shot down, but I figured I'd toss it out and see what others
> had to say.

> Along with the standard "bigger stats, skills and stuff" reward
> system, how about augmenting it with more simultaneous characters?

Actually, this is part of the design for my current project,
although it's ships rather than characters. Most people will have
only one ship, but certain people will want more, so for an immense
expenditure of cash they can get one. Of course, they can only
actively pilot one at a time (although switching ships is simple and
can be done repeatedly without relogging), and the administrator can
configure the maximum number of ships per player...  but it's a very
similar concept to current MCS setups.

The major difference between this and the usual MCS configuration is
strictly philosophical: in our system, multiple ships are *expected*
to be used for muling. While each ship has its own name, it's still
just a ship, and the player would of course use any and all ships he
owns toward the same ends. (We also allow ships to be shared among
multiple players, but that's a whole different can of worms.)

Of course, this may not actually *work* in the current gaming
climate, but we've been operating under the assumption that the
players will exploit the system no matter what we do, so the system
should expect to be exploited.  The hard part is going to be how we
can convince the players that when someone exploits the system, this
is okay -- we anticipate a certain amount of outrage the first time
someone joins a corporation, then steals everything it owns and
starts using those resources to kill off all the other members. It
may not sit well with the playerbase when we confirm that we are
aware of this, that it is not a bug, and that this sort of behavior
is not only expected but actively encouraged. Some of them will
probably start forming lynch mobs.


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