AI code question

[Shamankane]

First of all let me say I really liked the game..Till I got in my first bar room brawl Now i LOVE the game..The brawl code is the best I ever seen..It's A blast ..OK my question: Trying not to give away any IC info here..say my friend and I travel alot togther..We have been in quite a few fights against..are the called Mobs here? Ill say Mobs anyways..Well the Mobs have Attacked me first every time..I mean every time,It did not matter if I lead or followed or was sitting or standing I got attacked first. So my friend and I (using IM's) discussed our PC's stats,guild,subguild..and in reailty My PC should be the first attacked..OK so are the Mobs coded to attack the strongest first? Do they Know which one's A  warrior or Ranger and who's the burgler or merchant? It may be a dumb question but i wanted to know.. :wink:

[Marauder Moe]

I've seen some mobs act frighteningly intelligent, Gith in particular.  They may indeed size up a party and pick the strongest (or maybe the weakest).  I doubt it would be just a matter of guild, though.  Mobs capabilities are usually close to that of a player, and player's can't directly and immediately tell what guild someone is.  It's probably based off size and maybe equipment if anything.

P.S. Be careful about spreading IC info even to your friends.  It can really ruin things for you and others, and is still technically against the game rules.  http://www.armageddon.org/HyperNews/get/general-archive1996/7.html

[UnderSeven]

I'm going to actually make a little stink here.

They are probably better called NPCs for non player characters, rather then mobs, for mobiles.

Why?  Well the idea behind the word mob, to my understanding, is they're more or less a stupid thing out there for you to kill for experience but not to regard as you would another person.  They have no thoughts, feelings, purpose, just to die.

But here on armageddon we expect our npcs to be treated exactly as you would another player, they have thoughts, feelings, dreams, motivations, and even though no one is  going to be behind one playing it (unless an imm animates it) you should still treat one as if there was.

Sorry to go off on a tangent, but for the sake of rp, i feel it is an important thing to keep in mind as a player.

[Marauder Moe]

I don't treat Gith the same as I treat shopkeeper Amos.

Not sure why the idea that Gith, scrab, beetles, and other hostile fauna are different enough from the benign demihumans on a city street or running a shop to get their  own seperate label seems so wrong to you.  It makes plenty of sense to me, and instead of making up a new term for this class of NPC, why not borrow an old pre-existing one that is mostly apt?

[mansa]

I hate being the last person into a room too.

[Cale_Knight]

Mobile is perfectly apt. All NPCs are mobiles. vNPCs are not mobiles.

[Halaster]

In some situations, certain NPC's are supposed to randomly select a target.  It used to be that the last person in a room would always get attacked by everything.  That was changed so that they randomly pick.  I think since it's just two of you, you're just getting unlucky.

Having said that, some of the other assumptions are also true with certain NPC's.  Some do select targets rather intelligently.  Some don't.

If you want to be sure you're the one "tanking", you can always attack it before it attacks your buddy!

[Rindan]

The term you usually hear around here most often for mobs is NPC (non-player character).  

As to your question, each NPC is different.  If you are fighting intelligent NPC, they might very well be going after the weakest or strongest looking person based upon what you are wearing.  If the NPC is not intelligent, it might simply go after largest or smallest target.  There is no universal set of criteria that all NPC use to decide who to attack first, and most NPCs seem to pick at random.

If NPCs ALWAYS without exception attack you and it doesn't make any sense that they would always pick you over your buddy (or vice versa), it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to mention it as a bug to the staff.

Honestly though, it could just be shitty luck.  See if it keeps happening and they keep attacking only you.  If it keeps up, drop a note to the staff.

[Tlaloc]

If you want to be sure you're the one "tanking", you can always attack it before it attacks your buddy!

Or you can make use of the 'guard' skill.

[Moofassa]

I hate being the last person into a room too.

You pretty much just ruined the entire game.

[Ktavialt]

I hate being the last person into a room too.

You pretty much just ruined the entire game.

Except that Halaster's post kinda nixed the thought that this was true. It
used to be true, but not anymore.

- Ktavialt

[Twilight]

I'd say generally, if you were looking at it from a RP perspective, you would say NPC.  If you were looking at it from a code perspective, you would say mob (for mobile).

In standard DIKU, the ordering in a room matters.  So...

Player A enters the room (lets say everyone is following her)
Player B enters the room
Player C enters the room

If you look at the room, you will see:

Some sort of room name.
Some sort of room description.
Object A lies here.
Object B lies here.
Player C stands here.
Player B stands here.
Player A stands here.

So, when the code goes through a room to pick, it will ALWAYS pick Object A first, if the command can target an object.  If the command cannot target an object, but can target a PC, it will ALWAYS pick Player C first, as they are the first player in the list for that room.

As the action in question is Kill, guess what it would always choose.

Again, this is for standard DIKU, so yes, things have been added in that make Arm work differently from standard DIKU, but that was the code base it came from.  Which is basically a long way of saying, What Mansa said.

[jstorrie]

If you want to tank definitely use guard/rescue. If you don't want to tank, have your pal use guard/rescue. If neither of you have guard or rescue... well, neither of you have the combat training to 'tank.' Sux.