Rare Loads

[JRB]

Would be nifty if there were scripts running in each zone, particularly the non policed areas where every day a dice is rolled to check for rare spawn npcs and objects and populates it randomly in the zone from a series of encounters within the script, perhaps after the rare mob or object is gone it will never load again.  Perhaps an entire encounter so that each time you go out in these areas you never really know what to expect.  Mabe it's a special beast that's stronger than the others that all the hunters have searched for, ect.

[Moofassa]

That would be pretty cool. Add to realism too. Wonder how difficult it would be to code?

[jhunter]

I think it would be kinda cool. Like npc raiders that pop up near roads randomly on occasion. Or that rare beast that shows up once in a while.

[Sir Diealot]

Cool idea.

But, how do we keep it from being the 'Elites' and 'drop' system in WoW?

'Oh, better not try to take on that one, its a 1337 duskhorn.'

'Yes I just got a +3 dagger from that Gith!'

Maybe, if instead of that.. each spawn had a variance..

Carru do not -always- have 5 agi, and 2 str..  One will have 3 agi and 1 str.. one will have 7 agi, and 2 str. (note: not at all representative, duh..)  And, sometimes, add modifiers.. sleek, sickly, powerful, etc.. if you want..  To give the things a bit of variance.  The code would be.. somewhat difficult, most likely, with a whole new database to hold all the new shit..  But, it would lend a lot more realism.

Also:  What if herd-animals.. actually roamed in herds a bit more?  With young.. and all that.    I know gortoks sometimes do it, but (especially in the North) it'd be nice to see.

[Maybe42or54]

Sir diealot. There is diversity among the NPCs. Assess is your friend.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I think he meant more apparent diversity. I love the idea, by the way.

[Sir Diealot]

I did, in fact, mean more apparent diversity.

And, the herd thing.. I meant even more emphatically..  I want to be able to target, and pick out the baby critter, which would give less skins/hides/blah.. but would be easier..

[Angela Christine]

Baby killer!


I think it would be cool if people kill all the available baby animals, there are less adult animals loaded the next season.  If they kill all the available females, there are less babies the next season.


Angela Christine

[SpyGuy]

Before my tangent: Mobs do have differences you can sometimes observe.  Some are obvious (multiple versions of same sort of mob, like in different stages of growth) and some you may not see on the surface.  But yes, the point remains the same mobs tend to always be in roughly the same area, it is a mud after all though.

I think it would be cool if people kill all the available baby animals, there are less adult animals loaded the next season.  If they kill all the available females, there are less babies the next season.

That'd be the ultimate Simdesert code.

That said...this idea really isn't much different from Simdesert but being fleshed out more.  I've loved the idea of a more full version of Simdesert extended to the northlands in the form you can see it in where it's currently placed.  But it never really fit me as appropriate in the Southlands where all the monsters seem uniformly aggressive and terrifying and were adapted to the desert.  What if for the Southlands we had a more random system like:

Month/year/whatever 1:  Raider season spawns.  A raider camp spawns somewhere in the desert and until it gets destroyed ICly by entering the camp and killing all the PCs it will slowly respawn guards/raiding parties.

Month Two: Scrab hatching season :  Have a few places show scrab nests coming up from the game.  The chance to break them to get eggs comes up but you can also trigger and outpouring of scrab hatchlings that try to kill you.  If people break too high a percentige of these then scrab populations will die down in the deserts the next month.

Month Three: Mekillot breeding month.  Use your imaginations.

Etc. etc.  If there were 5-6 of this type of script in game, and there was a % chance to get one of them, get two of them or get none at all then it wouldn't be entirely predictable.

A drawback of this is A) lots of effort to code I'm sure and B) It doesn't reflect IC events as much awkward at times.

[Hymwen]

I think it would be cool if people kill all the available baby animals, there are less adult animals loaded the next season.  If they kill all the available females, there are less babies the next season.Angela Christine

Something that would be interesting would be if one of the species gradually went extinct, let's say quirri just as an example, and the skins and equipment made from them became really rare and valuable.

Nodding solemnly, the old, rugged hunter says, in sirihish, a fond smile on his face:                                                                                                                              
         "Aye... quirri was around when I was a lad. I'm one of the few livin' people left who's seen a live one."

[Manhattan]

this sounds like a major undertaking.

[Manhattan]

somebody call up will wright.

[Vesperas]

Eventually.. we'd have no animals.

There needs to be special balances to guard against people over-hunting because they don't understand "the balance" or they don't care, and just want to spam-train skills or earn tons and tons of money and never spend any (heh), or, take away the allure of even being a hunter, for fear of not really being able to get the PC started out without spending weeks clutched to another PC?  Don't know.


Personally, I'm all for realism.  But I don't want so much realism that, come time when I want to play a hunter, other players completely ruin all HOPES of an experience.

[Angela Christine]

somebody call up will wright.

No, don't!  Simdesert is probably breaking copyright by using the prefix "sim".  

Eventually.. we'd have no animals.

There needs to be special balances to guard against people over-hunting because they don't understand "the balance" or they don't care, and just want to spam-train skills or earn tons and tons of money and never spend any (heh), or, take away the allure of even being a hunter, for fear of not really being able to get the PC started out without spending weeks clutched to another PC?  Don't know.


Personally, I'm all for realism.  But I don't want so much realism that, come time when I want to play a hunter, other players completely ruin all HOPES of an experience.

That's why I specified the "apparent" animals.  I assume that there are many VNPC animals that PC hunters don't see.  If the few NPC duskhorn you see were all the duskhorn in the world, then duskhorn would be extinct within a couple weeks.  I would like PC behavior to have some effect on animal populations, but not an overwhelming effect.

Right now, there is no reason not to kill every single duskhorn NPC.  They will respawn next week the same no matter what you do.  In reality many hunters are somewhat concerned with maintaining populations, they don't worry only about making a profit this season but also about making a profit next season and ten years from now.  So when hunting mammals hunters are careful not to take too many young or too many breeding females.  If someone IS targetting all the young or over-hunting in general, the other hunters themselves will have a talk with him.


It would probably work differently for insectoids though.  Most creatures use one of two reproductive stratagies: few high-investment offspring, or many low-investment offspring.  A human, bear, or most mammals will have at most tens of offspring, and spend considerable time and resources rearing those few offspring.  Most insects and fish tend to have hundreds or thousands of offspring, but spend almost no care on each individual creature -- they drop the eggs and forget 'em, it is expected that most of them will die.  For animals that use that stratagy, killing off lots of young or even breeding females won't make as much difference, since each female will drop hundreds of eggs so the lack of competition will just make it easier for offspring from the remaining clutches to survive.  
 
But then insectoids aren't exactly insects.  Maybe scrabs live in nuclear family units and spend years rearing each scrab baby.  Or grub.  Or whatever scrabs start out as.


Angela Christine

[Tlaloc]

Actually, we're way ahead of you. SimDesert has things which we can use to take into account much of what you guys are proposing. Again, if you're curious about the specifics, I suggest finding an area with it, or wait until it comes to a desert near you.

[Anonymous]

I have this to say, now, Tlaloc..

:shock:   Yay!!   :lol:

[Vesperas]

More realism = good, and if you guys can keep the balance... well, I love you.