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Jazuela · 08-14-2004, 08:06 AM

Thanks Traithe, that's what I meant. I actually tried to word it correctly but came upon a void in the elemental plane of "brainz."

It's a design issue, not a bug. The NPCs do exactly what they were programmed to do. Unfortunately, they were programmed to do something that is causing a few people to gripe. It's a valid gripe, and the staff is trying to work out what, exactly, they can do about it that won't mess it up even worse.

If you put in an automatic delay, then a criminal in the same room as the soldier will get off scott-free every single time. That kinda obliterates the whole purpose of a crim-code. If you remove the automatic recognition of criminals, even when the criminal has his hood up or has his face otherwise covered, then you open a HUGE can of ridiculously easily abuseable worms. One recent suggestion was to add a code check on the part of the NPC, to see if the criminal is wielding a weapon. If he is, then all bets are off, criminal gets juiced, end of story. If he isn't, then as long as he doesn't struggle (there's a toggle called "nosave" for that, which every player can use for his character), he'll just get subdued and dragged off to jail.

The problem with that, is that some crimes really -should- be instant death. Like magickers in the north. They are killed -on sight- with no questions asked. Or if a criminal walks up to a soldier and kicks him in the balls - you really think an NPC would say "dood - you stop that right now!" or is he gonna haul off and waste that infidel's sorry hide?

So then you have to recode the system to break the crimes down into various severities. And not a single one of them accounts for emoted crimes, such as..emote sticks his hand in %templar pocket, and upon finding nothing to retrieve, gives !templar a grope.

That's punishable by death too. Them's some holy junk you're grabbin there boyo.

And so - until something -really awesome- is worked out, the imperfect system stays, and if you don't wanna die, the solution is simple: don't get caught.

08-14-2004, 08:06 AM	#9
Jazuela Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: New England Posts: 849	Thanks Traithe, that's what I meant. I actually tried to word it correctly but came upon a void in the elemental plane of "brainz." It's a design issue, not a bug. The NPCs do exactly what they were programmed to do. Unfortunately, they were programmed to do something that is causing a few people to gripe. It's a valid gripe, and the staff is trying to work out what, exactly, they can do about it that won't mess it up even worse. If you put in an automatic delay, then a criminal in the same room as the soldier will get off scott-free every single time. That kinda obliterates the whole purpose of a crim-code. If you remove the automatic recognition of criminals, even when the criminal has his hood up or has his face otherwise covered, then you open a HUGE can of ridiculously easily abuseable worms. One recent suggestion was to add a code check on the part of the NPC, to see if the criminal is wielding a weapon. If he is, then all bets are off, criminal gets juiced, end of story. If he isn't, then as long as he doesn't struggle (there's a toggle called "nosave" for that, which every player can use for his character), he'll just get subdued and dragged off to jail. The problem with that, is that some crimes really -should- be instant death. Like magickers in the north. They are killed -on sight- with no questions asked. Or if a criminal walks up to a soldier and kicks him in the balls - you really think an NPC would say "dood - you stop that right now!" or is he gonna haul off and waste that infidel's sorry hide? So then you have to recode the system to break the crimes down into various severities. And not a single one of them accounts for emoted crimes, such as..emote sticks his hand in %templar pocket, and upon finding nothing to retrieve, gives !templar a grope. That's punishable by death too. Them's some holy junk you're grabbin there boyo. And so - until something -really awesome- is worked out, the imperfect system stays, and if you don't wanna die, the solution is simple: don't get caught.