[MUD-Dev] Re: Methods to Reduce Ecological Wipeout

["Damion Schubert" <zjiria#texas,net>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Koster, Raph <rkoster#origin,ea.com>
>> The point I'm leading towards is this: Does it necessarily
>> follow that your critters and your players should consider
>> the same substances as edible?  I know very few people who
>> subsist on grass, tree bark, leaves and twigs, or nuts and
>> berries.  :)  That relieves the competition on at least one
>> segment of your critter population.
>
>Well, we had the deer and rabbits and birds and the like which weren't
>competing for food with players, just with each other. But their
>habitats were indeed being encroached. Not that it mattered--they were
>dead as soon as they appeared, because of the mass demand for hides
>(from which to make armor) and feathers (for fletching arrows) and meat
>(usually for sale to innkeepers).


I'm sure the problem was compounded by the fact that it's 
difficult to secure resources for art and coding that does the
players no good at all.  After all=-)

Hmmmm, this would suggest to me that the econoly should
be extremely abstract.  I.e. herbivores who eat bark are fine as
long as trees are around.  The problem is that abstracting out
the carnivores gets rid of some of the neat effects (watching a 
lion hunt down a deer).  Raph, how much of the ecology was
behind the scenes, and how much was based on the transfer
of objects the players depended on?

--damion