Zedd feature

[Leonardo]

Having the new Zedd fixed from teleporting into unreachable rooms and after playing a bit I'm starting to get addicted to the feature.
Is a nice idea and I'd like to expand it, I have some suggestions.

-Zedd loadable by everyone, load cost 10millions. (Actually only loadable by Imms or Heroes)
-Players can chose which Dimension they want to play Zedd in. Maybe even ZONE-wise? Players can chose which zone to play Zedd into and compete for the best Zone Expert?
-Rankings, a table will show the top10 players that have found Zedd the most, rankings being based on every dimension too.
-Play EASY Zedd (You can track him) or HARD Zedd (You can't track the mob) or NEWBIE Zedd (It only plays in Mudschool area) [cost for newbie Zedd just 1mil]
-HARD Zedd would give triple exp than EASY Zedd.
-Players can choose the length of the game, from 10times to 50times - before the game ends.
-Command could be: LOADZEDD <difficulty> <dimension> <length>

Any other suggestion?

[Leonardo]

To Players: Would you like this features implemented?

To Staff: Would you allow these features to be implemented?

To all: Do you have any other feature idea that remains in the Zedd concept to add to this list?

[Tocharaeh]

Have zedd send you on scavenger hunts as well. Instead of him popping around places have him load say "The Crown Jewels of Diandra", and "The Fables TRUE Virginity of Kvetch" located in such and such place.

Also, maybe send people to kill a particular mob like say a killer clown who is wanted for eating Thotter's treasured apple pie or something. Just killing any killer clown wont work though. you have the find the one with the [WANTED] flag next to its name.

Not only do these different features allow people to explore, but also become familiar with different mobs and such.

[Kvetch]

Having the new Zedd fixed from teleporting into unreachable rooms and after playing a bit I'm starting to get addicted to the feature.
Is a nice idea and I'd like to expand it, I have some suggestions.

-Zedd loadable by everyone, load cost 10millions. (Actually only loadable by Imms or Heroes)
-Players can chose which Dimension they want to play Zedd in. Maybe even ZONE-wise? Players can chose which zone to play Zedd into and compete for the best Zone Expert?
-Rankings, a table will show the top10 players that have found Zedd the most, rankings being based on every dimension too.
-Play EASY Zedd (You can track him) or HARD Zedd (You can't track the mob) or NEWBIE Zedd (It only plays in Mudschool area) [cost for newbie Zedd just 1mil]
-HARD Zedd would give triple exp than EASY Zedd.
-Players can choose the length of the game, from 10times to 50times - before the game ends.
-Command could be: LOADZEDD <difficulty> <dimension> <length>

Any other suggestion?

I'll try to attack these one at a time
1) anyone able to load Zedd - seems like a very abusable way to get xp by running around very limited rooms.  These times the mud's really light and I could load Zedd and chace him down by my lonesome because no-one else is on and I get - what is it 8000xp or more each time I tag him?  Zedd only runs around Yorke/REcall which is a very friendly area - no threat of dying.  It's like letting someone load a mob in their house just to kill it for the xp.  Yes, right now we have Heros that are able to abuse Zedd because they can load Zedd.  *pthbt*  They're special... in that special kind of way.

2) Chosing which dimension/zone to play Zedd in.  It is an interesting idea - but first of all, with the fact that not every number is used in each zone that will cause syslog spam when he can't goto the room he's supposed to (it's already causing some where it is now, just not a lot).  And while I wouldn't mind something *like* Zedd in NightDragon Realms, I'd prefer to not have Zedd there - something about an old man running around the mountains and caves...

3) Rankings - I actually quite like the idea.

4) Easy/Hard/Newbie Zedd.  In mudschool you're trying to learn how the school works - I'd rather not have Zedd running around there because it would detract from that learning.  Easy/Hard Zedd.... seriously, how hard can Zedd be?  He's only got a limited number of rooms and most of those you can tell where he is by the room name he shouts out.  Does anyone actually use track to find him?  Any time I played I never tried.  If I didn't know where he was by the name of the room, someone else did and by the time my track would work once (which seems rather random) someone else would've found him so it was pointless.

5) I'd rather have it be the 20 times that it is, only because sometimes you *think* you want a 50 round game of tag but 25 rounds in you're tired of running around and putting off your friend that's been bugging you to take them to prehistoric since round 10.

