1997Q2/
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<H1>Re: [MUD-Dev]  Population container</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]  Population container</LI>
<LI><em>From</em>: Wout Mertens &lt;<A HREF="mailto:Wout.Mertens#rug,ac.be">Wout.Mertens#rug,ac.be</A>&gt;</LI>
<LI><em>Date</em>: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 16:02:59 +0200 (MET DST)</LI>
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<PRE>
On Tue, 24 Jun 1997 clawrenc#cup,hp.com wrote:

&gt; In &lt;<A HREF="msg01362.html">Pine.SOL.3.94.970619203725.20110E-100000#eduserv1,rug.ac.be</A>&gt;, on
&gt; 06/19/97 
&gt;    at 08:39 PM, Wout Mertens &lt;Wout.Mertens#rug,ac.be&gt; said:
&gt; 
&gt; &gt;What is it? Well, you take a kind of monster that you want to
&gt; &gt;populate a zone with. Now make a population model, something like
&gt; &gt;Fibonacci's row or so (rabbits!), and update the model every once in
&gt; &gt;a while. Now, if a player is about, and he 'spots' one (or more) of
&gt; &gt;the population, decrease you population by one (or more) and make the
&gt; &gt;appropriate monster appear.
&gt; 
&gt; &gt;This way, you can have zillions of flies, musquito's, dwarfs, etc
&gt; &gt;etc, you could even describe the critters from the container (some
&gt; &gt;dwarfs are lurking about) (tho I think that's a bit farfetched), and
&gt; &gt;all with virtually no memory or cpu overhead.
&gt; 
&gt; A good idea.  Problem:
&gt; 
&gt;   Bubba does a speed run thru the zone and manages to "see" every
&gt; single mosquito (he's exceptionally shard sighted).  You container is
&gt; empty and you have lots of live, animated mosquito objects.
I think Firebrand kinda gave a solution to that one: His grouping
container doesn't instantiate objects until very close inspection.
Otherwise, it just gives a group desc with special descs for people you
know.
Now, if Bubba happens to be affected by 
Flaming_Torch_Of_Musquito_Killing_Area_Spell, then the zillion of critters
will have to be decimated in hitpoints and a large number killed. But that
was very predictable and the same problem would have arisen were you to
have the actual 1 zillion objects.
This can, of course, be rectified by letting the population model handle
the killings, and the spell would have to be redesigned a bit to do that.
Which is not too great, but then again letting loose 1 zillion musquito's
and allowing people to hurt them all isn't either...

&gt; You also need a way of folding the "dead" (ie unseen) objects back
&gt; into the container at some point.  The problem is guaranteeing that
&gt; that folding is not detectable by players:
&gt; 
&gt;   &gt; l
&gt;   You are in a corridor that runs east west.
&gt;   There is a T-Rexx here.
&gt;   &gt; w
&gt;   You are at the end of a corridor that runs east west.  
&gt;   The only exit is to the east.
&gt;   &gt; e
&gt;   You are in a corridor that runs east west.
&gt;   There is a T-Rexx here.
&gt;   The T-Rexx leaves west.
&gt;   &gt; wait a really long time.
&gt;   &gt; w
&gt;   ...no T-Rexx...

Well, the only feasible solution to both problems seems to me: Allow only
a certain number of instances max. to run loose in the area controlled by
the population container.  It would involve a slight redefinition: The
population container is a virtual container, that contains both the real
and virtual ('real' meaning virtual to us, of course. This is getting
philosophical :)) instances of the population, and the model is
calculating the numbers. 

Which leaves me to think that maybe it should be called Population Model
and not Container... Or how a clever idea turns into a standard solution
:)
Ah well, it's not as if I'm not used it on this list :)

Wout.


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<ul><li>Thread context:
<BLOCKQUOTE><UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="01362" HREF="msg01362.html">Population container</A></strong>, 
Wout Mertens <a href="mailto:Wout.Mertens#rug,ac.be">Wout.Mertens#rug,ac.be</a>, Fri 20 Jun 1997, 01:51 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="01383" HREF="msg01383.html">[MUD-Dev]  Population container</A></strong>, 
Brandon Cline <a href="mailto:brandon#sedona,net">brandon#sedona,net</a>, Fri 20 Jun 1997, 16:08 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="01391" HREF="msg01391.html">Re: [MUD-Dev]  Population container</A></strong>, 
Nathan Yospe <a href="mailto:yospe#hawaii,edu">yospe#hawaii,edu</a>, Sat 21 Jun 1997, 05:16 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="01483" HREF="msg01483.html">Re: [MUD-Dev]  Population container</A></strong>, 
clawrenc <a href="mailto:clawrenc#cup,hp.com">clawrenc#cup,hp.com</a>, Wed 25 Jun 1997, 06:44 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="01558" HREF="msg01558.html">Re: [MUD-Dev]  Population container</A></strong>, 
Wout Mertens <a href="mailto:Wout.Mertens#rug,ac.be">Wout.Mertens#rug,ac.be</a>, Fri 27 Jun 1997, 22:37 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</UL>
<UL>
<li>&lt;Possible follow-up(s)&gt;<br>
<LI><strong><A NAME="01555" HREF="msg01555.html">Population container</A></strong>, 
Wout Mertens <a href="mailto:Wout.Mertens#rug,ac.be">Wout.Mertens#rug,ac.be</a>, Fri 27 Jun 1997, 21:22 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="01358" HREF="msg01358.html">Re: [MUD-Dev]	Name/language generation</A></strong>, 
Chris Gray <a href="mailto:cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA">cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA</a>, Thu 19 Jun 1997, 21:48 GMT
<LI><strong><A NAME="01348" HREF="msg01348.html">Name/language generation</A></strong>, 
Oliver Jowett <a href="mailto:oliver#sa-search,massey.ac.nz">oliver#sa-search,massey.ac.nz</a>, Thu 19 Jun 1997, 06:13 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="01352" HREF="msg01352.html">[MUD-Dev]  Name/language generation</A></strong>, 
Jamie Norrish <a href="mailto:jamie#sans,vuw.ac.nz">jamie#sans,vuw.ac.nz</a>, Thu 19 Jun 1997, 14:36 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</UL></BLOCKQUOTE>

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