July 2000
- Scalable Network I/O in Linux J C Lawrence
- curses and grief players Greg Miller
- curses and grief players adam@treyarch.com
- curses and grief players Greg Miller
- curses and grief players Patrick Dughi
- curses and grief players Greg Miller
- curses and grief players Scatter
- curses and grief players Marc Bowden
- curses and grief players David Bennett
- curses and grief players Greg Miller
- curses and grief players Patrick Dughi
- curses and grief players Marc Bowden
- curses and grief players Greg Miller
- curses and grief players Patrick Dughi
- curses and grief players J C Lawrence
- curses and grief players Greg Miller
- curses and grief players stoddart@slip.net
- curses and grief players Greg Miller
- curses and grief players Patrick Dughi
- curses and grief players Greg Miller
- curses and grief players Matthew Mihaly
- curses and grief players Greg Miller
- curses and grief players jolson@micron.net
- curses and grief players Greg Miller
- curses and grief players Josh Olson
- curses and grief players Greg Miller
- curses and grief players Jon A. Lambert
- curses and grief players John Buehler
- curses and grief players Patrick Dughi
- curses and grief players Zak Jarvis
- curses and grief players John Buehler
- curses and grief players Jon A. Lambert
- curses and grief players John Buehler
- curses and grief players Malcolm Valentine
- curses and grief players John Buehler
- curses and grief players Patrick Dughi
- curses and grief players John Buehler
- curses and grief players J C Lawrence
- curses and grief players John Buehler
- curses and grief players J C Lawrence
- curses and grief players Brian 'Psychochild' Green
- curses and grief players Travis Nixon
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- Modelling combat adam@treyarch.com
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- Modelling combat Travis Casey
- Modelling combat jolson@micron.net
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- Identity and Ethics briefly touched on in Washington Post Raph Koster
- Interesting expansion on Bartle's Four Raph Koster
- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #163 - 25 msgs Dr. Cat
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- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #163 - 25 msgs Raph Koster
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- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #163 - 25 msgs Marian Griffith
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- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #163 - 25 msgs Raph Koster
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- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #163 - 25 msgs Jeff Freeman
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- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #163 - 25 msgs Matthew Mihaly
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- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #163 - 25 msgs Dave Rickey
- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #163 - 25 msgs Chris Turner
- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #163 - 25 msgs Raph Koster
- Code Repository Kyndig
- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #164 - 12 msgs Dr. Cat
- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #164 - 12 msgs Greg Miller
- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #164 - 12 msgs Dr. Cat
- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #164 - 12 msgs Raph Koster
- Mud-Dev FAQ 1 Marian Griffith
- Mud-dev FAQ 1 Marian Griffith
- Mud-Dev FAQ 2 Marian Griffith
- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #165 - 14 msgs Dr. Cat
- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #165 - 14 msgs Greg Miller
- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #165 - 14 msgs John Buehler
- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #165 - 14 msgs Matthew Mihaly
- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #165 - 14 msgs John Buehler
- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #165 - 14 msgs Dave Rickey
- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #165 - 14 msgs Tamzen Cannoy
- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #165 - 14 msgs Greg Miller
- [Meta] MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #163 - 25 msgs J C Lawrence
- [Meta] MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #163 - 25 msgs Raph Koster
- [Meta] MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #163 - 25 msgs Matthew Mihaly
- [Meta] MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #163 - 25 msgs Raph Koster
- fantasy cliches Travis Casey
- fantasy cliches J C Lawrence
- grief players S. Patrick Gallaty
- Combat Systems Ben
- Combat Systems Patrick Dughi
- Combat Systems J C Lawrence
- Combat Systems Ben
- Combat Systems adam@treyarch.com
- Combat Systems Ben
- Combat Systems adam@treyarch.com
- Combat Systems Phillip Lenhardt
- Combat Systems adam@treyarch.com
- Combat Systems KevinL
- Combat Systems Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- Combat Systems Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- threading server models (was: Combat Systems) Bruce
- eXistenZ WAS -- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #163 - 25 msgs Zak Jarvis
- eXistenZ WAS -- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #163 - 25 msgs Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- eXistenZ WAS -- MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #163 - 25 msgs Raph Koster
- Battlenet Hack Geoffrey A. MacDougall
- eXistenZ Zak Jarvis
- eXistenZ Dave Rickey
- Sustainable Ecosystem Geoffrey A. MacDougall
- Sustainable Ecosystem J C Lawrence
- Sustainable Ecosystem S. Patrick Gallaty
