I was ranking in Akan the other day when I got to thinking. Repopsfor named mobs are weird. "Farhoak was savagely murdered yesterday in his inn, but he has returned from the dead to open shop today."

What if named mobs could be given alternate names, and a random one repops. Maybe Farhoak's brother Liveoak comes to take over the family business. Maybe Oakson finally gets his inheretence.

If it were gradually phased in, I think it'd be neat, and not a ton of work, really.

Unless, of course the rationale is that players are reborn, so why can't mobs be reborn.

I think it'd be neat, and not a ton of work, really.

Remember that CF has roughly 10,000 unique NPCs. Now, a lot of then are "a male goblin" or whatever, and don't need this treatment. But I'd bet upwards of 1,000 NPCs would qualify, and would each need a list of alternate names. (Let's say 10.) Think of how long it takes you to come up with a fitting name for a new PC. Now multiply that time by 10,000. Now add in that you have to respect the style of each area's author- what does a "good" Talshidar name sound like? What about all the items or rooms that mention a specific person?

One of our strengths is that we've built up and refined a huge area database over our 9+ years. However, any change that involves adding content to all areas is going to be a big one. We're willing to do these sorts of broad area changes, but there has to be a pressing reason to justify the workload.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

What if mobs are similar to PCs and that they come back after dying, but instantly get all their con back? Players die and they poof back. Its how thera works, so the same can and probably should be assumed for PCs.

Karithia

>Unless, of course the rationale is that players are reborn, so
>why can't mobs be reborn.

That's how I think of it. Sometimes the NPC in question might be permanently killed through some quest. Otherwise they were merely "defeated" much like players are. The name changing thing would be a crazy thing to implement either way since you'd have to have a long list of names even for tough NPCs (other than some explore areas, there may be more killing going on than you expect).

You could go through 10 generations in a cf week.

The only issue I take with this post is the "and not a ton of work, really." comment.

Being a coder and MUD developer myself I have plenty of experience with this.

Let's assume this idea is accepted. I, for one, think it's a cool idea. So much so that in my personal endeavors have implemented such a system.

So, the Staff thinks it's cool... what is actually needed to accomplish it?

1) What mobs will have the privelege of this new name system?

2) How will the names be implemented? Is it a rotating kind of list, or is it one-death = taken-off-list-permanently-and-move-on-to-next-name kind of system?
]2a) In the case of a rotating list, was the idea sufficiently implemented? In many ways it's the same thing with the same issues. Sure, Farhoak might die, then Liveoak, then Oakson, but if the list just starts over again that doesn't make much sense. This also applies to just grabbing one randomly off the list, too.
2b) In the event of it being one-death and that's it they're taken out of the rotation... Well, an incredibly long list of names would need to be created for it to have any sort of impact. Imagine if Farhoak, Liveoak, Oakson, Nearoak, Peckerwood and Deadoak was the full extent of the list... it would be ridiculously short-lived.

You're correct in one way... the system itself is (probably) fairly easy to implement, depending on the CF code. The hardest part is the names and determining who gets them.

I agree that there should be some spice in it, and that if you kill the matron mother then shouldn't she quite simply be "dead"?

For game balance, fantasy and other issues the one-name-per-mob is still the best solution.

The only way (and I have taken my own advice on this) is that you give this kind of scheme to ridiculously hard mobs to kill. So hard that they might only be killed a few times a year (explore areas, etc.) If a hunting party of 8 goes and kills said mob, then maybe an echo stating "Blah will avenge me!" and "Blah" would be the one to repop next would occur.

All in all it's a tremendous amount of effort to implement this sort of thing.

I think I rambled enough.