Shattered Kingdoms

Knowing full well that you're being used as a human shield or a tool? I know I would probably get the hell out of there and head home. Maybe that is just me.

I like the idea of giving them a 'goto' ability with a poofin and poofout echo. Nonetheless, I don't think someone like Grimm would just sit there and just wait for some nitwit to toy with him untill he's either dead or the person is done using him. It's one thing if he's charmed, but I think alot of shopkeepers and trainers would have qualms with being summoned. If I owned a shop, I would have some sort of defense against being kidnapped. Especially after the entire neighborhood starts gossiping about missing people. That is if we want to get really realistic, though.

Your right, he would just stay at the Heart of Rose for the same reason.


Yeah, I get that. It doesn't change the fact that he never moves which is my point. These people never move...EVER. So saying 'Well gosh gee willikers, I don't think it makes sense for them to just stand where I put them'

They are doing the same thing they were doing before you summoned them. Now they are doing it somewhere else.

Making named NPCs unsummonable:

Bad idea. It's a huge nerf to the utility and fun of summon - hell, it defeats the purpose of a spell like summon. If the game's current design can't handle the utility provided by the spell, the design should be adapting to balance that utility, not running from complex problems by placing giant, arbitrary limitations.

Making named NPCs teleport:

[REDACTED] that. Doesn't solve any of the problems at hand, doesn't make any sense at all - and I'm not talking about "realism" - realism should not be the primary concern at hand.

Anchor spell:

It's been suggested before, and it has a lot of interesting possibilities behind it.

Personally, I would prefer to see hard-coded anchors placed within the game, mechanically identical to the portal stones. If players are just using the same NPCs over and over again to get to the same areas, I think adding anchors to certain areas would help alleviate some of the demand for anchor NPCs. It could even be coded such that one can only gate to these anchors after having discovered the target area first.

Even this is not a solution to the current problems, however. The best solution is simply to revert the change, IMHO.

I do see where you are coming from. However, I think there is a giant difference between some grumpy lout sitting in an Inn half-drunk, teaching people who wander into the taproom how to parry and just sitting around waiting for a sorceror to make you his meat grinder when he summons you.

You mean to tell me if you were sitting in the Heart and Rose, teaching someone how to use a mace, and someone just summoned you and began attempting to put you under a charm spell so he could make you his personal meat shield, you'd just go with it?

Personally.....I wouldn't. I'm sorry but I'd do exactly what the leperechauns from the Zhefnur Forest do and get the hell out of there.

In addition, this does not make summon useless. I do not think that the IMM staff had NPCs in mind when the created the spell. It is usefull, yes. Not it's main purpose, though.

That's not actually a bad idea, but I can't see the imms spending time coding it. Having them go to sleep might achieve the same thing, but that's not a lot different when it doesn't serve anything other than pure realism purposes.



That's stock mud code. You'll find it on most MUDs that derive from diku, merc, or what the heck ever. About the most annoying realism feature Staerfeldt and all those early coding folks came up with. Feh.

Jardek:



You know, there's simulating realism, and then there's just being a plain old pain in the coder's rump. Nobody wants to code that entire process, it's a waste of time. They're not going to wander off into the wilds, they're going to do what every other newb in the history of SK and stock mud creation does. Hit the recall magic button and go home. Bamfout just gives an appearance of it happening, without wasting someone's time making the NPC figure out the entire way back. That's realistic in terms of SK reality.

As far as sitting there forever until you die of starvation or thirst after someone summons you and tells you to sit there, I'm skeptical as to whether you're really that stupid. It doesn't even make any sense. If you're going to devil's advocate the realism thing, stop doing it just when it's convenient.

Very well said. My point exactly.

Just because someone summoned you, doesn't you have to follow them around and do what they say like some lost puppy. If they intended to "use" me and I didn't like how it sounded, I'd kick rocks. Simple as that.

This is somewhat off-topic, but it's a minor vent I have regarding "coder's intent". As I pointed out with some of the other stuff, alot of these spells go back better than 13 years to original code that was probably around before SK was even a twinkle in someone's computer. These spells weren't written with intensive roleplay or playerkilling in mind, they were put in for basic adventuring games. They had not reason to plan for it. Coder's intent goes out the window & becomes irrelevant, and it's all about making the spells do what you want them to do NOW in your own little virtual world. Variations and possibilities are endless.

This is very much true. I admit that summon is a spell limited only to one's imagination and has come a long way since it's conception. The point I was trying to make is that just because you cannot summon certain NPCs, does not make this spell completely useless or extremely limited. I have been saved by summon spells SO many times in the past. Being ambushed and screaming a plea of a tell to someone to summon me has worked to my advanted many, many times. Priests have used it to retrieve sick and immobilized victims more times than I could probably count. I could probably keep going.

That was the only idea I was trying to get across. Supporting the fact that making certain NPCs unsummonable wouldn't have that great of an impact against the spell itself. The spell is still greatly powered and limited by the user's creativity.

My suggestion of making named npcs unsummonable wasn't a blanket effect. I don't think a single person is saying that Britta should be made unsummonable. Key important npcs, on the other hand, should be unsummonable. Key important npcs are at least one healer in the major cities and all appropriate trainer npcs in the major cities.