<!-- MHonArc v2.4.4 --> <!--X-Subject: RE: [MUD-Dev] Re: Character evolution --> <!--X-From-R13: "Ybfgre, Dncu" <exbfgreNbevtva.rn.pbz> --> <!--X-Date: Wed, 27 Aug 1997 16:40:29 +0000 --> <!--X-Message-Id: c=US%a=_%p=EA%l=MOLACH-970827160313Z-74760#molach,origin.ea.com --> <!--X-Content-Type: text/plain --> <!--X-Head-End--> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <html> <head> <title>MUD-Dev message, RE: [MUD-Dev] Re: Character evolution</title> <!-- meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" --> <link rev="made" href="mailto:rkoster#origin,ea.com"> </head> <body background="/backgrounds/paperback.gif" bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" alink="#FF0000" vlink="#006000"> <font size="+4" color="#804040"> <strong><em>MUD-Dev<br>mailing list archive</em></strong> </font> <br> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] <br clear=all><hr> <!--X-Body-Begin--> <!--X-User-Header--> <!--X-User-Header-End--> <!--X-TopPNI--> Date: [ <a href="msg00770.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00772.html">Next</a> ] Thread: [ <a href="msg00872.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00777.html">Next</a> ] Index: [ <A HREF="author.html#00771">Author</A> | <A HREF="#00771">Date</A> | <A HREF="thread.html#00771">Thread</A> ] <!--X-TopPNI-End--> <!--X-MsgBody--> <!--X-Subject-Header-Begin--> <H1>RE: [MUD-Dev] Re: Character evolution</H1> <HR> <!--X-Subject-Header-End--> <!--X-Head-of-Message--> <UL> <LI><em>To</em>: "'<A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#null,net">mud-dev#null,net</A>'" <<A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#null,net">mud-dev#null,net</A>></LI> <LI><em>Subject</em>: RE: [MUD-Dev] Re: Character evolution</LI> <LI><em>From</em>: "Koster, Raph" <<A HREF="mailto:rkoster#origin,ea.com">rkoster#origin,ea.com</A>></LI> <LI><em>Date</em>: Wed, 27 Aug 1997 11:03:13 -0500</LI> </UL> <!--X-Head-of-Message-End--> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-Begin--> <HR> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-End--> <!--X-Body-of-Message--> <PRE> On Wednesday, August 27, 1997 3:18 AM, Jeff Kesselman[SMTP:jeffk#tenetwork,com] wrote: > The key for "my" system ( and ist really ours, i have 2 co-designers) is > the lack of witnesses. Reputation is gloabl, it gets aroudn relaitvely > quickly. As we have world-wide person-to-person chat in the game thats > only logical. (Its a very psychic world so that is easy explained.) > But witnesses are key. Witnesses actually generate a % chance that the > system then rolls against to see if this act gets tarcked to your infamy. Whereas UO's system cares not at all about witnesses. It does however have a local versus a global component, so that your reputation (we call it "notoriety") can vary from place to place. The reason why we chose the witnessless (is that a word?) route is because we are using it primarily as a method of social control. > > Identical to the above, except that now Bubba strangles beggars he > >finds in alley-ways in the city with no witnesses present. > Depedns on the alley way. In very bad sectiosn of town it effectively no > witnesses. In good sections of town though "the walls have eyes". Basically, we say, "if someone keeps ducking into alleys, or keeps being seen with dirty shoes and banana peels on his pants, and on top of that a lot of beggars are turning up dead in alleys, eventually people put two and two together." Less realistic, but it is a tighter control. > Some ntoe son our plans: > (1) Infamy only get bigger. Actiosn cannot decrease it, though we may give > it a gradual decay over time. We have decay over time, and we also permit actions to affect it. However, we use various exponential curves of course for how much the value may be affected at different points along the curve, etc. Heroes fall from grace very easily, it takes a lot of work to redeem a villain, etc. > >>Something important of note is that while players can get an idea of > >>their reputation (by little signs - if you hear good songs about > We're nmot sure of thsi one ourselves. We are leanign toward makign a > eprsons infamy known, though not in any ckind of nuerical way that coudl be > sued to make a game otu of gettign the lwoest infamy. The reason for > makign it knjwon is "newbie' players really shoudl knwo that Black bart is > a well known wanted killer.... We have two mechanisms, one of which is admittedly cheesy. 1) Cheese method: we have titles which represent your current fame to you. We were pushed to this by the desire of players to see the notoriety of other players, in order to be able to judge how much danger they were in from them. 2) Better method: every bit of NPC conversation actually exists in multiple forms. The NPC will say "I don't understand" in very different ways based on their intelligence, their current happiness, and the reputation of the person they are speaking to. So a stupid, unhappy baker who sees a known killer may grovel, whereas a more secure NPC might be defiant or insulting. There's 275 strings for "I don't understand" alone... [snip case of Bubba who eradicates a whole town, no witnesses] > >What is Bubba's reputation? > > Again depends on teh size of the town. In general above a fairly small > size we are going