I too have played other mudds, and currently play one that's a lil interesting. One thing that I've really enjoyed with other mudds is that the NPC's there interact with me. They'll either smile or be grumpy towards me when I walk by or type "list" to look at something. If I say "Hi" they either say it back of wave me away. When walking through the town citizens will nod and beggars will hold out their hands and ask for some gold, then depending on how much I give them decides how thanful they are. Janitors and street sweepers whistle tunes and talk to themselves.

If DL wants to be a good rp mudd, then we've really got to try and be more like one. Only so far I can go speaking with a shopkeeper while I RP by myself. Rarely does staff come down and say hello while I RP. I've often been eager to hear a reply to comments. I've tried to strike up a few mini quests with shopkeepers but have no luck. Sure I can toggle on RP and go take a task, but even then the shopkeeper isn't actually telling me about it, he's just got a post up on the board, that's what it seems like to me. Plus the rewards for the tasks are too small. I tried the snow golem task and it would not be worth the 1 mil exp for a group to to the task, more like 5 mil. One task gave a song point a while back, not sure if that task is still there, I completed that task... what is a cleric gonna do with 10 song points?

I've gotten off the path. Anyways, so Npc's that said hello etc would be nice. If I nod at a guard, his nod back would be great.
Tossed in a nickle on this one.

Here's my thoughts, and my apologies, I'm not trying to be disrespectful to the senior posters by running my mouth incessantly.
I just thought I'd say that I think this is a great idea, and I agree that it would lend itself to great RP oppurtunities. It would be especially good for times when your trying to rp on your own, either because there aren't to many people around or, whatever your trying to act out requires and NPC.
I've also experienced the same feeling of slight dissapointment when trying to interract with the NPC's, I'm often on at odd hours and RPing with NPC's and on my own is about all I can do. There's nothing quite as frustrating as say ( and now this is a completely hypothetical situation, and similarity to a real situation is purely coincidental) you happen to walk into, I don't know, the shop let's say. There you are, desperate to sell something for some cash, for whatever reason, who knows maybe you need a drink, or just maybe you happened to skim just a bit too much off the top of the money pouch you snagged and were suppossed to hand over to your guild leader. And there you are, trying to strike a bargain, being polite at first, resorting to begging, blackmail, threats, ranting and raving, and the shopkeeper simply ignores your antics. All the while your slowly dissolving into fits and convulsions of rage and desperation while you imagine the bite of steel against your throat, and your life quickly spilling out, as a fellow guildmember finishes you off for not being able to pay up! And the shopkeeper simply repeats a "no, not interested" for the umpteenth time! Really, he's just so cold and uncaring.
At least, you'd hope a knight might spot your lunacy and lock you up for a couple of days, who knows you might be able to come up with a desperate escape plan, unless they find you first.
Well in any case, I think you can tell I'd love to see this implemented too!
Great idea, and I apologize if I got a bit carried away.

When playing any game where there are creatures to interact with, artificial intelligence is one thing that can make or break the game. The AI has to be done just right so that it's not overly repetitive and predictable, but also without putting an insane workload on its creators.

Mobs that respond to different things (exceptions for violence and other 'generic' factors) is something I have never seen done in a MUD before. I've tried quite a few different MUDs when DL was down for those few months when Nezmar and Amaessara moved from California to Florida, and not only were no others as well-made as DL, but also none of them had any actual mob AI.

It will take a good bit of time to create AI that is actually worthwhile. I'm not writing this off; I think it's a WICKED idea that I'd love to see made into reality. Actually implementing this on a large scale will take quite a bit of time to accomplish. This, and many, many other things that run with this idea have been bubbling in my head for quite some time - the only issue is creating a solid system that will not only get the job done right, but will also allow for expansion later down the road.

I really want to see this happen. Perhaps you guys can figure some creative ways to make it happen? You don't have to know anything about programming, you just have to be able to think of ways to bring an idea to life. You can leave the technical stuff to us

I really do see where your coming from, both from the standpoint of the difficulty of implementing this, and also the quality of it. It's true that if it doesn't work quite right it really would take away from the overall experience. I will do my best to come up with some more concrete and practical ways that this might work.
And with that thought, I'll go and get right to it.

only one concern, I first of all love this idea of course *wink*. the only thing that concerns me about this is dl becoming too rp oriented, now i love to rp as much as the next guy but one of the things i have always loved about dl is that rp is optional. If you just want it to be a hack and slash, get real big, cast crazy spells, beat people up, have generic fun mud then it is. At the same time if you want an exstensive rp world with quests and tasks and other chars to interact with it can be that for you as well, i would hate for this wonderfully balanced mud to become overloaded one way or the other, not trying to be a bitter root just wanted to speak for the other side.

Try deadre macabre to see some more interacting mobs. Now as repeatative as they are... it's nice to have a guard look towards you when you walk through a gate. Or a priest be happy or angry to see you based on your's and his align. When you nod at a mob it'll nod back or smile or slap you it it doesn't like you. I'm by far not promoting Daedre Macabre because nothing can touch DL, but there are a few ideas there. Such as the creation of new items using scrap metals of all different types. One can break down a sword and based on how skilled they are with doing so, get pieces of that metal to collect and use to forge new weapons and general armor. Good idea but you have to name it and some people name their items pretty lame and totally out of context for a mudd. I forged a mace and named it a soft cushioned stick and when using it, it'd beat the crap out of people. Anyways, It's a good mudd to have some fun with for maybe a week but that's about it. Good ideas with pets that follow and assist, which is a great addition for a lower level character I feel, not to mention they can wear a few items and hold some for you. blah blah blah, I love dl.