[MUD-Dev] Git out the boar spear, Martha!

[Adam Wiggins]

[Matt C:]
> The thread(s) upon hunger/food/nutrition a short while ago were very
> popular and quite highly contested - I'd like to raise another issue of
> that - the gathering of food, and specifically, implementation of some way
> to hunt.

Yeah, I find this really interesting, myself.  I've always really loved
ranger and druid type characters, but as I've mentioned in the RP threads
before, they are difficult to 'role-play' because there is so little
player interaction involved.  These sorts of primal survival skills are
easy to implement and add a whole lot to a mud, IMO.

> I intend to allow the eating of corpses (of courpse, most players will
> have to cut them up into suitable food pieces and/or cook them first..
> only trolls and orcs will be able to chow down on a freshly dead body
> with no chance of being ill). But this isn't any good to capture the
> spirit of hunting, aka actually tracking down the beast, and killing it -
> it's just eating what you kill normally, which may not even be 'game'.

Well, sure.  Your average mud usually has skills like butcher, campfire,
cooking, tanning, and so forth, which are mildly amusing, but IMO a lot
more can be done with this.  One of the first towns I wrote for our mud
was a little hunting outpost on the frontier between what is considered
civilized land and the lawless stomping grounds of the less sophisticated
races.  There's a whole econmy based just around hunting stuff.  Basically
there's a hunting lodge, and every so often the huntsmaster (an NPC) gets
together hunters (mostly NPCs, but PCs can join if they wish) to go out
and hunt creatures in the area - mostly boars and these large buffalo-like
critters.  The (of course) require weaponry (spears and bows being the
favorite) which keeps the weaponsmith and the fletcher pretty busy.
After the hunt, they drag whatever they've killed back to town.  First
they go to the tanner's, to be stripped of their hides.  Then to the
butcher's, who set to chopping up the carcass.  They of course head to
the local tavern for several rounds of ale after the hunt.  The tanner
sells hides to the leatherworker, who makes armor and other leather goods.
The butcher sells the meat to the inn, where it's cooked and served to
patrons.  Other related businesses include the stables (makes it a bit
easier to catch up with prey on the open range) and the bowmaster, who
teaches weapons skills and allows people to practise firing various ranged
weapons as well as tossing spears at her range.
Naturally, a PC can be a part of any one of these things.  I expect
hunting to be the most popular, but you can also make a respectable (and
safer!) living tanning hides, butchering carcasses, crafting leather, etc
etc etc.

> How about having certain types of terrain where players can look for
> animal tracks (if they're lucky enough to find some, they follow them for
> a bit, and an animal they can hunt is generated), and then hunt any beast
> they find. Hunting would involve following it until it stays still, and
> then either being unbelievably quick to attack it by hand (aka superman),
> or shooting it from afar with a spell or missile/thrown weapon.

Well, tracking is a pretty important thing IMO - just as important for
being able to track down that thief who nabbed your purse as it is for
getting your dinner.  We generate tracks whenever anyone walks anywhere
depending on their race, size, type of footwear, ability to move
without making tracks, and the terrain they are walking on.  Animals
wander around out in our wilderness, so it's just a matter of wandering
around until you discover some animal tracks and then following them.
Since they are so fast and alert, stealth and some sort of ranged attack
are highly useful.