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

[Marian Griffith]

In <URL:/archives/meow?group+local.muddev> on Fri 14 Aug, Brandon J. Rickman wrote:

> And what about natural defenses?

> Animals are timid/will try to avoid people.
 
The fact that most muds force you to fight small furry animals who
have done nothing to you  just so you can become a big bad dragon-
slayer if you are so inclined annoys me when I start new on a mud.
Especially since I am not at all interested in harming anything.

> Prey animals usually hang out in groups, with strong male (whatever)
                                                            ^^^^^^^^^^ 
> leaders for protection.

Good you moderated yourself or I would have had to @whap you around
the ears with my feministic rhetoric ;)

> Small furry animals can burrow and hide.

Players should in fact rarely see them. But then the question is
if you really want them around on the mud.
And why do you insist  that fresh characters start out being the
scourge of furry kind if the real aim is  to go out and kil some
big bad monsters? The one mudschool I did write did not have the
obligate rabbit, lizard, fox and wolves  but instead pitted each
newbie against other (non player) trainees, pretending of course
that they would not be killed for real.

> And of course predators will starve if they outnumber the prey.

Oh, they will starve long before ;)

Marian
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey