COMBAT SYSTEM
PROXY combat consists of an unholy mix of a classic multiuser rpg adventure with the addition of a Multi-Agent Management (MAM) system that's a play on art-world, academia, and computer networking in relation to online public and private space.
QUICK LINKS
- Navigable Spaces
- The BioChip™
- Monsters
- Magic Items
- Scoring
- Bartering
- Death
- Winning
- Experience Screen
- Skills Screen
- Stats Screen
- Consider Screen
- MUE/MOO Introduction
- Combat System
- BioChip™ Hacks & Expiration
- MUE/MOO Web-Space
- Activate an Agent
- Phat-Client Tutorial: Menuing and Functionality
- Phat-Client Tutorial: Agent Attributes
- Phat-Client Tutorial: Custom Look & Feel
- PROXY portal
- The BioChip™
NAVIGABLE SPACES
..__ | |`-!._ | `.| |_______________||."'| _!.;' | _|..
|``"..__ | |`";.| i|_||_|'| _!-| | _|..-|'
| |``--..|_ | `;!|.| | |.'j |_..!-'| |
| | | |`-,!_|_| |_||.!-;' | | |
___|______|____!.,.!,.!,!| | | |,!,.!.,.!..__|_____|_____
| | | | | |_| |_|| | | | | |
| | |..!-;'i| | | | |`-..| | | |
| _!.-j' | _!,"|_| |_||!._| `i-!.._ | |
_!.-'| | _."| !;| | | |`.| `-._| |``-.._ |
..-i' | _.''| !-| !|_| |_|.|`-. | ``._ | |``"..
| |.| |.| !| |.| | ||`. |`! | `". |
| _.-' | .' |.' |/|_| |_|! |`! `,.| |-._|
_!"'| !.'| .'| .'|[@]---- - !![@] \| `. | `._ | `-._
-' | .' |.| |/| / \|`. |`! |.| |`-
.' ' ,' `. '. "._
The navigable spaces in MUE/MOO tend to be described in relatively abstract terms instead of literal ones. Movement is determined via directionals: N/NORTH, S/SOUTH, E/EAST, W/WEST, NE/NORTHEAST, NW/NORTHWEST, SE/SOUTHEAST, SW/SOUTHWEST, U/UP, D/DOWN.
THE BioChip™
THE BioChip™ WILL GRANT YOU ACCESS to the three main quests: Celebrity Profiles (a play on the manufacture of personae as commodity fetish); Faculty Subjects (a play on the institutional impetus to promote interdisciplinary collaboration within the context of academia); and Strategic Interests (a play on the covert monitoring, exchange, and manipulation of networked data).
The BioChip™ is a power-item that alters you over time. It also plays a part in determining what information you gain access to, and how other agents identify and respond to you. The overall goal of the head-game is to FIND THE BioChip™ PROGRAMMER'S BIT which will allow you to reprogram your BioChip™ keycodes. This will let you regain some semblance of control over your knowledge discovery process in the face of various institutional interfaces you must navigate.
Figure 2: phat-client command console when BioChip™ is expired
Once sub-dermally implanted, your chip is continually at risk of getting hacked or expiring, which leads to EXCEEDINGLY UNPLEASANT RESULTS, particularly in in relation to the phat-client UI (User Interface). You will most likely want to avoid this, even though it can be quite interesting to experience from a visualization and interactivity standpoint (seriously). The look and feel of the software in a state of decline, particularly the shapes and patterns generated in the vector-based game plugins, can get pretty wild.
Just remember that IF YOU GET HACKED, which you almost certainly will, you must struggle to get the BioChip™ into a normalized state again. Please see BioChip™ Hacks & Expiration for additional examples.
