[MUD-Dev] Self-Sufficient Worlds

[Mordengaard]

From: Phillip Lenhardt <philen at monkey.org>
> On Wed, Apr 26, 2000 at 11:22:08AM +0100, Chris Lloyd wrote:
> > A magic-user might be able to mix up a healing potion, but where does he
get
> > the bottle to put it in? Can he get a peddler-class PC to make it for
him,
> > or does he have to buy it from an NPC shop in the high-street?

<snip>

> Do deer breed on their own or can you artificially inseminate them? You
are
> always going to have to draw a line between player-driven events and
engine-
> driven ones. If you are creating a simulation, by all means add every
detail
> you can think of. If you are creating a game, you don't want to add
details
> that make one player happy but are seen as tedious wastes of time by
> everyone else.

Yes, I just had this beaten into me by the people I'm coding Yhared with...
I unveiled my plans for a full-blown monster ecology engine, with monsters
going out to find mates, laying eggs, the eggs hatching into hungry
monsters...
I was somewhat taken aback when one of the coders said "Erm, 'scuse me, but
who's going to care?".  Then one of the area builders pointed out that it'll
only take a minor disaster (he cited letting players into the mud) to upset
the ecology and leave us with a dead world.  Ah well, you live and learn.
Well, you live at any rate.

Richard




_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
http://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev