[MUD-Dev] The quandry of mob combat in MUDs

[Damion Schubert]

Shren wrote: 

> The first time you do the encounter, there are 10 kobolds around a
> campfire.  The second time, there are 9 kobolds around the
> campfire and one walking towards the campfire from the north,
> armed with a bow.  The third time there are are 11 kobolds around
> the campfire, and one of them is a healer.  You could store the
> differences between each visit in a table, and probably generate
> the table randomly.  Write 30 different places kobolds could be,
> and 30 different ways each kobold could be slightly tougher
> (healer, archer, shaman), then pick (visit number / 10) + 10 of
> the first and (visit number / 20) of the second.  Thus, each
> situation may not be life threatening, but it's tactically
> different.

A key part of this that Shren understated was the very clear idea
that combat was focused more on group-on-group combat rather than
single-player (or group) vs single-monster combat.  This allows the
monsters to have relatively simple AIs and uses the 'multiple moving
parts' paradigm to create the unpredictability.

--d
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