Non-level based Commands

From: David Endre (David.Endre@Cummins.com)
Date: 02/11/02


Greetings,

I have had this idea that I've been tossing around in my head about
assigning commands to players rather than making them based on levels. So I
am trying to determine the feasibilty before I write a design document. I
thought that I'd try and run this by some other developers to see what they
(you) thought. The idea started with god commands...if I had a level 101
god who needed to do a specific task that regular level 101's we not
allowed to do, I could give him permission to use the command. On the other
side of things I could take specific god commands away.

Let me give you a simple example in case my explanation above doesn't make
sense.

Background info:
   Level 101 god's on my mud can not load objects or mobiles.

The Need:
   This level 101 god would like to run weekly quests and give a prize
away. Also needs to load mobiles for the quests. This god is not yet ready
to be a level 102 god, however would do a great job of running small
quests.

Solution:
   I give the level 101 god permission to use the load command without
changing his level and no other level 101 god's have access to it.

That is a simple example. Yes there are a million ways to do that for
quests without assign commands. I just used quests as an example. There are
several other god commands more specific to my mud that I would like
specific gods to be able to use.

Like I said, this started out with god commands, then I thought, what about
mortal commands? What if I wanted to empower a player with a god command?
Or what if I wanted to punish a player for doing/abusing something wrong so
I remove the command from his abilities? I think that it could have a lot
of potential, but I also think it could add a lot of overhead.

So as I'm writing this, my thoughts have travelled back to doing just the
god commands. Which I think leads me back to two solutions.
1. I could create flags/toggles for certain commands or groups of commands
and modify each command to check for the toggle. The problem here could be
a limitation on the number of flags and having to save them to the pfile. I
have a binary pfile, so changes to it are more difficult.
2. Create an additional file for each player and save the commands there,
load them into an array when the player logs in. The problem here could be
a small overhead created when the player logs in or uses the command or the
actual amount memory being used.

So what do you guys think of the idea in general? Do you see a better way
to do this? See any potential pitfalls? etc...

Thanks for your input,
David Endre

P.S. Great to be back on the list after a 4 year absence! I see not much
has changed.

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