[MUD-Dev] Graphic MUDS/Ultima Online

[clawrenc at cup.hp.com]

In <Pine.LNX.3.96.970731175957.138B-100000 at mpc.dyn.ml.org>, on
07/31/97 
   at 07:13 PM, Matt Chatterley <root at mpc.dyn.ml.org> said:

>Not sure why saving corpses is particularly useful. ;) I intend to
>have them rot slowly, be buried, traded for cash, chopped up for
>food, skinned.. but they will probably not save over physical
>reboots. Why not? Partly for efficiency reasons (think how many
>corpses you could have if they took a long time to rot!).

This is an eerily familiar echo of a discussion I had with Chris Gray
way back when concerning his automatic trashing of minor objects left
in rooms when players left the room which pretty well started the
original CC version of this list.

I see a big value in saving the corpses and every other minor object. 
These are opportunities in the making, not problems.  Removing them
__decreases__ the playability and intricacy of the world.

If the sheer quantity of corpses start to become a problem, then
players will figure out a solution.  You can encourage this by having
corpses lieing about the place have negative side-effects on players
(smell, disease, flies, scavengers, tricking footing, difficulty
breathing etc).  Sooner or later some player will come up with a
solution.  Quite possibly he'll start up a mini-business, "5 gold
pieces and I'll rid your house of corpses!".  This could then turn
into a side line where he minced ths corpses and sold them for
fertiliser, or dumped them in the canyon to attract dragons which he
then lead paid troops of adventurers to attempt, etc etc etc.  

The key change in mindset is to look at corpses as a resource, not a
problem.  Once you view them, or any other "trash" object as a
resource, the problem then changes to, "What can I create with this?",
and not, "How do I get rid of it?"

Got a problem with players leaving sticks, branches and other torch
materials about the land in huge quantity?  Let 'em be.  Sooner or
later some enterprising soul will start collecting them and building
houses, cheap wooden armour, shields, *something*.  Ditto for all the
other detritus.

--
J C Lawrence                           Internet: claw at null.net
(Contractor)                           Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------------(*)               Internet: clawrenc at cup.hp.com
...Honorary Member Clan McFUD -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...