SmartMonsters' Bulletin Boards
Post early, post often.

       
Game Wardens  XML
Forum Index » Whatever You Like
Author Message
Mark Phillips


[Avatar]
Joined: 1969.12.31 00:00:00
Messages: 2199
Location: Watsonville, CA
Offline

We're ready to think about creating a small number of "marshalls" or "game wardens" or whatever we'd like to call them: experienced players who are empowered via special commands to assist other players, resolve disputes, discipline players when necessary, fix minor glitches, and generally help out.

We're thinking about making this a proper TC Role, with participants rewarded experience and dinars for their connect time, as well as (possibly) their helpful actions.

So, we'd like to solicit input from all those interested, re what some of these special characters' special powers might be, and how they might be rewarded.

These are some suggestions that occur to me for Warden Commands. What do you think of them, and what others can you suggest?

-- Disciplinary commands: muzzle; shackle; jail; pardon.

-- Movement commands: goto (another player).

-- Administrative commands: set character titles and descriptions; whereis (a player).

What other special powers should Wardens have? How can abuse be prevented?

Re Warden rewards, we were thinking that Wardens would accumulate experience and dinars simply by being connected. Some reasonable quantity of exp and $ per minute, say. (Like, one, LOL.) So simply by being a human resource available to assist newbies and players with problems, Wardens would be growing their characters.

It would be more interesting to reward them for actions, but it's difficult to think of cheat-proof safeguards that wouldn't free the unscrupulous to unfair gain. For instance we could spiff them for use of the muzzle or goto commands, but it's easy to imagine people using goto too often. Stuff like that. What are your thoughts on these ideas?

Many thanks for contributing your suggestions, they're greatly appreciated!

Bartle quotiet: E80, A67, S47, K7. TriadCity characters: Mark, Poobah, Occam, Abelard.
[Email] [WWW]
Mark Phillips


[Avatar]
Joined: 1969.12.31 00:00:00
Messages: 2199
Location: Watsonville, CA
Offline

Dual-play (more than one character allowed) might be a special capability of Wardens.

(Dual-play will be programmatically banned one of these days.)

Bartle quotiet: E80, A67, S47, K7. TriadCity characters: Mark, Poobah, Occam, Abelard.
[Email] [WWW]
Jordan West



Joined: 2000.12.31 00:00:00
Messages: 205
Offline

Perhaps instead of rewarding wardens with experiance or dinars you could simply make them not get hungry or thirsty and remove the auto logout function so that they could be online all day without exactly having to be active. This would allow them to be online more incase a situation arises that needs to be taken care of. Just a thought.
Mark Phillips


[Avatar]
Joined: 1969.12.31 00:00:00
Messages: 2199
Location: Watsonville, CA
Offline

That's a great suggestion!

(Maybe we can do both? Remove the hunger/thirst/logout restrictions, and offer payment via exp and dinars?)

The only downside I can foresee might be that wardens might be logged in, but afk, much of the time. That might be frustrating to players who need something urgently. What do you think about that? Is it no big deal?

Thanks!

--Mark

Bartle quotiet: E80, A67, S47, K7. TriadCity characters: Mark, Poobah, Occam, Abelard.
[Email] [WWW]
Jordan West



Joined: 2000.12.31 00:00:00
Messages: 205
Offline

I think they would still get help more likely if the game wardens were on, but partially AFK, than if they game wardens weren't on at all. It would be better to ask game wardens to not leave it on if they were completely AFK(out of the house, sleeping, ect.) but instead if they left it on while watching television, or surfing the web so that they could check back periodically to see if anyone did need help. They are being paid for this, and not having to eat/drink is a big advantage all on its own.
Mark Phillips


[Avatar]
Joined: 1969.12.31 00:00:00
Messages: 2199
Location: Watsonville, CA
Offline

Maybe we could finesse it a little, like this.

Wardens don't become hungery/thirsty, and don't time out.

But, we'll keep a timer going which measures the interval between commands entered. If they're active, that is, entering commands, they'll receive a stipend (exp and dinars) for their participation. If they're not active, they won't receive the stipend. But, they still won't get hungry/thirsty/timed out, and they'll be available for pages (ding!) if someone needs them.

What do you think about that?

--Mark

Bartle quotiet: E80, A67, S47, K7. TriadCity characters: Mark, Poobah, Occam, Abelard.
[Email] [WWW]
Jordan West



Joined: 2000.12.31 00:00:00
Messages: 205
Offline

Perfect!
Lisa Chau



Joined: 2003.06.02 00:00:00
Messages: 591
Location: Kalaheo, Kauai, HI
Offline

Sounds pretty cool!

Will the wardens use the same game applet as regular players, or will there be a new one for them, like administrators have?

Chiensha, Moorea, Vicodin, Xanax, Zoloft.
Mark Phillips


[Avatar]
Joined: 1969.12.31 00:00:00
Messages: 2199
Location: Watsonville, CA
Offline

That's a great question. I dunno!

Probably makes sense to treat it like a Role. It'll have some special commands and will gain the auto-spiffs. Simpler's maybe better!

Bartle quotiet: E80, A67, S47, K7. TriadCity characters: Mark, Poobah, Occam, Abelard.
[Email] [WWW]
 
Forum Index » Whatever You Like
Go to: