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<H1>Re: [MUD-Dev] Hard Sci-fi muds was Character evolution</H1>
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<LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#null,net">mud-dev#null,net</A></LI>
<LI><em>Subject</em>: Re: [MUD-Dev] Hard Sci-fi muds was Character evolution</LI>
<LI><em>From</em>: "Brandon J. Rickman" <<A HREF="mailto:ashes#pc4,zennet.com">ashes#pc4,zennet.com</A>></LI>
<LI><em>Date</em>: Wed, 17 Sep 1997 20:03:36 -0700</LI>
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<PRE>
On Wed, 17 Sep 1997 17:00:46 PST8PDT, clawrenc#cup,hp.com (The Man) wrote:
>In <<A HREF="msg01224.html">199709160940.CAA30935#pc4,zennet.com</A>>, on 09/16/97
> at 08:51 AM, "Brandon J. Rickman" <ashes#pc4,zennet.com> said:
>>Making things decay is tricky without introducing a weird kind of
>>physics.
>Not necessarily. You can also introduce various forms of carrion
>consumers (for corpses), or variant forms for the other types of
>decay.
Carrion consumers are on the edge of funny physics. "Junk" consumers
are very funny physics. I suppose a good definition of funny physics
would be things that cause observably strange behavior...
> Happy Forestland
> The bloody corpse of a bunny is here.
> A badger dashes from the woods, grabs the dead bunny, and disappears
> back into his set. You hear the faint sound of chewing and the
> pleased stomache grumbles of a well-fed badger.
>
>As always, taking a slightly different tack, I have my Trash
>Collectors (TC's)as discussed earlier, which have their own in-built
>ecology based on the avilability of objects for them to consume. They
>more they can eat, the more they breed (spores). They more they
>breed, they more they eat. If they starve to death (not enough
>objects to consume) their spores will hatch along later, hopefully to
>find more plentiful food supplies.
>
>The intended result is an entire species based on the ecology (and
>economy, implicitly) of the supply of "uninteresting" objects.
As a system you have built into your world this works and makes good
sense. But would it work in a Big Universe?
[-- clip out and save --]
The Big Universe (alpha definition): An average creature can explore/
experience an area of size K in an average day. In a Big Universe we
must maintain a reasonable amount of persistence in an area that is
several magnitudes larger than K for each active creature.
Most muds (lpmuds, MOOs, ...) keep track of an area that is roughly
10xK per creature. Single users CRPGs might keep track of 100xK.
A Big Universe would be 1000xK or more.
[-- clip out and save --]
There are two fuzzy words in there: "reasonable" and "several". Oh,
I suppose active creatures would just be the sentient ones.
>[TC's snipped]
>...
>>So should we dismiss corpses as being relatively uninteresting
>>details (aside from special corpse-related activities (hey!) like
>>looting and sac'ing)? I guess it depends on the situation.
>
>As discussed previously: on eapproach is to look at corpses as a
>resource. The question then becomes: what can I do that is
>interesting with this resource.
Corpses make good game resources. A different case:
In some game, coins are used as money. When he is bored, Shoehorn
likes to put a scratch on one side of all the coins in his pocket. He
then spends these coins in various ways. If Shoehorn ever recieves a
coin that has already been scratched he will add another scratch to
make it an X.
(I am hoping this will be a Big Universe problem.)
Reasonable persistence: Shoehorn goes to a shop and buys a knife. He
then waits outside the shop until it closes and mugs the owner. There
should be at least one scratched coin in the owner's purse.
>>(Somehow I have gotten obsessed with the specific case of corpses as
>>opposed to the more general case of decaying the effects of players
>>upon the world. But perhaps the answer is hidden in the details?)
>
>I think the problem is being looked at from the wrong end. Consider:
>
> There is a grassy field.
> 50 players walk in single file across the field.
> There is now a path across the grassy field.
> It rains.
> Time passes.
> The grass grows.
> The path dissappears.
Yes, I like the idea. Will anyone ever notice?
>More generally this can be reduced to a question of systems and
>feedback points. The grassy field can be assumed to be a steady
>state. Once the field has achieved the state of "uniformly
>uninteresting grassy field", it can be considered as uncahnging from
>that point on.
