[Mabus]

Pardon my joining the thread hijack, but I hope I am at least in context with the last few posts of the thread.

It is a weighted balance. Differing styles of MUD call for weighting more toward one side (or sides, as there is more to consider then just those two posted options) based on what the designer is attempting to accomplish.

I agree a dead NPC needed for a quest seems rather bothersome. Without knowing the specific need for the NPC, why the NPC is able to be killed, the code behind the game or the reasoning behind the design it is hard to state why it cannot be taken care of with ease.

It should be possible to deal with by:
1) Making the specific quest NPC unattackable.
2) Make attacking the specific quest NPC less desirable to attack (harder to kill, less reward, consequences, guards).
3) Have the NPC re-spawn quickly if killed, possibly with a limiter to make immediately killing it again a lot less worthwhile.

Just 3 off the top of my head, and I am sure that the team on that game could come up with many more (and likely a lot better ones!). My coffee is just a little to strong today, and I could not resist.