[MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] Kill Smarter...Not Harder (Player vs. Monster)

[cruise]

Thus spake Louis d'Ambra...
> The most elegant alternative I see to make a very interesting
> challenge from a very dumb AI lies in one concept : critters
> interactions. So basically you arrange your critters in a zone in such
> a way that taken individualy, they are weak, but when together, they
> could lash out deadly combos. For example, I played a MUD where a big
> nasty serpent (boss) roamed slowly in a zone (2 hex per round, where
> every player could move 3 hex per round), so everyone could kill it
> using ranged weapon and dancing around. But the trick is that they
> were also orcs that casted the spell "web", wich is a poor spell until
> you discover that zone. I was killed once this way, stuck in a web
> where the serpent joined me. Honestly, this happened to me only once,
> because I was careful the other times and the game was still pretty
> easy, but I saw the challenge potential when playing with critters
> interactions. I would call this "zone intelligence", because it's not
> that one intelligent crit that represents a challenge, but the zone
> arrangement itselfs.

This would be another form of emergent gameplay - in this case, complex 
encounters emerge from simplistic enemies. It is strange that almost all 
MMO's I've played seem to focus on single enemy combat the player (or 
team) versus one AI oponent, which seems to be ignoring an awful lot of 
potential.

The primary motivation is the additional complexity and /variablity/ 
that is produced this way. And anything that adds variety to MMO combat 
has got to be a good thing.

Secondly, however, it can help the player feel powerful, which is often 
the hook in current MMO's - the player's increasing power. If that is 
part of your theme, allowing the player to wade into groups of enemies 
seems an excellent way to do it.