<!-- MHonArc v2.4.4 --> <!--X-Subject: [MUD-Dev] Re: Implementing god. --> <!--X-From-R13: X Q Znjerapr <pynjNhaqre.rate.ftv.pbz> --> <!--X-Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1998 20:56:30 -0700 --> <!--X-Message-Id: 199809100349.UAA01046#under,engr.sgi.com --> <!--X-Content-Type: text/plain --> <!--X-Reference: 19980804122012.A13980#yuma,Princeton.EDU --> <!--X-Head-End--> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <html> <head> <title>MUD-Dev message, [MUD-Dev] Re: Implementing god.</title> <!-- meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" --> <link rev="made" href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com"> </head> <body background="/backgrounds/paperback.gif" bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" alink="#FF0000" vlink="#006000"> <font size="+4" color="#804040"> <strong><em>MUD-Dev<br>mailing list archive</em></strong> </font> <br> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] <br clear=all><hr> <!--X-Body-Begin--> <!--X-User-Header--> <!--X-User-Header-End--> <!--X-TopPNI--> Date: [ <a href="msg01001.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg01003.html">Next</a> ] Thread: [ <a href="msg00472.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg01003.html">Next</a> ] Index: [ <A HREF="author.html#01002">Author</A> | <A HREF="#01002">Date</A> | <A HREF="thread.html#01002">Thread</A> ] <!--X-TopPNI-End--> <!--X-MsgBody--> <!--X-Subject-Header-Begin--> <H1>[MUD-Dev] Re: Implementing god.</H1> <HR> <!--X-Subject-Header-End--> <!--X-Head-of-Message--> <UL> <LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI> <LI><em>Subject</em>: [MUD-Dev] Re: Implementing god. </LI> <LI><em>From</em>: J C Lawrence <<A HREF="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</A>></LI> <LI><em>Date</em>: Wed, 09 Sep 1998 20:49:19 -0700</LI> <LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI> </UL> <!--X-Head-of-Message-End--> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-Begin--> <HR> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-End--> <!--X-Body-of-Message--> <PRE> On Tue, 4 Aug 1998 12:20:12 -0400 Adam J Thornton<adam#phoenix,Princeton.EDU> wrote: > On Tue, Aug 04, 1998 at 06:51:44AM -0700, quzah wrote: >> At any rate, here is a sort of interesting blurb on handling those >> player-killers and general bad-persons. The url is rather long, so >> I've broken it into two lines. > Very interesting. > I'm using a secret police rather than an Omniscient God model, > myself. However, the crux of the matter for maintaining social > control is that even if there are no other players on the screen, > someone else may be watching from behind closed shutters, as it > were. I'm tending more and more to the model where NPC's are either pawns or targets, and don't pretend to any intelligence in their manifest or virtual (ie never realised but presumed present) selves. They're straw men. Cunning and even clever straw men, but expressly shallow, uninteresting, and overtly mechanical in nature. Robots with a mean streak. Outside of targets and pawns I can't see the need for NPC's given enough players (questions on how to raise a large enough player base are left to reader). As such (and this is echoing Nathan's post on the three types of game models ("simulationist", "dramatist", and "gamist" (which was really worthy of good response except that after attempting three replies, each of several hundred lines, I found they all summed to, "Yeah, wot he said!")) I'm going for the simulationist and gamist models to the exclusion of dramatist (not too surprising considering my lack of RP bent). This raises several other ideas from the old standards of mounts and other organic conveyances to pets. What is the value in charming, befriending, or otherwise gaining the affliation of an NPC? What about taming an NPC into a pet-state? Bubba attacks Tiamat in concert with his pack of 600 pet wolves? Boffo encicles the town with his pet elphants and wages a toll on everything and everybody that attempts to pass until the town starves to death and he can loot it in morbid peace? Bernie looks like a mild-mannered and harmless chap until you meet his swarm of pet killer bees? How about such affinity-bound NPC's as weapons? "Go get him Fido!" You raise the demon Wroth, wave Bubba's grimy cloak under his nose to give him the scent, and release the holding spell to have the DW track down and slaughter Bubba like a mangy cur? Sufficient affinity to teleport or control the basic motions of, but not enough to befriend? A swarm of killer bees suddenly take hive in the cathedral causing all to flee in bee-stung agony. You walk thru looting peacefully, unaffected by the disinterested bees (assuming affinity is a linear signed scale and you rate zero). With your minor encouragement the wolf pack changes it annual migration route to pass thru Bubba's sheep farm. > You never *really* know if you've gotten away with antisocial > behavior or not. Is anti-social behaviour to an NPC something to be concerned about? -- J C Lawrence Internet: claw#null,net (Contractor) Internet: coder#ibm,net ---------(*) Internet: claw#under,engr.sgi.com ...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith... </PRE> <!--X-Body-of-Message-End--> <!--X-MsgBody-End--> <!--X-Follow-Ups--> <HR> <ul compact><li><strong>Follow-Ups</strong>: <ul> <li><strong><A NAME="01003" HREF="msg01003.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Implementing god.</A></strong> <ul compact><li><em>From:</em> "Adam J. Thornton" <adam#phoenix,Princeton.EDU></li></ul> </UL></LI></UL> <!--X-Follow-Ups-End--> <!--X-References--> <UL><LI><STRONG>References</STRONG>: <UL> <LI><STRONG><A NAME="00472" HREF="msg00472.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Implementing god.</A></STRONG> <UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> "Adam J. Thornton" <adam#phoenix,Princeton.EDU></LI></UL></LI> </UL></LI></UL> <!--X-References-End--> <!--X-BotPNI--> <UL> <LI>Prev by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg01001.html">[MUD-Dev] Economics: Arrow's Impossibility Theorem</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg01003.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Implementing god.</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00472.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Implementing god.</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg01003.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Implementing god.</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="index.html#01002"><STRONG>Date</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thread.html#01002"><STRONG>Thread</STRONG></A></LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> <!--X-BotPNI-End--> <!--X-User-Footer--> <!--X-User-Footer-End--> <ul><li>Thread context: <BLOCKQUOTE><UL> <LI><STRONG>[MUD-Dev] Blender: free version</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM> <ul compact> <LI><strong><A NAME="00474" HREF="msg00474.html">[MUD-Dev] Blender: free version</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Tue 04 Aug 1998, 17:28 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00475" HREF="msg00475.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Blender: free version</A></strong>, Adam Wiggins <a href="mailto:adam#mail,angel.com">adam#mail,angel.com</a>, Tue 04 Aug 1998, 18:50 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> </ul> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00471" HREF="msg00471.html">[MUD-Dev] Implementing god.</A></strong>, quzah <a href="mailto:quzah#geocities,com">quzah#geocities,com</a>, Tue 04 Aug 1998, 13:50 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00472" HREF="msg00472.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Implementing god.</A></strong>, Adam J. Thornton <a href="mailto:adam#phoenix,Princeton.EDU">adam#phoenix,Princeton.EDU</a>, Tue 04 Aug 1998, 16:24 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="01002" HREF="msg01002.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Implementing god.</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Thu 10 Sep 1998, 03:56 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="01003" HREF="msg01003.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Implementing god.</A></strong>, Adam J. Thornton <a href="mailto:adam#phoenix,Princeton.EDU">adam#phoenix,Princeton.EDU</a>, Thu 10 Sep 1998, 05:27 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="01006" HREF="msg01006.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Implementing god.</A></strong>, J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Thu 10 Sep 1998, 18:52 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="01026" HREF="msg01026.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Implementing god.</A></strong>, Marian Griffith <a href="mailto:gryphon#iaehv,nl">gryphon#iaehv,nl</a>, Sat 12 Sep 1998, 15:07 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="01028" HREF="msg01028.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Implementing god.</A></strong>, Adam J. Thornton <a href="mailto:adam#phoenix,Princeton.EDU">adam#phoenix,Princeton.EDU</a>, Sat 12 Sep 1998, 15:48 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> </LI> </UL></BLOCKQUOTE> </ul> <hr> <center> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] </center> <hr> </body> </html>