MONSTERS
"MONSTERS" IS USED METAPHORICALLY to refer to the types of agents and interactions you will confront in connection to your chosen quest: Celebrity Profiles (CP), Faculty Subjects (FS), or Strategic Interests (SI). Where you come from flags how monster objects will respond to you. The various monster types in the different quests include:
- CP: the groupie, the critic, the curator, the gallerist, the historian, the patron
- FS: the student, the staffer, the professor, the chairperson, the dean, the chancellor
- SI: the user, the sniffer, the script-kiddie, the hacker, the sysadmin, the censor
Monster COMBAT PUTS THE STATUS OF YOUR BioChip™ AT RISK of being hacked. The key thing to remember during your quest is that NORMALIZATION GETS REWARDED. You need to keep your agent aligned with institutional power and privilege in order to succeed and prosper. This requires careful consideration of how you mobilize tactics in relation tongues (see the skills screen).
You may want to try things like bullshitting critics in pomo and complimenting professors in geek, while avoiding things like deceiving deans in ghetto, and trying to indoctrinate censors in marxist, which can be particularly damaging to you as well as your opponent.
In some cases "WINNING" MAY ACTUALLY COST YOU hitpoints or funds, and put you at greater risk of being hacked, while "losing" may normalize you. Thus you may effectively be hacking yourself. This is because those occupying seats of power and authority do not take lightly to being confronted and destabilized.
Figuring all this out takes some time and practice, and is a big part of the head-game. Whether or not it's worth the effort is debatable.
MAGIC ITEMS
There are a variety of different magical items you will discover during your adventures. The primary magical item types are potions, scrolls, and the much sought after BioChip™ programmer's bit. Occasionally you will encounter bots that will sell things to you on your journey.
Sometimes you can get very good deals on magical itmes from the bots, particularly if you are charismatic. The bots will also buy things from you provided there are sufficient funds and you are selling the appropriate item type.
SCORING
Hitpoint score, level, and experience either increase or decrease based on things like task completion, magical item acquisition, and battle wins and losses with both "monsters" and other players/agents. Some of what influences scoring is kept intentionally vague.
BARTERING
Exchanging funds for items and services is a crucial part of gameplay, and dictates your relative success or failure in the system. You may barter with other agents, as well as the barter bots you discover on your adventures.
Carrying: -------------------------------------------------------------------- Standard Items Remaining MSRP scroll [unknown] 3 $7.50 potion [healing] 14 $10.00 practice session 5 $50.00 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Non-Standard Items hack [#4424] 1 $250.00 -------------------------------------------------------------------- [bot name] funds: $0.00 [agent name] funds: $0.00
The barter bot interface allows you to select from a list of standard items, and begin negotiation based on the MSRP (Manufacturer's Suggessted Retail Price). You will occasionally find bots with non-standard items that aren't part of their usual inventory. These items can also be acquired, provided you have the necessary funds.
DEATH
"Death" happens if all of your hitpoints are eliminated during battle. Your acquired magical items get destroyed, your experience points get wiped out, and your attribute scores are reset. Most importantly, all of the knowledge you have ingested into the agent system up to that point in time is lost. DEATH IS NOT A PLEASANT EVENT if you've spent dedicated time in the system. You have the option of setting a 'wimpout' variable to prevent this from occurring during combat. However, even if it does happen, you can start playing again.
WINNING
"Winning" includes being able to continue using the system by MAINTAINING A PSYCHOLOGICAL STEADY STATE. Beyond that, your guess at what constitutes winning is as good as ours...
EXPERIENCE SCREEN
Experience required, levels 2 to 9: ------------------------------------------------- ( 2) 1,500 exp (Current: 0) ( 3) 12,000 exp (Needed: 1,500) ( 4) 40,500 exp ( 5) 96,000 exp ( 6) 187,500 exp ( 7) 324,000 exp ( 8) 450,500 exp ( 9) 525,000 exp -------------------------------------------------
The experience screen shows your current experience point score and your corresponding level. It also shows how many points you need before advancing to the next level.