Such a thing (a virgin field of grass) sounds like a rarity, but your
mileage may vary. Who would ever bother going into the quite-
uninteresting-forest-where-nothing-ever-happens? And what would they
do there? Stomp on the grass and chop down some trees, of course.
>So, now we have to plant and regrow grass, with its implicit resource
>economies.
A nation of gardeners? Where will the shopkeepers live? :)
>Footprints in sand dunes, dust collections in undisturbed catacoombs,
>etc, can all be treated the same way. There is a presumed steady
>state, and a number of organic systems which attempt to re-establish
>that state when it is disturbed.
So tell me again why you are keeping track of an uninteresting place
where no one ever goes?
There is a difference between modeling systems that tend towards a
steady state, and systems that could potentially end up in a steady
state. The former is completely unnatural, the latter of dubious value
as entertainment.
- Brandon Rickman - ashes#zennet,com -
While I have never previously found a need for a .sig, this
may be considered one for the purposes of this list
</PRE>
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<li><strong><A NAME="01303" HREF="msg01303.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Hard Sci-fi muds was Character evolution</A></strong>
<ul compact><li><em>From:</em> clawrenc#cup,hp.com</li></ul>
<li><strong><A NAME="01290" HREF="msg01290.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Hard Sci-fi muds was Character evolution</A></strong>
<ul compact><li><em>From:</em> clawrenc#cup,hp.com</li></ul>
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<ul><li>Thread context:
<BLOCKQUOTE><UL>
<LI><STRONG>Re: [MUD-Dev] Something complete different</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM>
<ul compact>
<ul compact>
<ul compact>
<LI><strong><A NAME="01297" HREF="msg01297.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Something complete different</A></strong>,
clawrenc <a href="mailto:clawrenc#cup,hp.com">clawrenc#cup,hp.com</a>, Sat 20 Sep 1997, 00:01 GMT
</LI>
</ul>
<LI><strong><A NAME="01247" HREF="msg01247.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Hard Sci-fi muds was Character evolution</A></strong>,
clawrenc <a href="mailto:clawrenc#cup,hp.com">clawrenc#cup,hp.com</a>, Wed 17 Sep 1997, 23:54 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="01256" HREF="msg01256.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Hard Sci-fi muds was Character evolution</A></strong>,
Matt Chatterley <a href="mailto:root#mpc,dyn.ml.org">root#mpc,dyn.ml.org</a>, Thu 18 Sep 1997, 06:25 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</ul>
<LI><strong><A NAME="01248" HREF="msg01248.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Hard Sci-fi muds was Character evolution</A></strong>,
Brandon J. Rickman <a href="mailto:ashes#pc4,zennet.com">ashes#pc4,zennet.com</a>, Thu 18 Sep 1997, 01:56 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="01250" HREF="msg01250.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Hard Sci-fi muds was Character evolution</A></strong>,
Brandon J. Rickman <a href="mailto:ashes#pc4,zennet.com">ashes#pc4,zennet.com</a>, Thu 18 Sep 1997, 03:03 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="01290" HREF="msg01290.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Hard Sci-fi muds was Character evolution</A></strong>,
clawrenc <a href="mailto:clawrenc#cup,hp.com">clawrenc#cup,hp.com</a>, Fri 19 Sep 1997, 22:30 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="01303" HREF="msg01303.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Hard Sci-fi muds was Character evolution</A></strong>,
clawrenc <a href="mailto:clawrenc#cup,hp.com">clawrenc#cup,hp.com</a>, Sat 20 Sep 1997, 00:02 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="01252" HREF="msg01252.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Hard Sci-fi muds was Character evolution</A></strong>,
Chris Gray <a href="mailto:cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA">cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA</a>, Thu 18 Sep 1997, 06:02 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="01254" HREF="msg01254.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Hard Sci-fi muds was Character evolution</A></strong>,
Chris Gray <a href="mailto:cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA">cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA</a>, Thu 18 Sep 1997, 06:03 GMT
</LI>
</ul>
</LI>
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