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Eventually, I'd like to put a system in on my MUD that can measure the population of VNPCs at a certain place at a certain time. An example situation where this might be handy to have is for law enforcement. Suppose that a player decides to kill someone in the middle of a populated city. Although there might be no players or mobs except the player and his victim in the room, and perhaps even the rooms nearby, since the area is a city it makes sense that some VNPCs might have seen him.
I've seen some games without this system in, meaning it's possible to commit murder in Town Square without anyone even knowing it was you who did it. I've also seen the reverse, where any lawbreaking done in a city or populated area gets you wanted for the crime, no matter where the crime took place. I don't like either approach - I'd like players who try and kill someone on a busy street in broad daylight get caught for it, but dragging someone into a dark alley at midnight should still be plausible.
I'm still considering the best ways to implement this. Adding a "population" field to rooms seems too simple, since there would be more people outside during daytime hours than evening, and less people outside during rain, snow, etc. I can't think of any better way for builders to set populations in their areas without it becoming a lot more complicated, though. Should I go ahead with having them set a general value, and let checks in the code account for external factors, or is there a better way? Has anyone implemented anything like this before, or seen it done?
Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot.
Jherlen
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