[MUD-Dev] Population container

[Nathan Yospe]

On Tue, 1 Jul 1997, Chris Gray wrote:

:[Chris L:]
::  > l
::  You are in a corridor that runs east west.
::  There is a T-Rexx here.
::  > w
::  You are at the end of a corridor that runs east west.
::  The only exit is to the east.
::  > e
::  You are in a corridor that runs east west.
::  There is a T-Rexx here.
::  The T-Rexx leaves west.
::  > wait a really long time.
::  > w
::  ...no T-Rexx...
:
:I'd view that as a problem (and really only a minor one at that), if
:west was a very quick dead end. It all depends on how detailed you need
:the simulation of your universe to be. If you intend to fully simulate
:ecologies and populations, then yes, an individual cannot just disappear.
:However, if you are only approximating, then the disappearance of an
:individual is about the same as the appearance of an individual, I'd say.
:As a player, I suspect I would just say to myself "Hmm, I guess it went
:away somewhere.". And yes, I might hunt around a bit to see if I could
:find out where it went.

Of course, there is a simple solution: only use the model for large
numbers. Would you notice a single T-rex in the midst of a thousand
dinosaurs? If you id it once, will you REALLY be able to pick it out? And
if you had detailed vision and all, so what? This container is only
presenting things as it is to avoid limitations in your perception, not
your vision. And I mean your real life perception... how well can you
handle a couple kilobytes of spam in half a second? How about your
computer or your internet connection? Unless you can pick out details from
that, I don't see where the issue of enhanced vision (was that JCL's
thing?) comes in to the picture.

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Nathan F. Yospe - University of Hawaii Dept of Physics - yospe at hawaii.edu