Ahhh, you god damned addict, you decided to check out what old Sol
has to say, hmmm?
Well, lemme lay it down for you.

Idea 1:
Enhanced descriptions -- How about letting people look at those neat
little items in people's descriptions? Wouldn't you like to have been
able to look more closely at Istendil's mysterious swords? I know I
would have.

It would work like this...

look Istendil

You see Istendil standing here...blah blah blah
Istendil's swords catch your eye.

Istendil is in perfect health.

((snip!!))

now you could...

look istendil swords

Two blackened, runed shortswords are sheathed in ornamental scabbards
at this lich's sides. Their purpose remains a mystery...

((snip!!))

I think this would be a cool idea, and add some nice rp opportunities
and conversation starters. And you should know when someone is looking
at one of those "tacked-on" descriptions. Perhaps instead of saying
"Solomon looks at you." it could say
"Solomon takes a close look at you."

You could even give the option of highlighting these extra things with
CF-friendly colors.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

idea #2

How about giving merc's, zombies, and summoned conjie pets a bit of
independant personality? You could write up several personality types.
There could be "faithfulNPC"
"agitatedNPC"
"crazyNPC"
"hostileNPC"
etc., etc.

These npc's would do various RP things on their own accord, aside from
speech (that's reserved for imm-possession and player control). Like,
if you have a summoned demon or devil, they would grope, sneer, cuss,
or smack people around on a regular basis. Likewise, angels and
archons could do various "preaching" emotes to evil aligned players.
(These are aside from the ones that each would normally attack, of
course.)

If you were to write up a few of these "personality programs" and then
just tack them on to the code of existing NPC's, you guys could easily
retrofit the entire NPC population (or the ones the should have it)
very quickly. Just a thought.

as if we don't have enough troubles with lag...
(in reference to isendil's neat-looking swords)

i think with persona comes AI... with AI comes time, trouble, lag and a hell of a lotta problems with biased NPCs. AI takes up space... space is expensive.... Also, Imms have a social life to work on as well.

Adam
Soccermomiality(r)(TM)(Al) rules!

>
>
>as if we don't have enough troubles with lag...
> in reference to isendil's neat-looking swords)

--Lag? This is simply adding on a piece of description. I really
don't think it would be used to such an extent as to cause MUD-wide
disgusting lag.

>i think with persona comes AI... with AI comes time,
>trouble, lag and a hell of a lotta problems with biased
>NPCs. AI takes up space... space is expensive.... Also, Imms
>have a social life to work on as well.

--Riiight. So anyway, it's still a good idea. Your argument never says
that these (small) programs would be bad for the game.

You are entirely correct. I never said it wasn't a good idea. Great idea actually. But with having to put description to description and such, it'd be like making a room out of a simple line of text. No, really. Description is merely text activated by something. Considering the user types in the text, he would have to include programming with the text to make it animate, or visible, right? That's complicated. If imms want to put animate text in their descriptions, i think its entirely possible. But for the ordinary user to do such, it would take extensive programming on the imms time to make shortcut keys possible in the typing of the description. Think about it a bit. Its adding to the description, but its a very complex addition.

Adam
Soccermomiality(r)(TM)(Al) rules!