- Sustainable Ecosystem Timothy Dang
- Sustainable Ecosystem Greg Miller
- Sustainable Ecosystem Michael Tresca
- Sustainable Ecosystem Mordengaard
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- Sustainable Ecosystem adam@treyarch.com
- Sustainable Ecosystem Raph Koster
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- Sustainable Ecosystem Raph Koster
- Sustainable Ecosystem Mordengaard
- Sustainable Ecosystem Matthew D. Fuller
- Sustainable Ecosystem quzah@kanga.nu
- Sustainable Ecosystem Josh Olson
- Sustainable Ecosystem Timothy Dang
- Sustainable Ecosystem Andy
- Sustainable Ecosystem Patrick Dughi
- Sustainable Ecosystem Timothy Dang
- Sustainable Ecosystem ERI
- Sustainable Ecosystem Jon A. Lambert
- Sustainable Ecosystem Patrick Dughi
- Sustainable Ecosystem jolson@micron.net
- Sustainable Ecosystem Nathan Clemons
- Sustainable Ecosystem holding99@mindspring.com
- Sustainable Ecosystem Raph Koster
- My favorite game systems, what are yours? S. Patrick Gallaty
- My favorite game systems, what are yours? Marc Bowden
- Thread models and Linux J C Lawrence
- eXistenZ Zak Jarvis
- Player skill Tess Lowe
- Player vs. Character Skills Ananda Dawnsinger
- Command Qeues - Was "Combat Systems" Ben
- Command Qeues - Was "Combat Systems" Eli Stevens
- Roleplaying in Muds Ben
- Roleplaying in Muds Colin Coghill
- Roleplaying in Muds Travis Casey
- Roleplaying in Muds Malcolm Valentine
- Roleplaying in Muds Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Roleplaying in Muds Matthew Mihaly
- Roleplaying in Muds Ben
- Roleplaying in Muds Solmyr of the Azure Star
- Roleplaying in Muds J C Lawrence
- Roleplaying in Muds Travis Casey
- Roleplaying in Muds J C Lawrence
- Roleplaying in Muds Travis Casey
- Roleplaying in Muds Dave Rickey
- Roleplaying in Muds Raph Koster
- Roleplaying in Muds Peter
- Roleplaying in Muds Phillip Lenhardt
- Roleplaying in Muds Travis Casey
- Roleplaying in Muds J C Lawrence
- Roleplaying in Muds Travis Casey
- Roleplaying in Muds Solmyr of the Azure Star
- Roleplaying in Muds Patrick Dughi
- Roleplaying in Muds Travis Casey
- Roleplaying in Muds J C Lawrence
- Roleplaying in Muds Ben
- Roleplaying in Muds Solmyr of the Azure Star
- Roleplaying in Muds Erik Jarvi
- Roleplaying in Muds Josh Anderson
- Roleplaying in Muds rayzam
- Roleplaying in Muds Solmyr of the Azure Star
- Roleplaying in Muds Erik Jarvi
- Roleplaying in Muds Josh Anderson
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- Roleplaying in Muds Miroslav Silovic
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- Roleplaying in Muds Travis Casey
- Roleplaying in Muds Jeremy Noetzelman
- Classless systems Ryan P.
- Classless systems J C Lawrence
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- Classless systems Ben
- Classless systems Christopher Allen
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- Classless systems adam@treyarch.com
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- Classless systems Travis Casey
- Classless systems Brian 'Psychochild' Green
- Classless systems Val Trullinger
- eXistenZ Richard Tew
- Scaling a world. Saereth2000@aol.com
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- Required EXP algorithms Ben
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- Realism and NPCs Ben
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- Getting info from NPCs Dmitri Zagidulin
- Getting info from NPCs Josh Anderson
- Getting info from NPCs Patrick Dughi
- Getting info from NPCs Warren Powell
- Getting info from NPCs Paul Schwanz - Enterprise Services
- Getting info from NPCs Travis Casey
Friday, July 28, 2000, 2:13:13 PM, Dmitri Zagidulin <zagidud@allegheny.edu> wrote:
A few random comments, with lots of snippage between:
> I. "Static" response.
> The player comes up to the NPC, hits the 'talk'
> command, and the NPC spouts his appropriate
> line, like "Beware of monsters outside the town"
> or "Please save our princess!"
> Advantages:
> This approach also simulates a pressing need.
> That is, a worried mother is not going to
> stand around and talk about the weather to
> a strange warrior, but rather is likely to
> scream "Save my baby!"
I'd say that, if it's done as above, it doesn't simulate such a need
well enough; a mother is likely to be screaming "save my baby!" to
anyone who comes by, whether they try to talk to her or not.
> Disadvantages:
> -Repeating the same lines does not seem
> particularly elegant or lifelike, and..
> well, will not help the players believe that
> the NPCs are "real" in any sort of way and
> exist for anything else than player enjoyment.
> This approach, does, however, have its use
> (and is believable) in times of pressing
> need, as I've mentioned.
When you have such a pressing need, it's also believable that the
character involved would volunteer large amounts of information to
anyone who seems remotely likely to be helpful, and would ignore
statements that are off the subject of immediate concern. Thus,
you can combine this with III fairly easily -- just have the NPCs do
their canned talk routines no matter what the PC says.
If you're concerned about a certain type of player taking advantage of
this for humor, or that some players might be playing characters who
would give unhelpful responses, you can put in a minimum amount of
checking for such instances. (E.g., look for someone saying "no" or
"go away" to the mother above.)
> II. A Menu of choices
> This approach to NPC information is exemplified
> by games like Diablo and Planescape: Torment,
> where the NPC presents a choice of topics
> the player can ask them about (usually as
> a menu). The choices can be dynamically
> adjusted depending on player skills/abilities,
> and the situation at hand.
