[MUD-Dev] Game Design [Simulation]

[Justin Lockshaw]

Going through the most recent of the archives there was a discussion about
randomly generated areas/rooms Vs. static. There were many points on both
sides that I felt should be addressed in my design. 

Not being a coder(as I have not had the time to learn/teach myself as of
yet), and yet wanting to create a mud I have been in the design aspect off
and on for over four years now. Simply starting with what I knew of muds
then and progressing with dream of 'how it could be'. Recently (within the
last year) I have been questioning how I would actually want to build the
mud. As time has gone by, the simple idea of having a tribe of goblins that
roam until they can find a suitable area to inhabit, rearranging the room
descriptions and even creating a small goblin village and such, has greatly
taken hold. I now ponder building being done by simply creating the
landscape, conditions of the terrain in each room, and then letting the mobs
actually inhabit whatever areas they feel suited for. Each race having
preferences for certain conditions/terrain. This has gone so far as making
all structures physical buildings(i.e.. walling off 3/4 directions of a room
to make a single room house) that would actually be built by whatever race.
Thus an open field could be walled off and the start of a village, or
perhaps a castle could begin to be constructed.

Descriptions generally would be dynamically created based on builder
specifications so that changes such as flooding and building of objects etc
can take place.

My reasoning for this is that I would like a world that is always in flux.
One that if the players were to venture into the tower, kill the powerful
wizard they can take the tower as their own. They would of course be subject
to say, orc raids who find that they would like that tower as their own, or
a faction of the mages guild that decides that it is their property. I see
no reason why this can not be done but I worry about the amount resources
that AI's of this magnitude would need. 

This is one of many aspects that I would like to confront this list about.
It seems that my world has turned from a mud to more of a simulation. Has
anyone taken this route? What problems might I run into?



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