Animate an npc for an hour

[Dar]

Heya.

The idea, in it's principle is very hack and slashy. But potentially not too horrid in it's implementation. It's simple. If you need a break from your character for awhile, you could go into your account options and choose "Play as NPC" option.

Immediately, you're shafted into a random NPC of a non-playable race. Maybe Gith. Maybe Carru. Maybe Tembo, maybe a freaking rat. And you've got let's say 2 rl hours to play. You might luck out and animate something totally boring and remote. Or you might get lucky, animate a rat, and go try to steal cheese from the Atrium.

I was reading a log of some other mud that introduced that idea and it sounded pretty fun. Being able to animate a Gith, knowing that you cant really keep that gith as a character, you're encouraged to die WELL.

[Delirium]

I like this idea, if it could be automated. It's basically the same theory as playing a penned gladiator but anywhere.

Maybe limited to NPCs that can't understand humanoid languages (with the exception of gith and heshrak).

[MatisseOrOtherwise]

I'd like this, if it's regulated well. I wouldn't want there to be people just being like "Oh, I'm a gith! And I recognise this place, this is <place>. That means I can get to Luir's in 30 minutes and have 30 minutes left to kill my arch enemy of my main PC!".

Limited (one per RL week?), and regulated to an extent ('going straight after folks you know on your main pc will get you whapped hard and banned from NPCing for an IRL year') would make this fun.

[Heade]

I wouldn't want there to be people just being like "Oh, I'm a gith! And I recognise this place, this is <place>. That means I can get to Luir's in 30 minutes and have 30 minutes left to kill my arch enemy of my main PC!".

This is a big concern, personally. Certain classes inherently need to rely on others to deal with conflict from other PCs. I'd hate to see this implemented only to have all of Indie Merchant Amos' enemies end up dying to vicious wildlife and Gith from across the known while right outside Allanak's gates. I think, regardless of implementation, it'd be used to harass other players/characters in ways where the harasser suffers no risk of consequences.

[Miradus]

Based on my experience, I can't say I trust the player base here enough for this.

You want consequence free PK for you against someone else who will suffer the consequences?

Some guy with HG or mul karma or high gick karma (or even just a very old established character) can already kill me with ease but at least he has risk of social consequence if he does so.

Getting killed by a gith suddenly in the grasslands because I was rude to someone in a bar yesterday? Yeah, that sounds like fun for me.

[Veselka]

If they didn't have the ability to move or kill for themselves, I'd say sure.

Get a little solo RP in a random NPC. Maybe a PC finds you and kills you.

[Heade]

And even if they made it where you couldn't PK with an animated NPC, it would still end up being used for coded advantage, I think. Rat's spying, collecting information from enemies in the form of overheard conversations. Meks hunting an area to leave behind plenty of free materials for a merchant to go grab up risk-free. Carru clearing roads for a traveller who couldn't safely travel them on their own, and so on.

Some of this, like rats spying, could be mitigated somewhat by not having them understand any languages, but said rat still might witness a murder or some other action-oriented happening that gives away IC plots OOCly to the player who shouldn't have that information.

[roughneck]

I would say make killing restricted. But, that would be so non-armageddon.

This idea makes more sense for specific clans, for specific events. For example, AoD Staff puts out a special role-call for players interested in playing criminal fodder. Players submit applications and Staff makes their selections. Staff then uses those special PC's for specific RPT's they are coordinating to help bring the event to life and take some of the strain off Staff. The problem is, it's probably a lot less work for Staff just to animate NPC's rather than set all this up.

The reason I'm against this idea though, is because players are already too risk-averse as it is. This idea provides players an option to have their combat fun without risking their PC's. Conflict is most meaningful, memorable and realistic when both sides are invested and have something to lose. Not when one side is playing a 'throw-away'.

It sounds a lot like giving players Staff perks and freedom without Staff responsibility and workload.

Play more risk taking PC criminals and raiders. It'll be fun, you'll die, then you can roll up another. I promise this experience will be more fun than animating a gith NPC for a byn escort.

[Vex]

Limit it to low power animals.

A rat, a bird, something that isn't, traditionally dangerous to even new pcs.

