[MUD-Dev] SOC DGN - Spawn locations

[J C Lawrence]

On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 17:31:41 -0400 
Brian Hook <hook_l at bookofhook.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 15:18:54 -0500, Matthew Rick wrote:

>> The basic idea is to not have mobs spawn if there are players near
>> by.

> Griefing is a major potential opportunity here.  Park your guild in
> "hot spots" specifically to deny other players access to key mobs.

Similarly, circle your guild about the hotspot at a radius of N+1 and
then sell access to the NPC, ala EQ.  Then, divert a small portion of
your guid membership to make speed runs through the controlled NPC
spawning of competing builds this lowering their NPC spawn rates and
this lower their guild income rates and thus (potentially) driving them
out of business.

> On top of this, it forces players to spread out a little too much,
> possibly ruining the socialization factor.  You basically set up an
> invisible force field around players, and with enough players, mobs
> may not be able to get in edgewise.

Depending on selection and density algorithms this can and could work
both ways.  For example if the more dangerous NPCs only spawned in
inverse proportion to player population density, then as player density
across the game got higher it would be quite dangerous to be away from
the crowds as the probability of getting Tiamat dropped on you would
approach unity.  Similarly, a slight tweak of the algorithms would make
being near crowds a starvation phenomena and thus going for a uniform
player spread across the world being the more profitable state.

-- 
J C Lawrence
---------(*)                Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas.
claw at kanga.nu               He lived as a devil, eh?
http://www.kanga.nu/~claw/  Evil is a name of a foeman, as I live.

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