Player controllable NPC puppets

[anisus]

Adding support for creating puppet characters. A character puppet would be controlled in a similar way as an ordinary character, being added to the "Awake characters" bar above the editor while being controlled. Unlike character, a puppet can be controlled by any player (with the priviledge).

The purpose is to be able to add NPC's throughout the world which players may control. Such characters may serve the roles as bartender, clerk, stationmaster, etc.

[anisus]

Suggestion

Behavior

• A puppet would be subscribed to by issuing a command such as:

subscribe Tom Bartender

• Whenever a player character enters a room with an uncontrolled puppet, an event will be sent to all puppet subscribers with a message such as:

Accipiter entered Tom's Bar. Type "control Tom Bartender" to control the puppet.

• Only one player may have control of a puppet at a time. Other players trying to take control of the same puppet will receive a message such as:

Tom Bartender is already controlled. Type "request control Tom Bartender" to request taking over control of the puppet.

• A puppet with subscribers will not appear as asleep unless no subscribers has taken control within 30 seconds.
• Puppets are controlled by players and not characters. So, you don't need an awake character in order to control a puppet.
• A puppet will be distinguished (maybe by name color) in the InRoom list so that other players knows to expect puppet behavior from that specific characters.

Creation

Alternative 1:
Assign an existing character at a puppet. As long as a character is a puppet, it cannot be awoken in the same way as ordinary characters. Maybe it should be displayed under a separate tab under the Characters dialog.

Alternative 2:
Treat puppets as a separate entity with a new set of commands (make puppet Tom Bartender, set puppet gender = Male, etc.). Consider the puppet a part of the room.

Considerations

• Should puppets be allowed to move to other rooms / other areas? Should there be a flag determining what kind of movements are allowed?
• Should a player be a allowed to take control of puppets without anyone being in the room of the puppet, by issuing the control Tom Bartender command? If not, should the player lose control once the room is emptied?
• What character commands are the puppet allowed to use (say, pose, ooc, look, etc)?
• What kind of mechanism to use to remove control of a puppet from an idling player?