Slavery system on Darksun.
 

I think some people will find this amusing/cool. Our codebase was Argila 2.0 but we've done a lot of changes to this code. This is our slavery system, allowing players to buy/sell/trade slave npcs such as gladiators/workers, etc. Virtually allowing them to build a real-time army of slaves if they have enough money.

This is only one of the many cool things I've been coming up with for my mud.
Thanks.

Log is below.




<****** / ||||||> l
The Slave Pits [5631: Indoors Lawful Light PcEntered Ok City]
Exits: south (closed gate) west down (closed grate)

This stone building is constructed unusually inside another larger stone
structure. It appears that the slave pits themselves are simply a gathering of
many buildings together in which certain licensed templars and even independent
slavemasters can sell their slaves. The pits here are simply constructed with
bone grates and agafari reinforcements. The ever lingering thought of a mutiny
seems to remind most that the true power lies with the slaves outnumbering their
overseers fifty to one.

A yellow-robed overseer stands here over a pit of slaves.

<****** / ||||||> list
The yellow-robed overseer describes its inventory:

# retail cost item
=== ============= ====
1 1300.00 bits A muscular human slave for labor work.
2 1300.00 bits A muscular human slave for labor work.
3 1300.00 bits A muscular human slave for labor work.
4 1300.00 bits A muscular human slave for labor work.
5 1300.00 bits A muscular human slave for labor work.

<****** / ||||||> buy 1 tyson
You have opted to purchase A muscular human slave for labor work., for a total of 1300 coppers. To confirm, please use the ACCEPT command.

<****** / ||||||> accept
The yellow-robed overseer sells you A muscular human slave for labor work..

You offer up the specified amount.

Change is made for the amount offered.
The yellow-robed overseer whispers to you in Urikite, with crude enunciation,
"You're lucky I gave it to you for 1300 coppers, maggot."

An ebony-haired man is released into your custody.

<****** / ||||||> l ebony
This brawny slave bears the muscles of one who was worked from a young age to
carry and bear the weight of a cart over their shoulders. Obviously a labor
slave, he doesn't look very intimidating and has the plain, average features of
a human.

An ebony-haired man appears to be in excellent condition.
<****** / ||||||> order ebony smile
Ok.
An ebony-haired man smiles.

<****** / ||||||> load obj 5000
An obsidian longsword appears.

<****** / ||||||> get sword
You get an obsidian longsword.

<****** / ||||||> drop sword
You drop an obsidian longsword.

<****** / ||||||> order tyson get sword
Ok.
An ebony-haired man gets an obsidian longsword.

<****** / ||||||> order tyson wield sword
Ok.
An ebony-haired man wields an obsidian longsword.

<****** / ||||||> tell ebony (nodding with satisfaction) Good slave.
Nodding with satisfaction, you tell an ebony-haired man in common:
'Good slave.'

Re: Slavery system on Darksun.
 

Harshlands debuted a system like this early this year. I know you're familiar with Harshlands, though you don't really play much as per your comments on rpimud.com, but did their nearly-identical system inspire you or is it just a case of simultaneous independent development? They do a p*ss-poor job of advertising their good qualities though (ok, they do a p*ss-poor job of advertising. Period) but as you said you have tried them out I wondered if that's where you got the idea. Considered something similar for my MUD but ultimately I dislike the nature of auto-created NPCs. They just don't say "quality" the way hand-built ones do. Anyway, congrats on the code regardless.

Take care,

Jason

Re: Slavery system on Darksun.
 

Not really, honestly. I never knew harshlands used the system, I know that the tracks lead back to harshlands code though Argila>Soi>harshlands or something of that nature. I was just messing with the OLC and came up with this system for the time being. Eventually it's going to get re-coded and hashed out, and balanced correctly.

Re: Slavery system on Darksun.
 

Is this different in some way from traditional followers in the Diku variants?

I remember buying/summoning/taming/charming/hypnotizing/resurrecting pets/followers as far back as the very early 1990's. It was actually pretty lame how every class had a variant skill to get followers.

Not trying to be critical, but I don't quite see originality in this.

Re: Slavery system on Darksun.
 

Subtle differences in the code and the way it works yeah. First thing is when you buy say a gladiator slave, that slave will be much stronger and have the right skillset of a gladiator. If you just buy a working slave it will have minmal skills to use and won't have the same stats as say the gladiator does. And this applies to all of our NPCs that we use in this way, such as mounts, and mercenaries. Mercenary npcs that you buy will only take certain commands from you, whereas the slave will do whatever it is told.

Re: Slavery system on Darksun.
 

I'll admit I'm not familiar with this codebase, but it looks like a simple "petshop" with the pets renamed as slaves that you can buy and use. Having different types of "pets" in the petshop is already supported by the petshop code from SWR I know of. What can you do with your slaves besides order them around and buying them?

Re: Slavery system on Darksun.
 

Well here's just an obvious few that make it much different.

-Each slave looks different based upon a set of variables in the code that generates a <x>, <y> <z> short description. You can also change the long description of the slave if you feel the automatically generated one isn't long or descriptive enough.

-There are dozens of different types of slaves, so if you buy a muscular work slave he'll have a high strength to carry lots of weight for you. If you buy a soldier-slave, he won't necessarily have high strength score, but will have the skillset to survive a fight.

-There is a programmable patrol that you can set your slaves to perform. Slaves also have a happiness meter on them that can't be checked without psionics being involved. If their happiness goes to a certain low point they will start to disobey orders and talk ****. Eventually they'll try to run away. The patrol code allows you to tell a slave to start at room X, and to walk between it and room Y. back and forth until you tell it stop. This is useful in that soldier-slaves are coded into your "clan" and if they are in an enforceable area where someone is not in the "clan" or is "wanted" by that clan, they will attack and subdue the target and take them to the nearest jails.

Ther's lots of other stuff, but since we're still in Alpha, I won't reveal all the cool **** we're doing.

Re: Slavery system on Darksun.
 

Customizable pets is not really anything out of the ordinary though.


I think you better have a look around at more MUDs if you believe that guards with player-designated patrol routes is new! ;) We put this into Achaea many years ago, and I have zero doubt that others did it years before Achaea did.

--matt

Re: Slavery system on Darksun.
 

I never said it was new, I was listing a few things that made the system a lot different from a simple "petshop" which someone was asking about. I have played many muds, probably more then most, and most ROM/Circle/DIKU/etc/etc/ whatever don't have these advanced pet features.