I hate Oly's permissions system

Rich Skrenta (skrenta@pbm.com)
Thu, 8 Sep 1994 12:11:48 -0400 (EDT)

A group of players has suggested this:

> I've been having trouble with stacking and permissions. The
> following rules change, if you wanted to implement it, would be really
> helpful.
>
> if ((nextcommand = "wait stack xxx") &&
> (notOnAdmitList(xxx))) {
>
> printf ("Adding xxx to admit list for yyy\n");
> addtoAdmitList(xxx);
> }
>
> With the possibility of removing xxx from yyy's admit list
> once the wait terminates.

Someone followed up with this:

> I wholeheartedly agree with this suggestion. The idea that I put in a
> command to wait for someone to stack with me (which means a desire to stack
> is implied) only to have it fail because I didn't remember to put in an
> allow to stack order is contrary to player friendly gaming as far as I am
> concerned. The intent to allow the stack is implicit in the order to wait
> for the stacking to occur.
> In addition, I would not mind seeing the allow to stack being temporary
> while the stack occurs as that would give me easier control of my allows
> but, I can see that as significantly more difficult to program than the
> simple code snippet shown below so I won't be updet if what is below is all
> you consider. I suspect I can think of several higher priority items I'd
> like to see you work on than removing the allow after the wait stack order
> has been met.

And this is my response:

On first glance this looks like something I could toss in, although
it rates severe on the hack scale. My concern is that since WAIT and
STACK are both zero time, prio 1 order, this might not save you,
depending on which order executed first.

There is currently some discussion on the design list regarding
failings of ADMIT, DEFEND, HOSTILE et. al. I actually don't like
Olympia's permission system much, and would like to replace the whole
thing with something saner and simpler.

MASK 0/1 whether or not you display your faction affiliation
DECLARE <attitude> <who>

attitude meaning
-------- -------
hostile HOSTILE
neutral
cooperative allow stack, admit to building
friendly ???
ally DEFEND

(Similar to Olympia I's system, although we'd have to fix a few of its
problems).

In other words, replace ADMIT, HOSTILE, DEFEND, NEUTRAL, and the
non-existent GIVE permission system with a simple entity-entity
DECLARE attitude level (hostile, friendly, etc.)

--
Rich Skrenta <skrenta@pbm.com>


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