Whos Who?
In the MMOG, players will be unable to tell who is Human and who is AI on face value. Naturally, the ability to chat exists
if you wander around and talk to people, you may get generic responses (however, there will be LOTS of them) which should identify the person youre speaking to as AI
or a Human pretending to be AI by replying with the same generic responses.
Law Enforcers will automatically be assigned to a precinct to begin with, and may apply for transfers in time. Of course, once they get into higher specialisations, they will begin not just covering their local precinct
but in some cases the entire city. The Law Enforcers have the power of knowledge of their side. They can look up details of every precinct, of every Policeman (pending they have the correct authorisation). They can email each other freely and easily. They have the power of mass co-operation.
Criminals, on the other hand, are different. When you start out as a criminal, you will be alone. Completely, utterly, alone. Even a petty thug starts out alone. Theyll have to seek out criminal organisations, pass a few initiations, and even then theyre not privileged enough to know of any more than a select few individuals in the organisation.
There are many advantages to this. Cops therefore cant just go running around, shooting at everyone
and seeing how shoots back or tries to make a break for it. They are governed strictly by protocol. They have a right to stop citizens and ask to their their ID, and in turn the citizens are required to show their ID upon request. Police can radio HQ to check on ID, recent suspect descriptions and License Plates. That, and they need to use their memory to know whos a criminal and who isnt. They will have to actually do the investigating themselves.
Hence the importance of a clean criminal record for a criminal, which I will explain in Doing Time. Totally clean, they can be stopped by every policeman in the city and they will appear as a normal citizen. Of course, as time and criminal characters progress up in organizations, the more resources they have themselves, on other criminals and even on the police force itself.
Population
An AI controlled monitor will
well, monitor the in-game population constantly. It will manage the amount of Police in each of the Precincts and decide whether or not members may transfer. That way, each Precinct will have an evenly balanced amount of Police, including a balance of specialised Police.
Just say 20 human players of a particular Precinct are online, and 10 of them log out within a minute of each other
the Population Monitor will activate 10 AI Cops to replace them. And the same will go for all criminals.
Doing Time
Every criminal will have a criminal record. If they break the law, they either;
(a) Get away with it undetected.
This is every criminals goal. XP gained with no added heat from the authorities.
(b) Get away with it, but are identified by witnesses, police or surveillance.
Sure, you got away, got some XP and no doubt some form of loot, but now an ID description of some kind is currently being punched into the city-wide Police Criminal Database. If only an old lady saw you fleetingly from a distance, well all the Cops will have is a fairly inaccurate sketch of you. On the other hand, you may have been watched by a surveillance camera, close up
better get yourself a makeover
maybe even some plastic surgery.
(c) Get caught.
Get used to the sights and sounds of a jail cell.
A few points to add here.
Everytime situation (b) occurs, if 2 or more reasonably AI-determined positive descriptions of a suspect are matched together, (same type of crime, same type of ID description) then those crimes are grouped together, and will continue to stack up against the criminal, every time they are identified.
Of course, once a criminal is apprehended & arrested for the first time, then they have a criminal record. From this point, every time a situation (b) occurs, then no doubt the AI will place the new suspected offences onto the criminal record. Which means a simple speeding violation could result in your paying for all the crimes youve commited since your last arrest.
Now, the actual doing time part. This
is going to hurt
: )
When a criminal is arrested, they are shown a few info screens on the crimes theyve commited, and how long theyre going to be locked up for. Each crime in the game will have a value, which can also vary in terms of the number of offences the criminal has already done, and how severe the crimes were (really kicking the hell out of a old lady to simply steal her bag wont go down well).
Then you are locked up. And no kidding, youll find yourself spawned in a jail cell. If its not so serious a crime, youll be down at the local precinct, locked up with the rest of the small-timers
but if youre nailed something serious, then youre locked up in the Big House.
While in jail, the player naturally cannot play the game normally as that character. Literally all they can do is talk to other logged-in players who are either in the same jail cell (local precincts will have large, shared cells, whereas City Jail will only have 2 per cell) or in cells close by.
For players in Jail, there will be specialised activities, or mini-games, that the player can, and probably should do, as long-term Jail sentences will have a long-term negative effect on the character, unless the activities are carried out successfully.
Jail terms, I think should be closely linked to average time served out in the real world, and naturally scaled down somewhat. Lets just say a murder is 10 years
. Well 10 days in prison, game-time? Sounds good to me.
Oh, and I believe I forgot to mention the in-game City supports the death sentence. Well, it aint as bad as Texas
but 3 murders? 3 Strikes, youre out
or dead. Maybe a little more lenient
not sure.
I know this sounds harsh, but alternate characters will allow players to at least do something else while their other character is incarcerated.
Alternate Characters
Hmm, not sure on the number allowed, but I thought 4 alternate characters seemed fair. However, as most MMOG are played on several servers, this number could be as low as 2 per server. If both your 2 players are locked up, well to pass the time, you may have to join another server.
)... and there could be rules and ways to conceal your murder... or screw it up. As in, as comprehensive as leaving fingerprints, or traces of your DNA etc etc. By the time GTA 3 came out, I had already expanded the idea to have a second role, played by a cop, to try to investigate crimes, look for evidence etc. GTA 3 gave me a lot of inspiration, and definately is responsible for the criminal organization side of things.