6) Sounds a lot like the alien invasion script for future.  Hey, you got any ideas to expand those out, pilgrim?

[Tocharaeh]

1) anyone able to load Zedd - seems like a very abusable way to get xp by running around very limited rooms.  These times the mud's really light and I could load Zedd and chace him down by my lonesome because no-one else is on and I get - what is it 8000xp or more each time I tag him?  Zedd only runs around Yorke/REcall which is a very friendly area - no threat of dying.  It's like letting someone load a mob in their house just to kill it for the xp.  Yes, right now we have Heros that are able to abuse Zedd because they can load Zedd.  *pthbt*  They're special... in that special kind of way.

I gotta say, I disagree. We need to start thinking outside the "abusable" box and think "Hey, let's give players something else to do that promotes exploring 4D!"

By creating a good system based off of Zedd, we have a new aspect to 4D that we've never really explored before. What is that? Auto-questing. What good could Zedd bring about in auto-questing? I'll tell ya!

Build a store for Zedd where you can buy special temporary items like say potion buffs for a few thousand Z's (short for Zedd Points). By playing the games, you'll slowly earn a small amount of Z's and then in turn spend them at his store for special potion buffs. And maybe even a good item like a magical goblet of endless water, or something. Put a timer between ZQ's, and Zedd Game o' Tag so that you'll have to wait for such and such amount of time before you can play again, or do one of his scavenger hunt/wanted quests of exploring funness!

Make sure that Zedd never loads in the Med Sea in Prehistoric...that's just cruel.

[Molly]

I am not against the idea of basing a feature like this on the Zedd script, but if you want to chase teleporting mobs around in all the Dimensions, you cannot use Zedd. It needs to be a different mob in each Dimension, and each of them should stick to his own Dimension, not teleport between them.

Zedd would look as ridiculous jumping around planets as he would swimming in the Aegean Sea. That's one idea why I never liked auto-questing, it usually is set up totally without regard for the themes and plots of the mud.

If you want to create a feature like this, start out with a background story that is adapted to our four worlds and a valid reason why the players would hunt the mob. And make the story different for each Dimension. A bit like the Invasion feature, which Kvetch mentioned, and which also should be implemented in all 4 dimensions.

Most of the ideas sounds good, it's a competitive and addictive feature, and players seem to like ranking lists.
Maybe the jumping mob could also sometimes carry som loot worth taking, so it would be a strategic choice, if it would be better to kill him for the loot, or to carry out the full length of the game and get the exp and credit for the ranking list. Killing him would of course reset the counting.

I don't think the abuse factor would be a big problem - if the mob has an entire dimension of around 5000 rooms to jump around in, instead of just the 250 rooms of Olde Yorke, he'd be so hard to track down that it most likely would be quicker to clear out one of the usual hack'n'slash areas. But of course the exp and 'zeddpoints' you get from catching him needs to be balanced to match the hard-easy idea.
And I agree with Kvetch that 20 - (or maybe even 10) - times should be enough. After all you can just reload him if you want to carry on the chase longer.
And he'd be a lot harder to catch than Zedd, because of the expanded number of rooms, so he'd need to stay longer in each room.

The main problem would be the work needed to set up the feature. And I am not talking about the script now - that would be the comparatively quick and easy part.

The main work would be to go through all the zones in each Dimension, do a rlist on them, and choose the chunks of rooms in each zone that the mob would be allowed to jump into. The vnums of those rooms would need to be put into the script, and since we have over 200 zones and over 70 000 rooms, it's not a quick job. This is not something I'd be prepared to do myself, but if someone else with full access to the zones would like to take on the task, it could be a really fun feature.

Maybe LH and Kvetch could work together on the feature, LH doing the scripts, and Kvetch setting up the background stories, and the lists of rooms that would be valid to use in each Dimension. That is, if Kvetch is willing, since she'd be carrying the heaviest load.

But actually I think it there are other things with higher priority. And I don't really want another unfinished feature dropped halfway through completion, like for instance the invasions and the golems.

We may not have enough active players now to appreciate features like this, but we must hope that the pbase will grow after the new code gets in, and people get back to actually PLAYING the game, not just discussing it.

