[MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun

[Caliban Tiresias Darklock <caliban#darklock,com>]

On 10:16 PM 7/24/98 -0700, I personally witnessed S. Patrick Gallaty
jumping up to say:
>
>>>Now what I haven't figured out yet is how to deal with it if Max swears
>>>allegiance to Joe. Joe's total goes to nine; Pete's goes to fifteen; Max's
>>>goes to sixteen. Max's total has gone up by eight, so Joe's total goes to
>>>seventeen, and Pete's goes to 23, and Max's to 24, and then Joe's to 25...
>>>I don't know right offhand how to stop this.
>
>
>How I solved it in my conceptual 'heroism' system was to disallow swearing
>to anyone who had less points than yourself or was in the same or lower
>'rank' than you were.  The ranks were equivalent to exp titles.

Well, in a game where everyone starts with one point, this sort of...
doesn't work. Bob has one point. Joe has one point. In fact, everyone has
one point. So... no one can swear allegiance to anyone else. So the entire
system is useless. 

It would, of course, make perfect sense to disallow swearing to someone who
is already sworn to you further down the tree. Basically you trace the tree
straight up, and disallow circuits that way. "Swear to Joe": Joe != Max ->
Pete != Max -> Max == Max -> "Joe is already loyal to you." Well, of
course, you need better wording.