UI Issues: Dealing with Lag

["Brian Price" <blprice#bedford,net>]

One of the few places where I personally would like to allow 
scripting is in exactly the cases where the client is helpless to 
respond.  Lag is, unfortunately, a large part of mud play.  While 
solutions such as wimpy (and even wimpy direction) settings help to a 
point, they really don't do enough under major lag and/or lag-out 
conditions.  Nothing, not even pk by super char, destroys an 
otherwise enjoyable mud experience as much as death by lag.

The idea I'm considering implementing is to allow players to setup
command queues for wimpy and lag-out conditions.  Special commands 
may be made available for use in these queues that would not normally 
be available to the player.  Commands such as goto <loc> or perhaps a 
more sophisticated 'travel_to <loc>' command.   Another route might 
be to temporarily turn control of the character over to a server run 
AI.

The problem I'm faced with is the dual-edged sword of utility and 
abuse.  Any ideas out there on how to do this in a useful manner that 
is difficult or impossible to abuse?

Brian Price