[Leonardo]

Thanks for your opinions, what I've extrapolated from your suggestions is:

-Anyone able to load Zedd but with 1hour delay timer between loads. (We solve the abuse problem, right Kvetch?)
-I'll figure out a way to avoid SYSerrors when the random room doesn't exist.
-Zedd runs multiple dimensions, is better to have him run all the dimensions at once? Or letting the player chose which dimension they want to play the game in?
-ZP's points shops (Maybe we can use Tradepoints better?) I think it's confusing for new players to have TOO many different currencies. Features like this could use the standard Tradepoints currency.
-Zedd gives no more Gold when you find him, but Tradepoints?
-When Zedd gets loaded in HARD mode, will also send the players on scavenger hunts for a nice TP's reward.
-No Zedd games played in Builder Zones.
-No NEWBIE Zedd, just EASY and HARD mode.
-fixed TAG game lenght, 20tags.

Hard Mode Zedd will be: 1-Can't track him, 2-Loads in multiple dimensions, 3-Sends you on scavenger missions randomly,
New idea: 4- You need to fight him until 20%HP before you can advance to the next tagging?

You want to expand Alien invasions Kvetch?

Gah, the witch (Molly) posted before I could finish my post, so she ended up before me. I'm not making another post, I'm modifying this and adding down here the reply (lazy ass of me).

-New mob concept idea
-It won't travel from dimension to dimension (like old Professor Botta)
-Player will chose which dimension? Or it'll be random at load?

Maybe it's better to start with 5 zones in each dimension? Then gradually expand as builders get time to spend on this task.
What is this Invasions about?

The Golems can't be finished because in the past I had more time, now it's limited. So I have to manage it very carefully and I can't work on a very complex script that I can't fully test in 6002, wait for you to upload it in 6000, then if a major bug or problem is spotted, wait again hours or days for you to upload the fix and then check again if it's working correctly, then lose players interest in beta-testing because it took too long to fix the problem that causes them to lose the golems etc., etc., etc.

I'm slowly building my small zone, when I'll have access to edit the Golem scripts in a snap, be sure the feature will be finished in a snap too.

[Molly]

You obviously didn't read my post before posting that.

[Leonardo]

I didn't, I think I was writing the reply while you were writing yours but you beat me on time for the posting. *snaps his fingers. Darn.*
I've updated the previous post to answer your reply too.

[Molly]

Scripts should be tested in the Buildport.
That's what it's there for.

[Prometheus]

And to add something like ZP or Zedd points would need coder input. I don't think it would be hard but we already have enough currency like means on 4d. Not sure we need another set. Right now we have gold / tokens / award points / trade points. But if Molly thinks it might be something to try we might try it in the beta.

Prometheus

[Leonardo]

And to add something like ZP or Zedd points would need coder input. I don't think it would be hard but we already have enough currency like means on 4d. Not sure we need another set. Right now we have gold / tokens / award points / trade points. But if Molly thinks it might be something to try we might try it in the beta.

Prometheus

Believe me, I don't need coder input to add a currency. But I agree that we have already enough currencies, maybe it's better if we use one of the existent ones.

[Kvetch]

What about quest points seeing as it seems my alien invasion scripts give you quest points when you give alien parts to Gadwin.  And since Zedd is a "quest" per say...  And yes, we'll have to eventually figure out how people can use quest points seeing as right now, as far as I know, they are worthless currency - seriously worthless.

another thought on this would be (this is an idea received having read one of the above posts - Tochy's of course) when you tag Zedd he tells you were something else is "The Jewels of Diandra" or something - then loads in it whatever room he said it was in.  Now you have to choose to continue to chase Zedd or go after this new quest.  The object stated and the room stated that it's in could be varied so it wouldn't be "Zedd tells you the Jewels of Diandra are..." and you automatically know where they are so you can just run right there without reading the rest of the line.  Of course if you continue to chase Zedd you can get quite a few hints on where things are, but you do run the risk of someone else running over the items that have loaded - and if Zedd tells you a second time that the jewels of Diandra are in another location, the first location should be null and void.  And what if he sent you off to kill some mob, but you have to finish it before the Zedd game ends and then tag Zedd so he can give you your reward for doing it?  Of course on the last tag he wouldn't be able to give out any quests and he should clear himself from any flags he may have (like waiting for Tochy to come back and claim his reward for killing a killer klown).

[Virisin]

Let's not implement a new currency.