Re: Misc Thoughts / Ideas

From: Ghost Shaidan (ghost@AO.NET)
Date: 04/28/98


>         I was wondering if anyone else has seen "bots" to be a problem within the
> game, and maybe possible ways they have tried to make it harder for bots to
> be set up. I know I could always have every command send random messages,
> that way they would have to have tons and tons of triggers or scripts to
> make their bot run, but they would still do it. Any ideas on this?

We added a policy about bots.  With the same feeling, they are useful to
feed you, or to allow a healer to heal you (we allow multi play limited to
two chars per player on at one time), but that, as you said, taken to far
they take the fun out of the mud, for the player, and for the others that
aren't computer controlled.

Our policy basically says it's illegal.  If we catch you doing it we will
purge or freeze your char, if you are set to autorelogin we will ban your
site for a while...Basically, don't do it or you won't be happy.

We try to appeal to the maturity and sense of fair play in our policy and
it works for the most part.  People still get petty and try to be 'rules
lawyers' but the stand rule of our game our rules our interpretations, and
liberal suggestions to go check out www.mudconnect.com if they don't like
it has kept those to a minimum. (Wow sounds kinda nazi-ish, but hell we
pay the bills and put the time in :) )

I spent a little time trying to come up with a way to make it impossible
for people to bot, but other than random exits (they will avoid those
rooms) or asking questions that require a human answer (after enough time
of watching these, they could set off triggers to answer) or just random
teleporting, I couldn't come up with a way that didn't reduce playability
past the point of acceptability.



 (UPS)
>         I have heard that at one time there used to be something simular, having
> to do with the Odin Statue in Midgaard and Odin's Store in Midgaard. I have
> gone through patch 12 for this code and it doesn't seem to be there. If
> anyone could explain to me what this code used to do, and maybe what patch
> level (or even the code if they still have it stashed away somewhere) it
> may be in it would be most appreciated. Thanks for your time.


There was a patch or an offer for this in the past.  I didn't grab it when
I saw it, but with exploding obj's in the mud, it would be interesting to
see how it worked.

The problem I remember with it was mailing a bag with stuff in it.  The
obj struct in the patch didnt contain anything for contents or something.

I don't know if patch is still readily available or not, but I would check
the snippet sites.

Luck,

Ghost


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