Barren Realms MUD

I suggest making races for mobs. There can be a race for every one that we have already, plus a generic "mob". Each mob will then have their own abilities according to their race. Also, the mobs might have special reactions towards each other.

We can do this already with Dive's Spec_hate_race and Spec_love_race...

Yeah but if a dwarf meets an elf (both are mobs) they just ignore each other like the other is not there. It would be fun is the dwarf would do something like slap the elf or something. An avian groping a human would also be a nice image.

Ugh.. no groping, please.

If we carry this idea far enough, we get to a pretty complex, but pretty cool idea that I had suggested back on the old forums. Imagine not just different 'races' for mobs, but different 'species.' Different species would end up with different types of bahavior and different strengths and weaknesses. Certain types might be nocturnal, and always be found asleep during the day. Other types might have resistences to certain types of spells. Certain species might have harder or weaker attacks than a "standard" mob, or might be able to shrug off some of the damage from certain weapon types. We could also have different effects for when you kill mobs of different species, so that if you kill a 'snake' type mob, you won't end up with arms or legs lopped off.

I realize that there would be a lot of coding required, but putting that much more variety into the strategies for fighting a mob would be worth it...

Sounds like fun. While in the talk about nocturnal mobs and weakness/strengths, there could also be some mobs that are weaker while under the sunlight. Or better yet, they get stoned (or poisoned) slowly to death under the sun (so they have to hide in forests, caves, something that is type "inside" like you can't see the weather indoors) but they are horribly strong within the dark. *shrugs*

Nocturnal mobs would quickly get abused...that first hit really hurts if you're sleeping and the agro decides to eat your face...

Though I would really love to see even minimal mob AI so they could react to each other, even if it's just being able to set three factions in an area, two that hate each other and a neutral, the two that hate each other attacking each other on sight.

This could just be my desire for more dynamic areas, which I've talked about before and shant again.

I echo the sentiment that this idea of species would indeed be very cool...

Have a formal submission procedure for a new species's attributes, much like we do for new socials...

cool, yes-but VERY abusable. while we're at it, lets make it so that a character has to sleep 8 hours every day-or suffer big consequences. and lets make it so you can't sleep more than about 10 hours in a row. and lets make it so you get addicted to alcohol. and lets make it so you can get arrested for driving drunk. or for public drunkeness. *pppbbbttt*
if there's going to be any sort of mob special abilities based on races, it should NEVER make the mob easier to kill, in any circumstances. making it harder under certain circumstances, and "normal" under other circumstances, i'm all for, it would be great for the continent. lets hear suggestions, but lets not make mobs that are easier then if they were just standard mob type.

Lairian wrote: Though I would really love to see even minimal mob AI so they could react to each other, even if it's just being able to set three factions in an area, two that hate each other and a neutral, the two that hate each other attacking each other on sight.

This could just be my desire for more dynamic areas, which I've talked about before and shant again.

I would rather focus on AI that interacts with the player first. I think it's a little more meaningful to a player walking through an area to be able to work with an npc in some format besides "kill mob" or "buy item" than it is to see two mobs bantering... Should the former happen, the latter shouldn't be too hard. Actually the latter can be done with specs, but it's a waste of time to do as a spec.

nocturnal? nope can you image the massive influx of kenders and avians? nope I don't think this will happen

It'd be trickier if "nocturnal" meant not just sleeping, but also hidden/invis - i.e. hard to find since they're not moving around and you're rather unlikely to simply stumble across them. As I said before, I feel the idea is a worthwhile (eventual) project, much as (as I continue to return to it) the reformulation of spells into elemental "schools." I would probably recommend towards certain generalization techniques (current br races + goblins, dragons, orcs, ogres, trolls, gnomes, halflings, fairies, etc.) instead of making a species of say, green-haired giant that only happens to live in my area in a very specific zone.