[Nomic02] Fighting

[Carl Muckenhoupt]

Well, like I said, the monkey and robot necessitate combat rules.  I don't
have a formal proposal yet, but I do want to discuss possibilities a bit.

It seems to me that the combat system should not be limited to the monkey
and the robot.  Players should be able to fight with each other, or indeed
with the monkey, robot, pieman, kitten, or omnibus (although picking a
fight with an omnibus should be a bad idea).

It further strikes me that fighting should be a state, rather than an
instantaneous action.  When entities are fighting, they can't do anything
else until the fight is resolved.  This gives monkey-robot combat an
effect on the game: it prevents the monkey from stealing things and the
robot from finding kitten.

What form shall combat take?  I'm thinking some kind of
challenge-and-response system that operates independent of player turns.  
If the entity on one side doesn't participate, it should be possible for
the entity on the other side to defeat the other, or to keep the fight
going indefinitely.  The monkey shoult either play at random, or allow any
player to dictate what it does.  The robot should play according to some
simple algorithm.

The effects of combat?  At the very least, the loser should be expelled
from the room; otherwise, the monkey and robot could never stop fighting
even for a moment.

Just some thoughts, available for comment.