[MUD-Dev] Proposed Law

[Andrew Hefford {Coregen}]

On 27 October 2001 03:14, Madman Across the Water
[SMTP:burra at alum.rpi.edu] wrote:
> From: "Travis Nixon" <tnixon at avalanchesoftware.com>

>> AND if there are no downsides to killing cows, other than the fact
>> that all the cows will be dead...

> Even if there are. There are other downsides to the loss of the
> rainforests besides the fact that all the rainforests will be
> gone. Did the industrial world stop harvesting this resource which
> is not renewing itself as quickly and, I'll note, isn't externally
> respawning?

  1) Destroy: Allow them to destroy/dent parts of your ecosystem. 

  2) Create: Allow them to re-create/repair parts of your ecosystem.

  3) Increase the ability to achieve 1) and 2) based on the
  imbalance of the system towards either state.

Note: It is often easier (read less time consuming) to destroy that
to create, so you will probably need to develop time savers in order
to allow the PCs to actually save the environment when not online.
e.g. allow the use of hired NPCs who can guard stretches of land and
certain types of creatures.  They would need to use better AI than
most monsters else they would be to easy to defeat.  Be warned
though. Make them to good and the players may find them more fun
than your monsters.

Interesting twist to this: 

  - Monsters/Creatures that give certain groups of players enhanced
  powers.

  - Allow players to kill of the other teams creatures allows them
  to gain more power.

  - Allow the players to guard and breed their own creatures.  NOTE:
  Breed does not have to mean procreation, they could be summoned
  creatures or something else a little more appealing to your
  setting.  Perhaps the Red dragons are the only things that can
  kill the Green dragons?  NOTE2: This is intensely PVP, or perhaps
  PvEvP or PvEvEvP?  But the concept of managing the players to
  manage the environment is not impossible it just requires a little
  ingenuity.

>> If all of those things are true, then yes, the players definately
>> _will_ make them extinct.

> Removing the benefits from killing the cows, or rather the IN GAME
> benefits, would definately keep more cows alive. It won't stop
> people who kill cows because it's fun, or because it annoys other
> players.  Specifically, creating any ecology in which it is
> _possible_ and not desirable for players to drive it out of
> existance means you have to prepare for and expect that they
> will. And it gets harder to make sure of this when you don't want
> to allow the world to be overrun by cows, either...

Well if they can tick a player of with it, how about giving the
ticked off players a way to stop the aggressive players from killing
the cows all the time.  NPCs that can be hired to guard an area of
Forrest, hey lets call them game keepers! :) Those PCs who want to
could do this kind a job while online too.
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