[MUD-Dev] Self-Sufficient Worlds

[Paul Schwanz - Enterprise Services]

Richard said: 
> 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.

Hmmm...I wouldn't give up on ecology engines and such.  I think that it is more 
the focus of a particular approach to realism that might need to be altered.  
Perhaps throwing things into a game just because it is a pretty cool model of 
real life isn't always the answer, but if you are looking for solutions to a 
particular problem, I can think of at least two good reasons to look to nature:

1) Since you are building a virtual world, someone (or something, depending on 
your particular religious disposition) may have already solved your problem in 
the building of the real world.  The ecology of the real world is, in fact, 
surprisingly resistant to the "minor disaster" that is man (although we continue 
to test the limits of this resistance).  How does it manage to survive our 
disasterous effects?  Is this something we can program into our virtual world?

2) Solutions from the real world are more likely to be intuitive to your 
players, who, coincidentally enough, live in the real world.  They may also lend 
a sense of veracity to your world that may help mitigate the barriers to 
suspended disbelief. 

--Phinehas

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