Rumours

Again, an old suggestion originally posted by Cel.

Entering rooms with other mobs will trigger said mob to pick a line of list of rumours that will be added by immortals.

"Hey, did you hear Sylf got coronotad as King of Val Miran?"

"The nasty demon Tkanzhar and the brute Draug destroyed Knight's wall. I hope they rebuild it soon."

"Poor Ilthrias, I heard the drider Raemus ended his life. He was a good man."

"Psshht, I think they are planning to use that Hellish Engine against Tribunal."

It can also be made that you can pay 1 RP to send a rumour suggestion to the immortals, which then can be approved and added to the list of rumours. Mobs could be made to spread specific rumours based on their location, align, ethos and general theme.

Perhaps even add the ability for RP based characters to spread this rumors. Like Heralds, Merchants, Bards and Elders.

They could be in a txt file that the mud would access.

Mechanicaly it could be a item IMM_invisible that grants the rumor effect, placed in inventory.

The effect would trigger the mob to say YXZ at X time or something of the sort.

It would search a item from the list and say it. The list should have the original owner of the rumor for IMM control.

Perhaps even a priority value. That way you could give a higher priority value to a IMM rumor.

Better yet, have player rumors have a different flag. So that you would have 2 lists, to not over shadow IMM rumors and vice versa.

Perhaps 50% say imm rummor, 50% player rumor.

Then the imms could use the priority value to increase the likelihood of certain messages.

To roll the correct rumor for the mob to spit, it could be a dice roll from one to the sum of all  priorities.

And then make it search the list for the priority counting priorities.

Example:

Rumor apple priority 10 owner f00x

Rumor grape priority 25 owner mya

Rumor pear priority 5  owner Talex

===

Sum of priority = 10+25+5 = 40

Roll dice from 1 to 40. Roll lands on 13.

Count priority:

priority 1 rumor apple

priority 2 rumor apple

priority 3 rumor apple

priority 4 rumor apple

priority 5 rumor apple

priority 6 rumor apple

priority 7 rumor apple

priority 8 rumor apple

priority 9 rumor apple

priority 10 rumor apple

priority 11 rumor grape

priority 12 rumor grape

priority 13 rumor grape

Exit rumor "grape".

Might be a tad strong on CPU, no idea.

Well this is new. While I appreciate your suggestions mya, I do know how to code, contrary to popular belief

A better way would be to list them in text file, set a mob flag, and have it call every 12-24 ticks (or randomized between) if a mob is flagged as 'rumor'.

Well I don't. I just wanted to give more ideas like the priority and double, and it rapidly became intelligent and interesting conversation.

I see you are an expert, Mya.

Rumors are an idea we've always liked but is a little more difficult to put together in terms of logistics. If it's left up to the imms the extra workload is likely to fall to the wayside (Like the QA, sigh, I need to get back to that). Individual rp, personal projects, cabal rp, applications, journals, so on and so forth. Have it set by mortals then, especially Heralds, but then how does this benefit the cabal? It costs, but doesn't improve anything. And we have to check for abuse.

In shrt we all love the idea, and we're thinking on it, but we're not quite there yet. Keep brainstorming!

It doesn't (benefit the cabal). It benefits the atmosphere of the mud in general.

If you guys trust all those guys to send notes to all, how can't you trust them with rumors?

As long as there is an accountability system, such as a rumor owner in text file or automated note to imm subject rumor, this is really easy to police.

Rumors would be an interesting and powerful RP tool. And an auto-updated source of freshness and would breath life into the mud. More than statues or named streets, a rumor system is something that will impress a first time player. Our who list may say we are small, but activity shows us that we aren't dead.

my 0.02 €

As for rumors specifically, yes I entirely agree with you.

As for rumors as a function of Herald:

The Heralds already suffer from being an almost entirely useless cabal. Tomes go largely unread, and have no real purpose in a (text based!) game unless someone wants to base their RP on something in there. Notes are the bread and butter of heralds, which themselves are a tedious task that do not benefit the cabal and is largely seen as a 'must do' for many people who send notes to Heralds (see: Slandren). An elder or leader of a cabal also has this same ability, rendering the Herald's main use largely obsolete. So, taking this in to consideration, I'm not keen on adding in another feature of a cabal that does nothing to benefit it but adds more responsibility and cost. This is why we have one Herald. That said, the Herald rework on the imm forums DOES have rumors as part of their skillset, though again I'm not thrilled with it as it stands.

Benefiting the game is lovely, and we all work towards it as these threads show, but while playing the game the primary catalyst for action by any player is gain. If rumours are implemented as player run without any system of gain, their utility will be largely diminished - maybe even forgotten. We don't want that!

I'm not thrilled with rumors either. Perhaps giving the Heralds a smaller version of Spy would add for juicier gossip, and we could call the skill, rumor. there has already been Heralds that have tried playing the news reporter role anyway. there could be two sides to their cabal, the traditional official who lives to scribe, or the foolish reporter who will tiptoe on the edge of danger to find the scoop.

You raise an interesting question Volgathras, regarding Heralds. I will try to discuss this elsewhere as i think it has little to do with this sub-forum.

I don't think rumors should be a Herald function Clavo. Mainly due to the fact that it's a very important tool to relegate to an almost empty cabal. In my view it should something that should grow more organically like a rumor. Not always true, sometimes silly, sometimes scandalous, sometimes a deep secret someone let out.

I love your spy idea Clavo. Making a new spooky suggestion similar to it.