Dark Legacy MUD Forum

This was a bit long winded for the other topic for serious discussion to take place there, so I decided to make it its own topic!

I have an idea for a system of cities and crime syndicates. I suggest you can only be jailed in towns where you commited crimes and allied towns. If you commit a crime in Tarsonis, the City of the Forsaken should like you more, I think, and you will not be arrested there. But go to Tarsonis or Midian, and the NPCs (and JG) will try to jail you. Another idea is residency in a city. If you kill a resident of Tarsonis in Pixie Forest, and word gets back to Tarsonis/Midian/etc. then you're wanted there.

I would also suggest that for some period of time (be it half hour, hour, etc, according to your crime) that there would be a bounty on your head. If you continuously commited crimes, this bounty would raise and raise, and so would jailtime if you were caught. Of course, this money has to come from some where, so the residents of cities would pay taxes (and the MUD also matches an appropriate amount from the shops in the town) to pay for these bounties. Of course, you could choose not to be a resident of a town, but this results in lack of rights in any town (although all cities would be neutral to you, generally)

Along with this idea, certain cities could be at war, or allied. If you are at war with a city and you enter that city, you are basically free to be killed. This means that the stronger you are, the more likely you are to either build your own town through player hamlets, or to have no allegiance.

These player hamlets would not be at war with any NPC cities, but instead only with each other. Guards would also need to be provided for the hamlets to protect and jail, with wages coming from taxes. There would doubtlessly be some player hamlets which would be centers of crime in which there are few, biased, or no laws at all and would basically be pkill areas.

Along with these cities and residencies, there would be disguises (which randomly pop on kill of a guard) to let a rogue sneak into this town without being noticed as an outsider. This is how it would be possible for bounties from Tarsonis to be placed on people who kill Tarsonis citizens in the City of the Forsaken. These rogue spies would have the ability to 'record' the crimes which take place and either use the mail command to 'mail testimony Tarsonis' or to pass these back to Tarsonis by themselves or by use of messengers.

These disguises would be seen through by those of high rank in your own city, or possibly even told to all citizens through a 'citytalk' channel which could be introduced. This would allow large scale attacks of cities by rogues which infiltrate the city and destroy walls/unlock doors to let non-rogues into the cities.

These walls of course would have to be coded in certain areas of cities so that a rogue could use explosives (possibly the pearl potion, or a timed bomb which hurts all mobs/players in the room also) but in planting this bomb, there is a certain chance that they will be revealed from their disguise.

There would also be a certain chances that the disguise would wear off on movement, like sneak. This also requires witnesses in the rooms, either mobs, or just programs which will alert the city guards (and all citizens through 'citytalk' or even mail) when a rogue is uncovered or a city wall is breached.

In some peaceful cities, there would be even more laws, such as unsheathed weapons can aggro guards and result in a small jail time (only 5-10 minutes). Of course, in these cities there are worse laws for those caught in espionage.

Of course, before a certain level (30-40 I would suggest), players are immune to the politics of the cities (maybe they choose no alliance til tri-av either) so they cannot be harmed by random spies and such.

Those who are not aligned with any city could be aligned with a crime syndicate (invite only, you don't just apply for them...) which would be kept a secret...only leaders, and other higher-ups would know who all the members are and would mediate discussion and plans in the syndicate. If a city discovers you are in a crime syndicate, they would alert all allies also and those cities would try to jail you (for a certain amount of time, until they forgot).

NOTE:
Just because you are in a crime syndicate wouldn't mean you can't be associated with a city. A crime syndicate could even have major influence, and practically control a city, as seen throughout history. Although, being tied in with a crime syndicate may make some of the justice loving cities declare war on you.

Quintos, you've some good ideas. I have a few of my own.

I think the MUD should be... seperated. I.E., a portion of the MUD's world should be 'wastelands'. Or perhaps, an alternate reality. A 'flipside' to DL's peaceful life. Where killers reside. A place for the outcasted. The deadly. Be it a peaceful who decides one day to take the life of another, or a born killer, he/she is forever claimed by sin, and may never step foot back into the town, lest they are killed on sight.

