Olympia, following someone From: bonar@math.rutgers.edu (Doug Bonar) Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1992 21:12:04 +0000 Two suggestions for Olympia. (Posted here so that people can comment on them.) I'm a newbie there, but I figure suggestions from anyone are welcome. A "follow" commands might be nice. I was thinking about how you might chase down and kill a specific character. You can wait in an area till they show up, but if they don't come by, you are just sitting there. A command to let you follow them seems like it might be useful. The problem is in implimentation. One would like to have a command that you could use if your proposed victom had already left the area. For example, you want to kill Zak. You give the order "attack Zak", but he has left town already. Some means of "following Zak" would be nice. That order should send you down the same exit path that Zak took. Probably it should be modified to depend on your observation and Zak's stealth. The problem is that it is a conditional command. You only want ot use it if Zak isn't in the area, a condition that you can't really test for. A second suggestion. Right now, using entertainment seems to be a major source of funds. To be more "realistic", perhaps this should be limited somehow. I don't know how the amount of money given is calculated at present, but I think that something along the following lines wouldn't be too hard to impliment, and would be fairly "realistic" Each area has a maximum monthly entertainment budget based on its number of inhabitence (and other factors if the programer wants to get fancy). Entertainers get money as calculated now, unless the total of all entertainers working in the area would get greater money than the maximum for the area (Perhaps this step should be skipped as too cumbersome). If the total "take" exceeds the area maximum, then the area maximum is divided among the various entertainers according to how many days each spent in performing, and what level in skill they have. Thus, a single town would only be able to support a given number of mimes/actors/bards/etc. As more entered, they would start competing for the avalible "take". The better ones would get more money, and the worse ones less. This seems especially usefull in that is stops people creating troops of barely trained singers to go out and assault the ears of every town in the area. They would be able to make some money, but if a real bard came through, he would get most of the avalible money. I don't know how workable this would be. Most things in Olympia seem to be geared to a day by day calculation. Thus, the idea of how many entertainers are working in the area in the month is sort of unusual. Day by day implimentation would be possible of course. Then, even two great bards couldn't be sure of making much money in a city if they happened to be competing for the audience on a certain day. :-) Doug Up