CF: Oratory skill and NPCs

[Brian Thomas <thomas@xplorer.gsfc.nasa.gov>]

	Heres some mail between me and Mark on changing the oratory skill. 
	Its a strong gameplay issue so I thought Id share it with the CF
	populace :)

> From: "Mark Wedel" writes:
> 
> > Brian writes:
> >
> >        ORATORY skill ---
> >
> >        I would like to 'fix' this skill by making it more 
> >        likely to success (esp. at lower levels) and by allowing 
> >        it to have 'options'. In effect, the 'default' skill
> >        remains the same -- you can recruit monsters w/ it, but
> >        we add on some nice options:
  [snip]
> 
>  IF you are going to do this, I really think the NPC code should be revamped
> at the same time, since really, charmed monsters would seem to be NPC's.  It
> would be nice for most things in the oratory code to be handled by NPC code.
> Having NPC's drop and use items based on conversations with others would be
> a really nice feature.  message code like:
> 
> @match *
> "I can only give the rod to people that know the secret codeword"
> @match sorenson
> @drop rod_fireball
> 
>  Would make things much nicer.  Likewise, having npc's use items, and so
> on.
> 
>  But then as a I think about this, I am not sure how common this code would be.
> 
>  I would say that if this is extended, certain things should happen.  Monsters
> should hardly always follow directions.  If you tell an ogre to attack that
> dragon, I think there should be a good chance that the ogre thinks you are
> an idiot, and just leaves your service on his own.
> 

	Ok, I've been thinking about this, and agree with most of what you
	say. Let me summarize to get everything 'strait':

	1) we will expand the interaction between NPC's and players. Now,
	   it will be possible to have NPC's 'react' to player speech with
	   specific actions. Allowable NPC actions will be recorded in
	   an array (to be determined). Current ideas for NPC actions are:
	   attack <name>, drop <item>, pickup <item>, use <item>, stay,
	   follow <player>, and goodbye (No explanation of these here--see
	   my earlier mail). We will make the code flexible enough so that
	   we need only add another command to the one array to expand the
	   roster of allowable NPC commands.

	2) Oratory skill use. Not all of the oratory commands would be available 
	   to use on followers. Basically, this will be determined on a case-by-case 
	   basis of the follower 'type'. I see 3 cases:

		a. Non-magical followers. These are recruited via the 
		   'oratory' skill. All commands are available. You can
		   loose followers by asking 'outrageous' things like
		   "attack dragon" when you are at a very low oratory skill
		   level. All followers gain xp to the player oratory skill.

		b. Magical slaves. These are pets summoned by the incantation
		   'summon pet monsters' and the monsters charmed via the
		   incantation 'charm monster'. We will restrict the commandablity
		   of these creatures, basically the spell on their minds prevents
		   them from being fully aware/functional. All commands but attack,
		   follow, and goodbye are allowed, however, you can't lose these
		   monsters by asking ridiculous stuff of them. Followers
		   gain xp to the 'spellcasting' skill.

		c. 'Holy servants' - these are creatures summoned via the 
		   the 'summon cult monsters' or charmed by the 'charm undead'
		   prayers. These creatures are more 'pliable' than the wizards
		   creatures. Therefore, we allow all commands but with 2 
		   modifications: 1) these creatures will only attack enemies
		   of their god (although you can still get them to attack anything
		   hostile if you stand close enought to it--I guess the follower
		   are 'protecting' you in this case) and 2) when you say
		   'goodbye' to the creature, instead of wandering around 
		   freely, it vanishes! These followers will gain xp to the 
		   clerical 'wisdom' exp category.


	As you can see, the oratory skill will become usefull in an expanded
	sense. Now, not only 'normal' followers, but 'magical' ones will
	be commandable. Also, the map maker can 'hardwire' specific actions
	into NPCs.

	Comments?


							-b.t.