The whole jailing thing is rather redundant to be honest with you. The only true way to make someone pay for their deeds is to take away from that person. Perhaps a piece of equipment that randomly drops from the corpse (which I like the idea of). Some items should have resist flags for abandoning it's owner, like loyalty flags do/did for dropping during disarm.

Deadlies should have guilds of their own. No citadels. No safe havens. But they should recieve perks the peaceful do not for compensation. What, I'm not entirely sure. That's another topic in itself.

That is an interesting idea, but I hate the idea of seperating the deadly and the peaceful. I think it would be much better to have it so that PK, and even large scale wars *drool* can happen all around us. Perhaps restrict it so that only certain npc towns and player towns can go to war (and only warring towns can attack each other), so that if you dont want the pk, you don't need to be in it necessarily. This also means that those JG would have more important jobs, namely protecting their towns. When an enemy attacks, they would be on (or at least near) the front lines, trying to capture the major enemies (and just think of the penalties when the leader of a town is captured along with his squad) who are attacking them. After theyre captured, the town could have to buy them back (or let them rot until their sentence expires) and they would get free passage back home...where they'd be treated as complete failures and ridiculed by their people for not being able to stand against some stupid Trollish justice guard (yep ling ).

I guess I got a little off topic, but you have to admit that watching a squad from a warring town break into the town you're a tourist in, and removing the holy manuscripts from the town hall with bodies falling all around you would be pretty cool. Hmm...possibly recruit temporary guards from the tourists in town and from allies?

I get ya.

But the thing is, peacefuls who don't want war will hate having 8 vs. 8 battle royale at town square with a screan and a half of battle text flying past them every round as they're trying to chat with other non-warring peacies in the square.

The lifestyles don't mix. I assure you. I've been on many MUDs, many PKs ones as well, and having deadlies running around peacefuls is bad idea.

I'm not talking completely seperating the MUDs. Deadlies could still interact with peacies, and vice versa. Deadlies could still sneak into town to use the shops... whatever. I'm just saying, give the deadly a 'playground' tailored to their needs, connected to the world that already exists.

Well that's why I said that not all cities would be warring. I would not suggest wars at Tarsonis where all of the new characters are, this would be a peaceful zone (other than the current chance of PKills). Midian too would likely be non-warrring, although may send troops to aid allies, or provide haven for allies in the area.

Another thing, these could pretty much replace guild wars. As more powerful guilds would likely have their own cities (or at least have great influence in a city, much like a crime syndicate), like the merchant guilds of medieval times, they would be able to basically control the cities diplomacy. Not much would get done in a town if it's main guild is not happy. This would allow individual guilds to declare war on a town (and force the other guild out of power there) or for cities to declare war on individual guilds to show their supremacy.

Some brainstorming from AvTalk:

