On Mon, 5 Apr 1999, NEAL ROBINSON wrote:
> 1: There was a question about player killing that I didnt see answered,
> and so I would like to stick in my oar. Is it possible to make like a PK
> guild where PCs who decide to be player killers only PKed with other
> playerkillers, is this a disadvantage?
That was me. To give a bit more detail on our PK system:
There are 2(3) ways to participate in a PK.
1. You can turn on your PK flag. When you turn off your flag
It stays on, but depriciated for a random, (4-12 RL hours)
period of time. If the flag is active, or depriciated, you
can be attacked by anyone else with the flag active.
If the flag is depreciated, you cannot attack anyone.
(As a side note, thieves need to have the PK flag active
to steal from a player.) A PK kill will result in lost
exp.
2. You can join a clan. Inter-Clan Killing is 'point-loss-less'.
In other words, you lose nothing for being killed by someone
in another clan (unless both of you are PK, that overrides the
'safety' of the clan kill). We have a newbie only clan, (you
get kicked out at level 51, incidentially the minimum level
to join a 'real' clan.) The newbie only clan is immune to PK,
Psteal, can't go PK on, and cannot join other clans.
(3.) A PK tournament, based off of the lost lands arena code.
I don't really count it here because it needs to be started
by an immortal, and is used more for fun than true pk.
These two models do overlap, (The clan model coming 2nd.)
I see the shortcomings as:
1. Why WOULD anyone go PK? Theives, if they wish to ply their
trade on players, need to, and depending on the thief, anyone
wanting their stuff back will need to in order to kill him/her.
There is no bonus to it except for macho bragging rights.
2. Far too many people look at clans as a 'must join' thing, rather
than a bonus, which, for game balance, must have a drawback.
We look at our Clan-Kill system as the balance to the benefits
that a clan gives.
Due to MAJOR whining, complaining, and immaturity (imnsho) on our
players parts, we have recently implemented a 'No-PK clan'. This
clan has none of the benefits (Clan healer, recall, corpse retreival,
donation, clan hall, clan guards, clan channel, clan eq.) that a PK
clan does, because you can't PK them.
The abuse of this system isn't so much in the abuse of PK. (Granted,
some people delight in killing level 51 members of opposing clans, but
there is nothing that says you HAVE to join a clan so quickly.)
The abuse comes in the form of being immune to PK. People will create
a character, join the Newbie Clan, or just stay no PK, and mouth off
(legally) or be annoying (legally) to other characters. This person
can't be killed, so is pretty untouchable. (Although several sneaky
characters have found other ways to deal with them, they generally
depend on the offenders lack of knowledge of spells and areas.)
The flip side of this: Unrestricted PK, is much less acceptable because
it allows anyone, for any reason, to attempt to ruin the fun of someone
else. I'm running a MUD so that people can come and play, as soon as
one, or a group of people, take it into their head that repeatedly killing
someone (even within our no-multi-kill policy time.) is fun, we can
lose a player (and have) over it.
I think we have a pretty good system, despite the duality, but, in
pseudo relentless persuit of perfection, I'd like to know if anyone
has done, or can suggest, better.
Ghost Shaidan
Implementor of Questionable Sanity
qs.mudservices.com 4000
As a side note, we have also been considering tying a bounty system
to both the clan kill and PK system, allowing players to 'place a bounty'
on the head of another player (or mob, more for quest reasons than
regular game play.) More details soon, once I work them out.
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