> Have the CHARM spell also make the MOB act wimpy while charmed; have > the spell "broken" if the MOB does ever flee. Alternatively, give > the mob an 'Intelligence check' to see if the spell breaks - this'll > give the MOB about a 55% chance(with the "base" 11 stats) to break > the spell - which is a bit more "mage friendly". See the 'charm > vengence' note below... Dark Shadow's DikuMUD uses this approach. It goes further to say that if a master leaves the room for any reason, the charmed mob will try to follow (with increasing chances each battle round). This guards against mages using stronger mobs as weapons of destruction. The mob being attached also has the ability to, on some percentage, turn attention from the charmed mob to the master of the charmed mob. Taking these two points into consideration the charmed mobs are not too bad of a problem. Also note that DSD only permits one charmed mob per master. > Make charmed mobs and pets automatically ASSIST their master > when their master is in battle (unless the follower is resting/ > sitting/sleeping, of course). Be sure that this only works > for the duration of the charm, and not simply because they are > followers of a PC. This is another feature in Dark Shadows. Also, the mob will automatically stand after about 1 tick or so if nothing happens in the meantime. The mob stays asleep or resting long enough to leave the room, but not too much else. > If the MOB has MEMORY, then when the charm spell runs out the MOB > should have a chance to "remember" the person that has subjected > them to slavery and forced combat. This chance could be based on > MOB and player levs, or simply be a set chance. The "memory" > would work by putting the players name/whatever (I'm a architect, > not a coder...yet) into the MOBs memory (replacing/bumping off > others if need be). This would make it less clever to have a > whole platoon of cityguards with you (though I think that I may > have made them anti-charm by giving them a CHARM flag to start > with...) in hopes that they'll stick around and help you kill > evil things even after the charm runs out (heh..if you think that > trick is good, you haven't heard half of 'em!). I like this alot. Although I have seen mages abilities cut and cut again until they were virtually useless. This does add a sense of realism and danger to the spell. > Pet Items - currently in circle code pets cannot get/be given any > items. Implementing a PET_ITEM object flag could add a bit of > flavor to the mud, as well as providing yet-another outlet for > the players money. 'Pets', for this purpose, will be considered > any mob that has IS_CARRYING_W set to 1000 and and IS_CARRYING_N > set to 100 (which the pet shop proc does automatically). Only > pets will be able to wear these PET_ITEMs, though they still will > not be able to pick up these items - being given the item is OK > (will require a couple of additions to the GIVE and related > procedures, possibly allowing for NOT adding the PET_ITEM to the > total weight/items carried). These items could be such things > as some types of barding or additional weapons (such as metal > claws, which could either be 'worn on hands' to add damage or > wielded as a weapon, depending on how you want to build the > items themselves - though the natural weapons may be better > in some cases; the PCs won't know...). non-pets loaded with this > armor on should also be possible (ie, the were 'E'quiped with it > by the .zon file upon loading). Unless you want to implement > mob types - humanoid, quadraped, blob, flying, etc - then this > is the best way I see to handle allowing armor and weapons > to be used by pets (though it does leave out "charmed" mobs, > I can't see a good compromise - a charmed Cityguard shouldn't > wear Leather barding and wield metal claw extenders, while a > charmed fido could... it's easier just to settle on pets, which > have the distinctive 'full' setting - also, currently the charmed > fido could end up wielding a long sword and wearing full leather > armor, so.... ;) What I would like to see for both pets, charmed mobs and actually any mob in general is the ability to utilitize the objects at their disposal. If a mob finds a dagger and is weaponless, then it should grab and wield the dagger. The same goes for potions, wands, staves, etc. To further go from the topic - how about mobs who heal themselves, summon other mobs to help them, etc. I guess what I wanted to say was not to restrict certain objects for certain things (based on charm state, or pet state). Let it all be fair game within contraints to class and race, etc. > Dealing with the business of MOBs and experience is rather tricky IMO. > My interpretation of experience points in Diku is "knowledge and > skills gained through some course of action, and the further > refinement of such" (yeah, not the most clear def., but it's the > best I can put into a short statement ;). Thus, at least upon > first examination, it seems to me that a MOB *should* earn > experience in a fight; however, MOBs cannot advance levels, so > they really are not becoming harder to kill due to this increase > in "knowledge and skills". (I'd love to see a mud that had > mobs that could learn! Hell, that'd probably even work as a > great justification for having the MUD running on a University > machine [No Mr. Root, it's not a MUD - it's a human-aided machine > learning simulation I'm working on; those people logging in to > port 4000 are my research assistants] ;) Therefore, short of > keeping track of a MOBs original Exp Value and granting it > hitpoint and toHit bonuses based on what percentage of their > original Exp they'd gained (hmm...the more I think about it, > the more I want to see it in action!!), then there is little > reason to pass on the exp that a fido gained from killing Joe > the Spell-less to Bob the Sword Dropper who later kills the > same fido. With no reason to pass it on, there is no reason > to even mark it in the first place by adding it to the MOBs > exp. Mobs learning. *grin* I have oft thought about how to do this. This also fits into the above comment on the mobs ability to use everything at his/her/its disposal. How about a mob who summons a pc back to him after remembering that the pc attacked him? Or a mob who could teleport to you to attack you? Surprise attacks! Quests! The possibilities are endless. > * Add a 'exp gained' field to all mobs. Any exp earned > by a mob for fighting be added into this field (exp lost > for fleeing should perhaps be subtracted from the field, > though at a slower rate...not sure, as subtracting may > make it too complex). As the ratio of 'earned exp' to > 'base exp' increases the mob will gain HPs up to their > max (ie, max for 2d5+45 is 55), slowly gain damage up > to +their lev (ie, a lev 9 mob could end up going from > 4d3+2 damage to 4d3+9 damage, at a slow rate), or gain > thAC0 (not sure where to max this one out; I only really > forsee a few bonuses to thAC0 and Damage, while most go > towards increasing the mobs HP to their max lev, and > perhaps a *little* beyond in extreme cases). Killing > such a mob will grant you the original exp plus some > percentage of the mob's "earned exp" (as in this case > they actuall have to work harder to kill the mob). > Charmed mobs/pets should gain "earned exp" slower IMO, > simply to reflect that they are primarily following > orders. I think that this would be a good idea to try out. That is one thing I did think was a little lacking. Let mobs level too! 8-) Glenn aka Grodyn the Dark Lord Mystic Realms -- Glenn M. Brunette, Jr. Internet: gbrunett@atl.ge.com Artificial Intelligence Lab Phone: (609) 866-6481 Martin Marietta Laboratories * Moorestown Fax: (609) 866-6397 MS 145-2, Route 38, Moorestown Corporate Center - Moorestown, NJ 08057, USA
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