to assume soem of the "men on the street' thata rent in > game rpesent can survive and run away. Some people get away, there's the fabled little kid who hid in the attic and saw it all, there's the merchant who was heading there and met only Bubba on the way out, and then got there and found nobody alive... > >What is his reputation? > >That point I am heading towards here is that reputation is dependant > >on perception. The fact that Bubba takes off on a long voyage and > We agree HOWEVERE we also believe that our game does not physicaly > represent on screen al lthe potential witnesses. In fact, ina reasonably > densly populated area yo uare virtually ASSURED of NOT accountign for all > the witnesses. Exactly. There's also the factor that if you are using this as a method of protecting players and to some extent punishing "killer" behavior and encouraging alternate forms of play, you have to be sure that it blankets enough cases to serve that purpose. In UO's case, we've been reducing the number of NPCs in the world more and more over time,because we found that players were filling most of the roles we had planned for them. This also means less witnesses. We did recently add the capability for players to witness crimes themselves and call the guards, however. -Raph </PRE> <!--X-Body-of-Message-End--> <!--X-MsgBody-End--> <!--X-Follow-Ups--> <HR> <ul compact><li><strong>Follow-Ups</strong>: <ul> <li><strong><A NAME="00777" HREF="msg00777.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Re: Character evolution</A></strong> <ul compact><li><em>From:</em> Jeff Kesselman <jeffk#tenetwork,com></li></ul> </UL></LI></UL> <!--X-Follow-Ups-End--> <!--X-References--> <!--X-References-End--> <!--X-BotPNI--> <UL> <LI>Prev by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00770.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Poisons (was Foods)</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00772.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Re: Character evolution</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00872.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Re: Character evolution</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00777.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Re: Character evolution</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="index.html#00771"><STRONG>Date</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thread.html#00771"><STRONG>Thread</STRONG></A></LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> <!--X-BotPNI-End--> <!--X-User-Footer--> <!--X-User-Footer-End--> <ul><li>Thread context: <BLOCKQUOTE><UL> <LI><STRONG>Re: [MUD-Dev] New topic: AI and NPCs</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM> <ul compact> <ul compact> <ul compact> <ul compact> <ul compact> <ul compact> <LI><strong><A NAME="01112" HREF="msg01112.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] New topic: AI and NPCs</A></strong>, clawrenc <a href="mailto:clawrenc#cup,hp.com">clawrenc#cup,hp.com</a>, Fri 05 Sep 1997, 21:48 GMT </LI> </ul> </ul> <LI><strong><A NAME="00885" HREF="msg00885.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] New topic: AI and NPCs</A></strong>, coder <a href="mailto:coder#ibm,net">coder#ibm,net</a>, Sun 31 Aug 1997, 16:33 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00906" HREF="msg00906.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] New topic: AI and NPCs</A></strong>, Jeff Kesselman <a href="mailto:jeffk#tenetwork,com">jeffk#tenetwork,com</a>, Sun 31 Aug 1997, 19:46 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> </ul> <LI><strong><A NAME="00872" HREF="msg00872.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Re: Character evolution</A></strong>, coder <a href="mailto:coder#ibm,net">coder#ibm,net</a>, Sun 31 Aug 1997, 06:06 GMT </LI> </ul> </ul> <LI><strong><A NAME="00771" HREF="msg00771.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] Re: Character evolution</A></strong>, Koster, Raph <a href="mailto:rkoster#origin,ea.com">rkoster#origin,ea.com</a>, Wed 27 Aug 1997, 16:40 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00777" HREF="msg00777.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Re: Character evolution</A></strong>, Jeff Kesselman <a href="mailto:jeffk#tenetwork,com">jeffk#tenetwork,com</a>, Wed 27 Aug 1997, 22:27 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> </ul> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00674" HREF="msg00674.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Looking for books...</A></strong>, Cynbe ru Taren <a href="mailto:cynbe#laurel,actlab.utexas.edu">cynbe#laurel,actlab.utexas.edu</a>, Tue 19 Aug 1997, 21:15 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00747" HREF="msg00747.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Looking for books...</A></strong>, clawrenc <a href="mailto:clawrenc#cup,hp.com">clawrenc#cup,hp.com</a>, Tue 26 Aug 1997, 23:02 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00673" HREF="msg00673.html">Looking for books...</A></strong>, Greg Munt <a href="mailto:greg#uni-corn,demon.co.uk">greg#uni-corn,demon.co.uk</a>, Tue 19 Aug 1997, 19:07 GMT </LI> </UL></BLOCKQUOTE> </ul> <hr> <center> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] </center> <hr> </body> </html>