[MUD-Dev] Understanding Simulation (was: Point of View)

[Derek Licciardi]

From: Ted L. Chen

> Things get more interesting and applicable to MMOGs at Road Map
> #6, where they start to combine the elements learned in "Economics
> Supply and Demand" Something of interest for anyone interested in
> player-driven economies.  Most people assume equilibrium from the
> get go, and the example serves to illustrate the oscillation that
> occurs in even a simple system that uses the most basic of rules.
> For those pondering a purely player-driven economy, I suggest you
> take and play with the model.  I've been playing with the effects
> of demand noise and have destablized the system with only 15%
> noise.  If you want the matlab code or discuss the specifics in
> detail, email me off list.  

[snip]

I wanted to comment and add to your statement about player-driven
economies.  I took something completely different from that article.
What I saw was an explanation of what happens when you consider
inventory(the craftsmen/women) into the supply and demand equation.
Most of the stuff seemed obvious from a player driven economy
standpoint.  It just seemed like what would happen in a situation
given a supply, given a demand and everyone looking out for their
own self interest.  It helps the understanding, but I'm not sure how
it would apply to a player-driven economy from a design standpoint.

Now if you think about NPCs on the other hand, the chapter has
significantly more use.  I read it and thought of all the data
structures that I could track from the player-driven economy.  I
thought about how the model helps us understand the dynamics of
profit motivated AI.  I thought it was directly applicable to things
like an NPCs stock level of any given item and the prices they would
charge, or an items availability in a region of your world and the
resulting prices.  All of these things can be sampled from the
player economy and fed to your AI system in an effort to make NPC
shopkeepers much more realistic.  I took more than just a good read
for player-driven economies.  I also took it as a more significant
read for AI developers looking to create and model profit driven
NPCs in their worlds.

Derek


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