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

[Koster]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael.Willey at abnamro.com [mailto:Michael.Willey at abnamro.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 1998 1:11 PM
> To: mud-dev at kanga.nu
> Subject: [MUD-Dev] RE: Methods to Reduce Ecological Wipeout
> 

>      Author:   mud-dev at kanga.nu ("Koster, Raph" 
> <rkoster at origin.ea.com>)
>      Date:          8/12/98 3:13 PM
> 
> >The breakdown occurred when all the food was grabbed and all
> >the creatures were killed before they managed to find any.
> >Given this, the computation power spent on the AL code was
> >wasted and therefore the AL code was disabled.
> 
> I have a question - Did the food shortage result from critter
> overpopulation (were they grabbing it from each other), or
> from players (did the players grab it from them)?

Players grabbing it.

> If the answer is that the players scarfed all the food, then
> I wonder why?  Was this food beneficial to them as well?

Everything that moved was beneficial to players. And so were many things
that weren't--for example, the wood the trees are made of is a commodity
in UO. 

> The point I'm leading towards is this: Does it necessarily
> follow that your critters and your players should consider
> the same substances as edible?  I know very few people who
> subsist on grass, tree bark, leaves and twigs, or nuts and
> berries.  :)  That relieves the competition on at least one
> segment of your critter population.

Well, we had the deer and rabbits and birds and the like which weren't
competing for food with players, just with each other. But their
habitats were indeed being encroached. Not that it mattered--they were
dead as soon as they appeared, because of the mass demand for hides
(from which to make armor) and feathers (for fletching arrows) and meat
(usually for sale to innkeepers).

> If you make a distinction between herbivores and carnivores,
> then you divide your critters into two groups:  one group that
> isn't competing with the players for resources, and one group
> that is, but makes for much tougher competition.  Players and
> other carnivores will consider herbivores as appropriate food
> sources, but at least they won't be killing them off *and*
> consuming their food sources at the same time.

It boiled down to supplying enough for all the newbies who just want to
kill, plus the craftspeople making a living off of them. Plus the
adventurers demanding that the resources taken up by deer be spent on
orcs instead...

-Raph