Usurper Board

Okay, so I have a ridiculously stupid question for you. . .

Presently, just to fool around, I'm running a local game of Usurper consisting of just me and a bunch of NPCs.(The default 75, plus the five PC-NPCs.) Now. . .everything works perfectly fine. . .except things are considerably different. The NPCs randomly log in and log out, and sometimes even spit random things at me.(Drow, or \"You still suck!,\" or \"Buy me a drink.\" Stuff like that.) Also, the Weapon Shop and Armour Shop aren't. . .exactly what I'm used to. The Armour Shop especially. Basically, both shops sell different items -- items not listed in the Editor, or the games running on Harf! BBS. Basically, you can equip only one weapon, and one piece of armour, at a time. As opposed to up to two weapons, and several pieces of different armour.
So. . .I guess what I'm saying is. . . Does Usurper have some sort of \"LoRD on Giga-Steroids,\" or \"Simple\" mode to it, or something? And if so. . .how to I get the game to switch over to the \"Complex\" mode typically run on most BBSes? And how do I turn off the NPCs? Or is that purely a local thing?

Joseph Collins wrote:Okay, so I have a ridiculously stupid question for you. . .

As someone else said, there's no stupid question, just those questions unanswered.
These questions are probably on the tips of many newcomer Usurper players/bbs operators.

Joseph Collins wrote:Presently, just to fool around, I'm running a local game of Usurper consisting of just me and a bunch of NPCs.(The default 75, plus the five PC-NPCs.)

Great, that is a very good start, NOW comes the FUN....
To follow this it is best if you can either print this message out, or read it while running your usurper editor.exe and executing the Configuration editor.

Joseph Collins wrote:Now. . .everything works perfectly fine. . .except things are considerably different. The NPCs randomly log in and log out, and sometimes even spit random things at me.(Drow, or "You still suck!," or "Buy me a drink." Stuff like that.)

The number of "fake Players" is controlled by option 159.
The Chattiness is controlled by option 188 for "fake players".
The Question you didn't ask are WHO are these GUYs, in the DATA folder
there is a file FAKES.dat that you can edit with Notepad, giving their names, sex, race, class. Just keep the format clean.

Joseph Collins wrote:Also, the Weapon Shop and Armour Shop aren't. . .exactly what I'm used to. The Armour Shop especially. Basically, both shops sell different items -- items not listed in the Editor, or the games running on Harf! BBS. Basically, you can equip only one weapon, and one piece of armour, at a time. As opposed to up to two weapons, and several pieces of different armour.

There are basically 2 Modes or types of play in Usurper. Originaly Classic, each player had 1 weapon and 1 armor., and NO inventory.
Version 0.08 (1995-02-19) is when the change was made to allow "NEW" mode Versus "OLD", where players were able to use up to 2 weapons and about 12 other armor items and carry up to 15 inventory items.(Probably the one you are more familiar with.
Configuration editor options are:
53 thru 66 --> set allowable equipment that can be taken by victors of defeated players.
91--> Game mode, CLASSIC or NEW - can be changed mid game but not recommended.
101 thru 115 --> set allowable equipment that can be used in the game.

Joseph Collins wrote: So. . .I guess what I'm saying is. . . Does Usurper have some sort of "LoRD on Giga-Steroids," or "Simple" mode to it, or something? And if so. . .how to I get the game to switch over to the "Complex" mode typically run on most BBSes? And how do I turn off the NPCs? Or is that purely a local thing?

Most of this is answered above. Usurper configuration, IMHO, helps make Usurper much more than L.O.R.D., but I have also NOT worked with Red Dragon for about 8 years. Review the configuration settings and you can tailor Usuper to your desired playability, and it will play Locally or remotely about the same. Enjoy.