SKILLS SCREEN
Skills for [name]: ------------------------------Tactics------------------------------- bullshit 0% compliment 0% confuse 0% debate 0% deceive 0% indoctrinate 0% insult 0% pacify 0% pulverize 0% ------------------------------Tongues------------------------------- geek 0% ghetto 0% imperialist 0% jingoist 0% marxist 0% pomo 0% -------------------------------------------------------------------- Practice sessions attended: 0 Practice sessions remaining: 3
The skills screen shows your percentage scores (out of 100%) for the various tactics and tongues available for you to learn in order to more effectively engage in battle. When you first start playing you get three free practice sessions, then you must quest to acquire more practice sessions in order to become increasingly adept in a given skill.
If someone is speaking in a tongue you have some skill in, you will understand what
they are saying and be able to engage with them. Otherwise you can not communicate.
STATS SCREEN
Stats for [name]: Funds: $0.00 -------------------------------------------------------------------- ALI: 1.0/4.0 [low] Login: Wed Sep 26 14:19:14 2001 PDT AMB: 0.0/4.0 [very low] Time: Wed Sep 26 14:46:14 2001 PDT ANX: 2.5/4.0 [high] Played: 27 minutes -------------------------------------------------------------------- STR: 0/9 [+0] EXP: 0 INT: 0/9 [+0] Level: 1 out of 9 [initiate] WIS: 0/9 [+0] You feel: helpless DEX: 0/9 [+0] Hitpoints: 10/10 -- wimpout at 0 CHR: 0/9 [+0] Objects: 4,513 bytes used of 250,000 max -------------------------------------------------------------------- Combat wins: 0 Combat losses: 0
The stats screen is an overall summary of the player/agent state. It displays your funds, how long you've played, when you logged in, the current time, your experience points, your current level and status, your feeling state (euphoric, good, fine, frustrated, edgy, helpless, depressed, panicked), your hitpoints, your wimpout factor, your object byte count, and scores for all of your psychological attributes: alienation, ambition, anxiety; as well as your physical attributes: strength, intelligence, wisdom, dexterity, charisma.
Your attribute scores influence how well you perform when engaged with other forms of agency present in the system.
Stats for the agent collective: all [n = 7]; phat-client [n = 5] -------------------------------------------------------------------- ALI: 1.5/4.0 [moderate]* Time: Thu Sep 27 20:27:25 2001 PDT AMB: 2.6/4.0 [high]* ANX: 1.5/4.0 [moderate]* *Averaged for phat-clients only -------------------------------------------------------------------- STR: 7/9 [averaged] EXP: 250 [averaged] INT: 7/9 [averaged] Level: 2 out of 9 [averaged] WIS: 1/9 [averaged] DEX: 5/9 [averaged] CHR: 2/9 [averaged] Hitpoints: 49/89 -- wimpout at 4 [averaged] -------------------------------------------------------------------- Combat wins: 10 [averaged] Combat losses: 1 [averaged]
The above is a variation of the individual player/agent stats screen used to display the averaged scores for all agents currently connected. It also shows the total number of agents, compared to the number using the phat-client, on the upper-right.
CONSIDER SCREEN
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Stats for [opponent]: EXP: 1,858 Wins: 25 Level: 2 out of 9 [initiate] Losses: 2 Hitpoints: 85/87 -- wimpout at 2 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Stats for [agent]: EXP: 250 Wins: 5 Level: 1 out of 9 [initiate] Losses: 3 Hitpoints: 90/100 -- wimpout at 5 -------------------------------------------------------------------- You better watch out, [opponent] seems pretty tough...
The consider screen is used to compare agent stats prior to engagement. It shows the key scores for the potential combatants: wins and losses, experience, level and status, hitpoint totals, and wimpout factor. It also shows the likelihood of success for the player doing the considering, based on the statistical comparison.
NOTE: Many other types of status screens are available to you during play. These simply represent the major player/agent and agent collective states.
Please send comments to nideffer@uci.edu.