Quintos: of course, theres also the possibilities of revolts from the citizens themselves forcing them out...civil war is fun and bloody too
Cirith: the citizens would have to be decently strong though
Cirith: else how would they force players out?
Quintos: well if a guild is trying to dominate all other guilds, there forces are gonna be stretched out too much
Cirith: true
Quintos: thats when revolts are more likely to happen
Cirith: so when it happens, there is no defending?
Quintos: and there could be bonuses for the more towns guilds control
Venus: i like that
Quintos: there is defending, the guild could fight back against the citizens
Cirith: then the mobs would have to be quite powerful
Cirith: Because someone like Lingolas could take quite a few of them out.
Quintos: citizens of a town can be players too
Cirith: I see
Quintos: not just mobs
Cirith: non-guilded?
Venus: it sounds to me like guilds are now nations
Ocardus: Woot!!! i wanna be Norway
Quintos: yeah cirith
Quintos: or they can be guilded too
Quintos: just because your guild controls a city doesnt mean you cant live else where
Venus: all guildless people should be deadly because they are not under any legal protections :p
Quintos: and minor guilds that don't control a city would have to live somewhere
Quintos: no venus, because theres cities, guilds, and crime syndicates in my idea
Quintos: guild CAN control cities, but not necessarily
Venus: oh, those wont be too hard to conquer
Quintos: crime syndicates which are basically ultra-secret guilds, can also control cities...and its hard to know whos in a crime syndicate
Quintos: not even members would know the rest of the members because leaders of the syndicates would mediate discussion
Venus: i assume that the newbie guild will be left out of this
Quintos: yeah venus...or they control tarsonis
Venus: that's not a bad idea
Venus: they can have tarsonis
Quintos: that way they have perks in tarsonis too, until they leave the newbie guild
Gerret: like the caretakers and newbie guild would control tarsonis
Venus: whats a good city to take over?
Venus: Tyr?
Quintos: or a player hamlet
Quintos: not all npc cities would be conquerable
Quintos: ie: forsaken wouldn't accept any leaders (unless they meet very specific requirements and rule how they like it)
Venus: maybe celeborn will introduce conquerable cities
Quintos: also, midian wouldn't be conquerable, but they would aid allies
Quintos: other possibility: relics in cities/strongholds
Quintos: guilds can take over these places and move the relics to their main stronghold...once that stronghold falls, the relic returns to its keep
Quintos: hmm...just thought of something else with avestifal's newest idea...
Quintos: the forgotten cities you find can contain relics which you can take for your guild and your guild can claim them and recieve bonuses from them too
Quintos: but those disappear when your stronghold is pillaged
Quintos: and theyre guarded by supermobs in the forgotten cities usually...maybe those supermobs would help to guard your relics

Sounds great. Some pretty cool stuff there Quintos.

I have an idea, I'm sure you guys have played soul reaver. What if people who wanted to PVP just had to commit some murders and they would be thrown into a Vortex, or jump in willingly

I've never played soul reaver, and have no idea of what significance that game is.

A) you're missing out

B)

The Vortex was a thing that basically cause excruciating pain.

I'm thinking something like that, but without the pain.

Here's what I'm thinking:
Two Planes of existence (Umbra and real world, ethereal plane and material plane, dead world live world, what have you)

And the characters who go into this "vortex" can shift between the two "planes". In an attempt to explain wtf I'm talking about: here's an Example:

Tidal a Human born under the sign of the Shield, as part of an RP I've decided that he was a rag-tag no good kid off the streets and I'm gonna make him a PvP player. So I enter the VORTEX which tears at my soul and bodily coils. And so (at will) I can go into this Umbral realm which has no interaction with the Material realm, even though they're pretty much the same, and I can walk around in this Umbral realm, and in the Umbral Realm I can kill other "Umbrals" and fight etc. But nothing is seen by the Materials, however, at certain spots where the Umbral is strongest/Material Realm is weakest I can cross back into the material Realm (for instance if I want to go leveling with some of my "Material Realm" friends). Only Problem is, nothing of the Material Realm can be brought to the Umbral realm and Vice Versa, so I'd need two sets of different EQ. And in the material realm, if a murder occurs, there are stiff penalties incurred, whereas in the Umbral Realm, jack happens. This would let people cater to their bloodthirsty side, prevent people from having uber peacies make uber gear and give it to their little deadly alts (which is something I always considered lame and pathetic, if you're going to be a deadly gather and make your crap as a deadly).

So Tidal throws himself into the vortex, gathers gear in the Umbral Realm, goes back to the Material realm, gathers together gear there. That way if he wants to level with friends who are peacies he can, and when he wants to go hunting he can.

Only forseeable problem is people leaving umbral to go leveling etc and then popping into umbral to pick someone off, then back to material. Perhaps a 2 hour mandatory Online timer before you can "realm jump" again? Any suggestions?

I believe something along those lines was mentioned a while back, though I can't remember by whom. I've just fine tuned it because I would still want to be able to kick it with Peacies.

That's not a bad idea at all man.

Like shifting into an alternate reality where you can kill and be killed by others. Very koo.