> A further variation on the menu-type conversation
> is that the character's responses can also be
> given to the player. For example:
> Orc King: Surrender now and I'll let you live!
> You respond with:
> 1. Yes Sir, whatever you say, Sir!
> 2. Can we talk about this like reasonable
> humanoids?
> 3. Draw steel, knave!
> [Or, if you have the Saved_Orcish_Princess
> flag set:]
> 4. Wait! I come bearing news of your daughter!
> And depending on how the player answers, they
> get into fights, adjust their alignment, advance
> the plot, etc.
To me, the above example points out the two worst aspects of this:
first, that it may give the player information they don't already
have. For example, a player might have saved the Orcish princess, but
not know that this is her father.
The second issue is pointed out by this, but really applies to I as
well, and to some implementations of III -- it prevents PCs from using
what they may know about NPC motivations against them. In paper RPGs,
some characters are con artists, and others are willing to say
anything to save their skins. Such characters might well say #4 if
they know that the orc king is looking for his daughter, even if they
haven't actually saved her.
> Advantages:
> -This allows for an opportunity for in-game
> social skills and mechanics to operate.
> Reputation, honor (maybe karma/alignment?)
> all have a chance to influence the NPC
> responses. And even if the player is
> clueless and ill-mannered, if the _character_
> has a high Social/Charm skill, the NPC
> would be favorably inclined.
This is possible in all of these. In method I, for example, a city
guard who is "talked to" by a knight or noble might give more
information than he/she would to another character. In method III,
you can try to parse the player's "speech" to find out *what* he/she
wants, and ignore *how* he/she asks for it, instead using game
mechanics to determine what the NPC's reaction to the request will be.
The only thing to watch out for there is clearly insulting statements
-- there are players who will take great delight in being able to get
information from a city guard with "Yo! F*ckface! Where's the damn
inn?" Filtering for common swear words, though, isn't too hard.
> III. AI approach - language recognition
> Some sophisticated RPGs (didn't the Wizardy
> series do this?) allow you to interact with
> the NPCs directly by composing sentences to
> which they respond to. All the AI tricks come
> out to play here - maybe the NPCs detect a
> key word that triggers a response, or maybe
> it actually does natural language parsing,
> whatever.
> -The emphasis now shifts to _player_ social
> skills rather than the _character_ social stats.
> This may be a good or bad thing, depending on
> personal preference.
See my comment above; character social skills can still be used.
> Disadvantages:
> -But even if possible, it might not be as
> desirable for certain situations since unlike
> (II), in the natural-language approach the
> player does not necessarily know what to ask.
> An image of the player asking an NPC about
> everything under the sun in the hopes of
> hitting on a key topic comes to mind.
A simple counting mechanism, and possibly the ability for NPCs to
attach flags to PCs, could help out a lot here. For example, if a PC
asks an NPC more than, say, five questions that the NPC doesn't have a
response for, the NPC might become annoyed and ask the PC to stop
bothering him/her. Flags could be used if a PC persists -- mark that
PC as "annoying me" and refuse to questions from him/her from now on.
Method III is what I prefer, but it's by far the most difficult to do
well. Personally, I'd be more inclined to mix I and III than to use
II at all.
--
|\ _,,,---,,_ Travis S. Casey <efindel@earthlink.net>
ZZzz /,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ No one agrees with me. Not even me.
|,4- ) )-,_..;\ ( `'-'
'---''(_/--' `-'\_) - Getting info from NPCs Lazarus
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- MUD Wimping stoddart@slip.net
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- The Player Wimping Guidebook Malcolm Tester
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- The Player Wimping Guidebook Raph Koster
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- The Player Wimping Guidebook J C Lawrence
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- The Player Wimping Guidebook Warren Powell
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- The Player Wimping Guidebook Matt Chatterley
- The Player Wimping Guidebook rayzam
- The Player Wimping Guidebook Raph Koster
- The Player Wimping Guidebook Matthew Mihaly
- The Player Wimping Guidebook Michael Tresca
- The Player Wimping Guidebook Nathan Clemons
- The Player Wimping Guidebook Matt Chatterley
- The Player Wimping Guidebook Raph Koster
- The Player Wimping Guidebook Zak Jarvis
- The Player Wimping Guidebook J C Lawrence
- The Player Wimping Guidebook Matthew Mihaly
- The Player Wimping Guidebook Steven Wallace
- The Player Wimping Guidebook Koster, Raph
- The Player Wimping Guidebook Matthew Mihaly
- The Player Wimping Guidebook Koster, Raph
- The Player Wimping Guidebook adam@treyarch.com
- The Player Wimping Guidebook Koster, Raph
- The Player Wimping Guidebook adam@treyarch.com
- The Player Wimping Guidebook Raph Koster
- The Player Wimping Guidebook Matthew Mihaly
- The Player Wimping Guidebook Koster, Raph
- The Player Wimping Guidebook adam@treyarch.com
- The Player Wimping Guidebook Raph Koster
- The Player Wimping Guidebook Matt Chatterley
- The Player Wimping Guidebook Koster, Raph