[MUD-Dev] [MLP] The use of ecology models (was: NPC Complexity)

[Matt Mihaly]

On Thu, 25 Apr 2002, Talies the Wanderer wrote:
> At 11:20 PM 4/24/02 -0700, shren <shren at io.com> wrote:
 
>> One of my thoughts on this matter is to make micro-worlds that
>> have shorter durations, fixed player bases, and fixed goals, and
>> the micro-worlds close when the goals have been met.  So you get
>> together a hundred people, enter a small world, and spend about a
>> year saving it, making steady progress as you go.  When all of
>> the goals have been met, the evils defeated, and peace achieved,
>> the world respawns like a mud respawn, back at the
>> beginning. Repetitive, but there's a feeling of progress, and I
>> seldom stick to a game for longer than a year anyway.

> Check out A Tale in the Desert (http://www.ataleinthedesert.com/)
> - there will be about a year-long plotline, assuming steady
> player-progress.  It's in "open beta" right now (actually, still
> very early in the development cycle, features are added every
> session, and sessions are irregular at best).  I've enjoyed the
> creation aspect of the game more than the social aspect.  This
> game gives you a definite sense of world-control, as you can
> manipulate your environment, building workshops and other
> buildings, planting farms, even raising huge monuments to your own
> achievements...  It's visually stunning as well, I remember how my
> jaw dropped the first time I enabled the grass...  Anyway, this is
> a nice game that almost exactly matches your definition.

There seems to be a logical disconnect between saying "There is a
year-long plotline." and "You can affect the world." How can you
possibly make a year-long plotline if players can meaningfully
affect the world? We in Achaea quite often have to radically change
plots that are only projected to last a week because the players
have done things that require us to take a new path.

--matt

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