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OnyxFlame · 02-23-2003, 11:48 AM

Well, there's several other "wants" I can think of right off hand that'd work well. Given, most of them rely heavily on concepts included in the MUD I play, but some of them could be used anywhere.

Combat practice. Frank the NPC has all these weapons and nothing to do with him, so he decides he wants to spar. So he wanders towards the nearest person (PC or NPC) and asks them to spar. (Of course this would require other NPC's to be able to respond to this.) If they say yes, a fight ensues until one or the other decides they have better things to do. If they say no, then Frank wanders around until he either finds someone else to spar or finds something else he'd rather do.
(Of course the way DM works, Frank wouldn't be able to change his combat allocs unless they did some SERIOUS tweaking, so there's only so much he could learn anyway. But it might work for other less complicated systems.)

Crafting practice. It'd be too much of a pain in the ass for every NPC who wanted to craft to go grow a crop of flax or piddle around in the mine, so here's my idea. They look in nearby shops for materials needed for their practice, and if the stuff isn't there, they wander around telling every passing PC what they want and how much they're willing to pay for it. Of course once they get it, nothing's stopping some other PC from stealing their stuff, or killing them.

And of course some would want to buy clothes or armor or weapons, in which case they'd use the same method as wanting materials to craft with.

Thief type NPC's could wander around trying to rob people, sneak through town, etc. Mage NPC's I'm not quite sure how they'd work, at least with DM's setup, because I don't think our magic system could be scripted into an NPC very well, but with other setups you might see random mage NPC's practicing or going to buy reagents or blowing stuff up.

The main problem I see with highly developed NPC's in a skill-based MUD is this: how much do they know? Do they know that you have to craft x before you're good enough to craft y? Do they know that this room is too bright for them to hide in and some PC is gonna kill them if they see them? You could probably code in knowledge of all the difficulties of stuff they're likely to experience, but then all the PC's would have to do is watch the NPC's wander around doing stuff in order to figure out the most efficient way to do it.

So it looks like I've run into a wall. Not because my ideas have no merit or can't be coded, but because players in general will do anything they can to get ahead, even when they're not supposed to be doing so. A good lot of them won't look at all these NPC's running around acting just like PC's and say wow cool. They'll just think hmmm I bet he has money and kill them.

Which may be a good part of the reason that these aren't common features on MUDs.

02-23-2003, 11:48 AM	#5
OnyxFlame Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 153	Well, there's several other "wants" I can think of right off hand that'd work well. Given, most of them rely heavily on concepts included in the MUD I play, but some of them could be used anywhere. Combat practice. Frank the NPC has all these weapons and nothing to do with him, so he decides he wants to spar. So he wanders towards the nearest person (PC or NPC) and asks them to spar. (Of course this would require other NPC's to be able to respond to this.) If they say yes, a fight ensues until one or the other decides they have better things to do. If they say no, then Frank wanders around until he either finds someone else to spar or finds something else he'd rather do. (Of course the way DM works, Frank wouldn't be able to change his combat allocs unless they did some SERIOUS tweaking, so there's only so much he could learn anyway. But it might work for other less complicated systems.) Crafting practice. It'd be too much of a pain in the ass for every NPC who wanted to craft to go grow a crop of flax or piddle around in the mine, so here's my idea. They look in nearby shops for materials needed for their practice, and if the stuff isn't there, they wander around telling every passing PC what they want and how much they're willing to pay for it. Of course once they get it, nothing's stopping some other PC from stealing their stuff, or killing them. And of course some would want to buy clothes or armor or weapons, in which case they'd use the same method as wanting materials to craft with. Thief type NPC's could wander around trying to rob people, sneak through town, etc. Mage NPC's I'm not quite sure how they'd work, at least with DM's setup, because I don't think our magic system could be scripted into an NPC very well, but with other setups you might see random mage NPC's practicing or going to buy reagents or blowing stuff up. The main problem I see with highly developed NPC's in a skill-based MUD is this: how much do they know? Do they know that you have to craft x before you're good enough to craft y? Do they know that this room is too bright for them to hide in and some PC is gonna kill them if they see them? You could probably code in knowledge of all the difficulties of stuff they're likely to experience, but then all the PC's would have to do is watch the NPC's wander around doing stuff in order to figure out the most efficient way to do it. So it looks like I've run into a wall. Not because my ideas have no merit or can't be coded, but because players in general will do anything they can to get ahead, even when they're not supposed to be doing so. A good lot of them won't look at all these NPC's running around acting just like PC's and say wow cool. They'll just think hmmm I bet he has money and kill them. Which may be a good part of the reason that these aren't common features on MUDs.