Re: Olympia: economics and borders

From: lam@tridom.uucp (Larry Morris)

Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1992 14:29:24 +0000

In article <1992Jul9.225358.7205@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>, gl8f@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl) writes:
(regarding roving entertainers, miners, woodcutters, etc. entering "your"
territory, cratering the economy, and leaving...)
|> Chase them down and kill them. If you're willing to use force to
|> "defend your border", you ought to be able to manage this ;-)

It just fails my "reasonableness" test, though, that a group could
enter a territory held by a my (hypothetical ;-) large resident force,
do anything they want for 2-3 weeks, and my only response is to try to
chase them down later. It becomes an offense-only game, with defense simply
not possible.

|> But it can. If you know the numbers of the enemy units, you can attack
                      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
|> them as they pass through, with the current system. You just have to
|> think a bit.

Therein lies the rub! If I think Varian's coming in to invade my territory
and take prisoners (oh, let's pick on Varian some more!), I could target
his unit ID for "opportunity fire." But he could easily send his force in
with a surrogate leader, and I'm blind and deaf. I can't even target his
faction! (OBapology, not that I'd want to...)

It's not just for military defense that I'm proposing the new WAITs, though.
Some examples:

entity 2000 # town greeters
   set 0 idle "wait arrival from [501]; give arrival key-to-city 1"

entity 3000 # Stay and See Kircarth
   set 0 idle "wait arrival declared cooperative; stack arrival;
   persuade 200 arrival; unstack"

entity 4000 # Timid Hitchhiker
   set 0 idle "
   wait arrival stronger #expecting some strong force moving thru
   stack arrival" # hitch a ride with 1st cooperative strong force

entity 2333 # Wimpy_mage_in_poorly_defended_guildtower
   set 0 idle "study useless_spell"
   wait arrival not from [501] [502] [503] #if any non-allies show up,
   unstack; stack 501 #run to poppa's big stack
   make fierce faces

By the way, while I've proposed <faction-list> as a primitive, with the
new, more general guild rules, perhaps a guild ID could come to represent
any allied group of factions; thus a guild ID could be the primitive
rather than having to use a list. But that's a whole 'nother topic...
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Larry Morris      | "But it's in all the news, they got a cure for your blues,
AT&T Tridom       |  You just hitch up your heart to your dreams;
Atlanta           |  Keep a feel for the real, and don't forget your ideals,
No Opinions,      |  You'll be rich, if your conscience is clean!"
Just the Facts.   |                                - Dick Siegel, "Snap!"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

References

Olympia: economics and borders
lam@eng.tridom.com (Larry Morris)
Thu, 09 Jul 1992 20:50:18 +0000
Re: Olympia: economics and borders
gl8f@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl)
Thu, 09 Jul 1992 22:53:58 +0000

Referenced By

Olympia: economics and borders
lam@eng.tridom.com (Larry Morris)
Thu, 09 Jul 1992 20:50:18 +0000
Re: Olympia: economics and borders
gl8f@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl)
Thu, 09 Jul 1992 22:53:58 +0000