> > ObCircle :
> >
> > In my mud, mobs age and develop, and then eventually die, all by
> > themselves. Has anyone else done this? Or does anyone want to
> > discuss how? With a little thought, you'll find that it's really
> > easy, once you work the theory out.
>
>
> I would be really interested in a discussion on this topic, but in a
> slightly different slant.
>
> The biggest 'problem' I have with current muds is the lack of mob
> intelligence. While this isnt directly related, anything to do with
> making mobs better and more worthy opponents appeals to me.
>
> The first question I would ask is:
>
> What does this add to your mud's playability?
>
Okay, there are two things to talk about here, the first is mob
intelligence, the second is the mobs age and development.
Mob Intelligence.
Simulating mob intelligence has been done in so many different
ways, usually involving spec_procs or scripts. However, this is
usually done for specific individuals, giving them a unique persona,
or set of triggers to respond to.
What I will be doing is defining a set or two of behaviour flags.
The main mob processing will then look at these flags and decide what
to do. Flags will be used rather than a single value, because groups
of flags will likely work together to give very different actions and
behaviours.
Mob age
In my mud, there are no zone resets. The world saves its state on
reboot for loading back again when it re-awakes.
The initial world design and population is done by the immortal world
shapers. They can alter all manner of things, and load whatever they
feel is right for a certain region.
Due to the fact that zone resets do not happen, there must be some
way of mobs loading up.
I have a working mob population. A female mob of a given race may,
at key points during her age, become pregnant (no messy stuff here
folks, it all happens off camera, and a mob cannot become pregnant
whilst a player is in the room). After a set time period, the mother
then gives birth to another mob, and becomes non-pregnant.
This baby is very fragile, very small, and quite weak. However, as
it ages, it gets bigger, the stats increase, and it starts to develop
behaviour flags based on its experiences.
Mobs also don't load up with money or equipment, the mob community
has its own traders, builders, workers, weaponsmiths, or whatever it
needs. The mobs will develop a small settlement where they can live.
Some settlements (traditional orcs) simply raid for what they need,
not bothering to farm or work. Other settlements, like elves,
humans, etc will actually farm or make things to sell or trade for
what they need. Of course there are the traditional dwarves that
mine, and the dark elves that enslave other races to work for them.
Marc
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