Dynamic Monster population

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shalendar
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Dynamic Monster population

Post by shalendar »

i know this would probably take a lot of time to code, but it would be something that i havent seen in any other RPG.

rather then spawn a static amount of each monster in each map, the populations of various monsters fluctuate. the best way to explain it is with an example.
the server counts the number of squirrels in a given map. say, 10.
10/2 = 5 (mating pairs)
5x3(number of offspring)
so every X number of minutes, 15 squirrels are created.

so if that certain area is left alone for a while the population will gor exponentially till a player looking for herbs comes in and starts killing them.
obviously there will have to be a limit so it doesnt over populate. and a minimum so the players dont extinguish an entire species, or all of them.
maybe make a "conservation program" that tells the players when a certain species is "endangered".
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Ginaria
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Re: Dynamic Monster population

Post by Ginaria »

funny idea
Kill3rZ
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Re: Dynamic Monster population

Post by Kill3rZ »

I kind of like this idea. I mean, it's logical and reasonable alright, but I can't help thinking what would happen to the places that are already filled with big bad uglies and are usually left alone to live long and prosper. I already feel that you need to be rather big and strong before you can afford to play some of the quests that only give you a moderately better weapon or armor. They wouldn't have to become impossible to get, would they?

I don't know, perhaps if you refine it a bit and find an equally reasonable solution to this problem too, it might attract some developer attention. :)
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Jumpy
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Re: Dynamic Monster population

Post by Jumpy »

interesting :)
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Kage
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Re: Dynamic Monster population

Post by Kage »

this would be more of something that could be doable on TMWServ
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Rotonen
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Re: Dynamic Monster population

Post by Rotonen »

I have my version of what you're proposing on pen and paper. I'll start working more seriously and implementing it when the time is right. We will see how it'll turn out. There have to be some restrictions in the system to not make it complete chaos.
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shalendar
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Re: Dynamic Monster population

Post by shalendar »

like i said, each monster would have to have a minimum and maximum to prevent problems. it would create some strategy for training. rotating maps to allow the population in each map to build back up.
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octalot
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Re: Dynamic Monster population

Post by octalot »

shalendar wrote:maybe make a "conservation program" that tells the players when a certain species is "endangered".
I like this idea, combined with guild-halls so the guild would decide who had access to the monsters.
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Crush
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Re: Dynamic Monster population

Post by Crush »

Modeling monster respawn in a realistic way and forcing players to work together to controll the population by selective hunting and preserving monsters might sound like a cool idea but I doubt that it will work out in practice.

What possibilities do the players have to force others to follow kill quota agreements? What can you do when a player tries to kill the last four endagered mouboos? Nothing but shouting at him and threating to make him a social outcast. Well, we could also add free PvP everywhere, but we all know how easy this can be abused to annoy other players.

I think such a system would just create drama, make you all hate each other and destroy the friendly, familial TMW community.
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Rotonen
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Re: Dynamic Monster population

Post by Rotonen »

My aim with the system would be that food sources would slowly migrate. Herbivores and carnivores would follow.

There would be ecoboxes for species and species would occupy those. The aim of the restrictions would be that every monster will always exist somewhere where it makes sense for its difficulty.

This is non-trivial to do and this is fine details and sugar which come much later in the game development cycle.

Let's just first get the actual game up and see about it then.
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Jumpy
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Re: Dynamic Monster population

Post by Jumpy »

it would be posssible to create guilds that would practice breeding. depending on the numner of players from that guild online the number of mobs would be created so that when the rate of mobs present on map comes to the minimum limit the mpobs breeded get free and appear on the maps where they were too much haunted

idk

just an idea

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Enchilado!
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Re: Dynamic Monster population

Post by Enchilado! »

I was designing a PS3 (or maybe 4 by the time it was made!) MMORPG (Would PS3 work with a MMORPG?) about Native Americans, or something like them, to be maybe one day made if I ever learned computer programming. I don't like the idea much any more, but the idea was with monsters that they would breed, though not visibly. Whenever a Male passed by a Female, or something similar, the female would be labeled with Pregnant and after a gestation period a certain number of baby animals would appear around the mother. These would mature after a few days or so. However, the world was not to be various maps but just one, so the animals could roam anywhere. Anyway, I think the Dynamic Monster Population idea is great, but it needs something to stop monsters going extinct or over-populating. I have a suggestion or two:

There is an NPC - Sagatha, perhaps? - who breeds rare animals back from the brink of extinction. If a species is hunted to vanishing point, a period of time elapses where the species is not there, then they reappear in average numbers.

To prevent over-population, and to save coding Herbivores and Carnivores and things eating other things, if the species reaches a certain number, they start disappearing. Actually just dieing. If a player sees one, it will die and do the die animation. It won't drop items, however. They continue to die until the average number is reached. Also, they could weaken - say, 1/2 Hitpoints, Attack and Defense. This would create sort of Hunting Seasons - monsters would be left until over-population, then everybody would go and kill hem while they were weakened.

Creatures could have a Lifespan - a mouboo, say, might live for 72 hours - and spawn Babies of their species whilst they live. A mouboo might spawn one baby mouboo every 24 hours of its adult life - and babies turn into adults after 12 hours. A mouboo would thus have two babies in its life. If Males and Females were enabled, a Male Mouboo might not spawn any babies, and babies are randomly male and female - or 30% Male, 70% Female.

~we could leave Jack O to over-populate himself!
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