[MUD-Dev] Re: Methods to Reduce Ecological Wipeout

[s001gmu at nova.wright.edu]

On Wed, 12 Aug 1998, Leach, Brad BA wrote:

> Greetings,
> 
> From what I have read, it seems UOL faced problems in the past of
> ecological wipeout due to the lack of "repop'ing" mobs. What methods,
> and how successful were these methods, in reversing this?
> 
> Does anyone have any suggestions to cope with this problem for other
> muds?
> 
> Although I haven't spent days thinking about this issue, it seems there
> could be a few "hack-ish" ways to get around this (based on some loop
> hole in the theme of the mud). Huge birthrates is one option, although I
> dont particulary like this method. Intervention from "The Gods" is
> another method (i.e. simulated repop - a method I don't really like
> either).
> 
> Any comments or suggestions?

Initial thoughts:

'wipeout' occurs because there are not enough mobs avail to fill the needs
of the number of characters present in an area.  Once the existant mobs
are killed off, the rate of repop is too slow.

solutions:  faster rate of repop, or a bigger area, with more space
between players.    Or some combination of both.

The problem is one of population densities.  Your predators are too densly
packed, and the prey get decimated too quickly.  Natural ecologies
ballance this by making the predators more dependant on the prey (food).
No prey, predators start dieing off, the density drops off, and things get
back to normal (take a look at the sharks/fish game/toy).

To some extent, I'm sure this happend with UOL.  People logged in, saw
there was _nothing_ to kill, and left.  Unfortuantely, this is not a
viable solution for commercial muds... and probably not favorable for
non-commercial.  I'd recommend investigating the above methods, ballancing
the population densities of preditors and prey.

Since you've already discarded the 'faster birth rate', and 'divine
intervention' (a truely short term solution), that leaves changing the
size of the area.  :)

-Greg