[MUD-Dev] Alright... IF your gonan do DESIESE...

[Jeff Kesselman]

At 08:34 PM 6/19/97 PST8PDT, Adam wrote:

>Why are there no 50-ft insects?  It would seem that since insects really

I can answer that. I read a science article on the impossabiltiy of 10ft
insects a whiel back As I recall terhe are 2 problems both invovling
sqaure/cube,

(1) Insects breathe through their skin.  As the disparity between volume
and surface area grows they basicly cannto bring enough oxegyn in through
the surface to keep teh columje alive.

(2) Structural problems. Being exoskeletal, their structural strength is
also strictly related to surface area.

>can live much longer except for their size (ie, you drop them from a height
>of 50 times their body length and they happily scurry off) that if you

This actually ahs ntohing to do with their structure. Mice can do the same
thing, thsi has to do with their size.  Because they are so small ,their is
a reverse effect from what we were discussing.  Because their curface area
is so large i nratio to their volume they have a very low terminal volicity.

Either can actually survive the fall for ma skyscraper. Height makes no
difference. Ocne terminal velocity is hit you stop accelerating.
 matter of gravity and mroe a matter of the square/cube law-- to wit, as an
>> obejct increases in size its surfgace increases by the square while its
>> mass increases by teh cube.  
>
>Yeah, as I mentioned.  It's not actually mass that increases by cube,
>really, it's volume - but as I said before, all the building blocks
>stay the same (density of flesh bone etc) and the volume just increases
>cubicaly.  Things get nasty.
>At any rate, without getting to in depth into something that I doubt
>anyone really cares about - I find the idea of incredibly intelligent,
>viscious, flying lizards which dwarf the size of any creature ever
>known to exist on this planet (land based or not) to be improbably
>to the point of disturbing my suspension of disbelief.  Even given this,
>the idea that a knight armed with a sturdy lance and a good shield can
>take one out before lunch I find pretty laughable.
>
>> Thsi has relevance when dealing with a foot's ability to hold up a body,as
>> we as, far more importantly, the surface area available to release heat
>> through or absorb it in through.  Large size proves a problem in heat
>> management, thsi is expecially true with creatures who depend on the
>> outside to regulate their body temerpatures, such as cold blooded
>> lizards... but most dragon biology attempts Ive ever seen make then warm
>> blodded and in fact, there is a deabte right now over wheterh or not some
>> of the dinosaurs were in fact warm blooded.
>
>Good point, I haven't even considered this.

>Well, I've never liked D&D, nor am I all that familar with the creatures
>which populate it, but I have quite a few friends that are pretty into
>it.  In particular one had a very nicely painted poster (by Jeff Easly I
>think) with the relative scale and measurements for all the various
>colored dragons, and I recall seeing quite a few on there which clocked
>in at 250 ft.  A T-Rex is what, 16 feet tall at the shoulder?  

Gotta be taller then that.  Granetd I'm remmebrign thinsg as a cad, but 16
feet is a little over 2 times the hieght of a man. I coudla SWORN they were
taller...


>I *still* don't like D&D, and I wish that muds had chosen a better
>model (RuneQuest, for example) at the start.  Unfortunately it didn't
>work out that way...as a result I frequently find myself doing things
>a certain way just because it's the exact *opposite* of the way D&D (and
>subsequently, a large number of muds) did it.
>

Can't say as I love AD&D either. Personally abotu the ONLY system i have
EVER seen which successfully models an entuire environment is Hero (big
oopion flag here) and thats 'cause its a meta system. It gives you the
building blocks and you buidl whatever the hell you want from it.

And eprsoanlyl I lOVE new and different hings, having ben a pen and paper
player now for over 20 years, so PLEASE do different stuff. ill lvoe it if
nooen else does :)

JK

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