Sneak into apartments as a rat, eat peoples food, change some ldescs after pooping on their sofa or bed. Fly through town, chirping protest at peoples feather hats, or go steal shiny things, as birds do. Run around as a chalton, and make someone work for their meat, or just be more interesting to hunt.

There are, imo, lots of things you could be doing with a diversionary npc animal, that doesn't have to be about combat or pvp. Even a newbie craft only pc, with bad child stats, can kill a rat, or a little bird, so there is little worry of grief.

Its a fun idea.

[only_plays_tribals]

It'd be cool if this or something like this was an option while waiting for an app to be approved

Mantises head

the life and times of a vestric, a short story

Fresh start

[Marauder Moe]

If you want to animate NPCs I think you just need to join Staff.

Though, I played as a Gith for a little while (relatively) recently and I understand there's something going on lately with gladiator side-characters?  I do like experiments like that.

[Heade]

so there is little worry of grief.

It's not a good idea to challenge the playerbase on just how much they could grief someone with a rat. Maybe that rat steals the most valuable small items they can from a crafter who spent 2k on that unique gem, because OOCly they know they sold it to them on their other PC.

I just don't like the idea of even low-powered animal NPCs being granted to players while they have another PC. If someone wanted to app for, and play a rat as a one-off, I'm all for that. I might even do it. Could be fun. But as a risk-free alternative to playing your own PC? Nah, too much potential for abuse.

People would totally use rat alter-egos as spies.

[Miradus]

I'm not against the overall idea. I'd like to special app me some animals. Or have a limited role call for kryl.

But put some skin in the game. Burn that special app to do it, or put some karma on the table for 45 days to play that gortok.

That's what others are risking. Or maybe they're no karma regular characters who are just enjoying the game.

[Cind]

I just want to say I love this idea.

I think most of the playerbase can be trusted to use this feature, but if you want you can make it so that to begin with, during the beta phase, only players with any karma can do this. That way, staff can see if it really would be abused regardless. A couple of newbies using this feature to get back at people because they don't know the rules doesn't bother me, but they'd skew the data.

Rats becoming known as mischievous cutpurses would be pretty fun.

It would give people something to do between characters, during that agonizing wait for a fresh new one.

If you wanted to app something dangerous, you could do it three times a year at, I dunno, two karma? Like a scrab or a beetle. Once a year at one karma. That way, you're REALLY inclined to use the life wisely, rather than try to get at someone because you're butthurt that they treated your elf like an elf.

The nilazis used to perform this sort of function in-game. They'd disappear, and then reappear a month later, leveled up and with subordinates, partners and others less savory to take over Allanak, providing conflict, story and death. A dujat or a beetle could provide a similar story for people one Friday evening, during a time when literally nothing is going on and everyone's looking at their phones rather than talking.

If this were implemented I'd really prefer there'd be a karma gate, so we wouldn't be afraid of bug and critters with the game knowledge of a four-year-old and the strength of your sargaent roaming around _constantly_ right outside the gates, typing >kill man every five seconds just so they don't miss someone.

[650Booger]

I think shooting down this idea out of fear of player abuse is a cop out.  If players are abusing code, they should be reported and disciplined accordingly.  we mustn't let fear of griefers limit our potential, friends.

[Miradus]

I think shooting down this idea out of fear of player abuse is a cop out.  If players are abusing code, they should be reported and disciplined accordingly.  we mustn't let fear of griefers limit our potential, friends.

Highlighted the operative sentence.

[Cabooze]

I think shooting down this idea out of fear of player abuse is a cop out.  If players are abusing code, they should be reported and disciplined accordingly.  we mustn't let fear of griefers limit our potential, friends.

Yes. Could also be a resurrection-worthy situation if someone clearly abuses this feature if approved, and you could probably bet that the abuser would receive a temporary/permanent ban.

Probably wouldn't be too hard to have messages print to staff and be logged when a player animating an NPC engages combat with a PC.

[number13]

Nine times out of ten, this would result in someone jumping into a gith or a beetle and roaming an empty desert looking for prey that doesn't exist. The other one time out of ten, it would piss off whoever was caught.

A better idea might be conscripting players to fill roles for RPTs (big and small). If there's a Byn contract to escort a merchant caravan, do a cattle-call on Discord and conscript some people to be merchant victims and gith raiders.

