nu.kanga.list.mud-dev

23618: Re: [MUD-Dev] RE: Realistic Ecological Models

Sasha.Hart@directory.reed.edu wrote:

> Second, the problem you describe should be roughly as bad as how
> much stock you put in player predation (through your design) as
> something to depend on. Personally, I would prefer not to depend
> on players killing OR not killing things - and use other kinds of
> population control (non-player predators, disease, carrying
> capacity) to regulate population levels which are critical to keep
> down.  If nothing else it is possible to put a simple cap on
> population.
 
> Still, it is a troublesome problem, because we want players to
> interact meaningfully with the ecology. My tentative answer to
> this is A) that players can interact in ways which may have zero
> effect on population sizes, or B) that they can interact
> selectively - as "tiebreakers" or just another species in a
> largish ecology.  I think both are still acceptable uses of the
> ecology, but they do require some careful design... perhaps too
> much, but that's yet to be proven

Although I would love to run, or even play, a game where players
were not the most active predator in existence, I doubt we'll have
one any time soon.  Even if a good game comes out that has a wide
variety of things to do besides killing, most players will choose
killing as their focus, if only because it is what they're used to.
Personally, I would like to run a ecology simulation mud where
players have absolutely no control on the ecology.  Sort of a
virtual zoo.
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