[Mr. Fancypants]

Make a penned gladiator. It's a secondary character, so you don't have to give up your current PC. If you die you can just reroll a new concept, so there's no reason not to have one as long as you can show up to an Arena event at least once every couple RL months. Then, you can die gloriously for everyone's entertainment (or, perhaps survive, at least until the next Games). It's a fun way to play with colorful concepts that might not be realistic for a serious PC.

I'm biased, but it seems more fun than roaming around for an hour as a gortok. Plus, if you wanted to play an animal during an arena event, I bet staff would be willing to consider hooking you up. Never hurts to ask, the worst they can say is no.

[Dar]

What if the NPCs were unable to identify people?

So a tall, muscular man would be seen as humonoid figure. Cant tell male, from female and so on. This way you couldnt target your NPCs to go kill specific people for some weird reason.

[Nao]

Make a penned gladiator. It's a secondary character, so you don't have to give up your current PC. If you die you can just reroll a new concept, so there's no reason not to have one as long as you can show up to an Arena event at least once every couple RL months. Then, you can die gloriously for everyone's entertainment (or, perhaps survive, at least until the next Games). It's a fun way to play with colorful concepts that might not be realistic for a serious PC.

I'm biased, but it seems more fun than roaming around for an hour as a gortok. Plus, if you wanted to play an animal during an arena event, I bet staff would be willing to consider hooking you up. Never hurts to ask, the worst they can say is no.

Arena events happen at 3AM in the morning. Some of us simply can't do this.

[Heade]

What if the NPCs were unable to identify people?

So a tall, muscular man would be seen as humonoid figure. Cant tell male, from female and so on. This way you couldnt target your NPCs to go kill specific people for some weird reason.

This is good thinking in the right direction, however, people can be identified by locations sometimes, too. If, IC, you know so and so can be found at X rarely populated location between 4-5pm eastern time, and you go there and see a humanoid figure, you may not be certain it's them, but you could still have a pretty good idea. Also, it wouldn't stop people from having rats grief peoples apartments. I don't know about you, but I think, particularly in Allanak, there are already enough apartment griefers. I've had apartments broken into 5+ times in a single night. Adding PC-played rats to the mix would just sorta be a bit much.(unless it's their ACTUAL character. If someone spec apps a rat, I totally wouldn't mind them getting it, but I wouldn't want to see animal alts. They just end up causing grief.)

[sleepyhead]

How would a rat grief someone's apartment? Based on observing them IG, I think their sneak/hide kinda sucks and they obviously can't actually pick your lock or open your door (not sure if they can codedly open doors, but they shouldn't be able to.) They can't actually chew through your wall like a real rat. The worst they could do is follow you in, and then you have quite a good chance of seeing them do it, in which case even the weakest artisan/linguist can easily kill them (and be ICly justified in doing so.)

[Cind]

This idea seems like it would depend on how staff eventually made it available. What kind of animals would be the best, least griefy ideas? If you don't put a cap on the number of hours they can play, you may end up seeing a bunch of suicided animals, jozhals who ran off to take care of mekillots. (Actually, though, this is pretty standard animal behavior as it is.)

Perhaps, every day, rolling over at midnight, there would be a number of slots for animals available:

>Choose your animal:

(a) Rat I
(b) Rat II
(c) Scrab I
(d) Scrab II
(e) Beetle
(f) Dujat
(g) Bahamet
(h) Mekillot

>a
>You chose Rat I.
>Rat II has the skills sneak and hide at advanced, and 15 hp.
>There are three of this animal available today, out of a total of three.
>You can play this animal for eight hours.
>Do you want to choose this animal? y/n

>b

>You chose Rat II.
>Rat II has the skills sneak, hide and steal at journeyman, and 20 hp.
>There are two of this animal available today, out of a total of two.
> You can play this animal for eight hours.
>Do you want to choose this animal? y/n

There would be a certain number of each allowed in-game per RL day, to help keep tabs on griefing, especially in the beginning when literally no one who would abuse the system is bound not to.

A player who has played a lot of the low-tier animals as an example could app to be able to play the low-tier animals whenever they wanted or to be able to app high-tier animals. What I'm trying to get at, is that this process could be independent of the karma system, which we all know has its flaws. Call it animal karma.

[MeTekillot]

No furries allowed