From: sweatshop
Date: 2002-06-22 20:15:57
(by Rakel and sweatshop)
FoodPoints
An idea on regulating the distribution and eating habits of the Plants and Animals of Majik.
Each source of food (whether soil, plant, or animal) is given a certain number of points, of the relevant category listed below, according to its nutrition value (strongly correlated to size).
SunPoints: the amount of sunlight an area
SoilPoints: the amount of nutrients found in a certain area of soil
NutrientPoints: the amount of nutrients found in a nonsoil area
PlantPoints: the food that a plant contains
FreshMeatPoints: the meat a recently killed animal has
DeadMeatPoints: the meat of a carcass
For an example of nutrient points, take the Arinia Vine. It is an epiphyte, meaning it gains its nutrients from the decomposed bark of its host tree. To prevent trees or other ground plants from growing there, the host tree would have NutrientPoints, from which the ground plant could not derive nutrients, and thus would die. However, the Arinia Vine, which only can live off NutrientPoints, would thrive on this certain tree but would die if it tried to grow on the ground.
Similarly, the Dead- and FreshMeatPoints prevent a carrion eater from hunting animals and make sure a predator does hunt.
Not only does this system more precisely define the location of an animal, but it is a method of defining an animal's diet. For example, the omnivorous Zhiat might be programmed to eat 70-90% PlantPoints and 30-20% DeadMeatPoints. However, if DeadMeatPoints cannot be found, it could resort to hunting to maintain its 30-10% quota of meat.
Comment!
From: sweatshop
Date: 2002-06-23 00:58:38
In-Reply-To: 1681
Yendor and I discussed and decided that the idea outlined below would work better and would be easier to implement.
Each plant and animal would be given a set of variables and different values for each. These variables would describe the certain qualities the plant/animal has nutrition-wise.
In addition, all animals would have another set of the same variables, but this set would be the range of the foods the animal can eat. When the animal becomes hungry, it sets out to find a food within that range. After eating the food it finds, the range is adjusted ever so slightly, so that, if it continuously eats food from the center of the range, the range could shrink, or shift in a certain direction if the food is continuously from one side of the range. Of course, there would be some limit for each generation of how far the range can shift, so that it would take many generations before a grass eating lion could ever 'evolve'. By this time, we would have to assume that it is not a lion anymore but its own, new species, and so create a new 3d model.
The offspring of two animals (unless an animal does not reproduce sexually) would have its range the average of the parents' ranges. Also, members of the same species with greatly differing ranges might not be able to mate.
This system would work, with slightly different variables, in the same way for plants; every spot of ground and soil filled crevice in a tree, etc. would get a number of different values for things like sunlight, nutrients, etc. and would fuction in a similar fashion, except that instead of moving around, the plants would release seeds.
From: mandor
Date: 2002-06-24 11:26:52
In-Reply-To: 1681
Some initial ideas on realistical modelling of nutrition:
First question: do we need to create a system that has atleast basic realism of how living beings consume nutritions?
I could be interesting to create a situation where what the hero eats affects his :
- stamina/endurance
- strength
- alertness/memory
- etc..
Real-life food has 3 categories of nutriments
1. protein, 2. carbonhydrate, 3. fat
The basic idea is that a body burns all these 3 nutriments for energy. The body prefers to burn fat and carbonhydrates, but will burn protein if avail in exuberance. Carbonhydrates will also turn to fat if not used for energy.
It would be interesting to create a system where players would have to think what they eat atleast to some degree.
Personally I'm quite fed up with those MUD-typeof nutrition systems where you eat rotten food, corpses, or what ever shit is lying around and it has no effect what so ever on your character. In MUDs there is no difference between a royal festival meal and a piece of rotten rat meat found on the street, both execute the same function and keep your character content. That kind of MUD-system won't encourage roleplaying at all. Establish a system like that and we have kings eating rotten rat meat from a sack they carry, or adventurers eating all the corpses they kill.
we should atleast have system that would take food quality into account. If we create the protein/carbonhydrate/fat real-life typeof system, then we could allow effects like gaining weight, loosing muscle (and strength along with it) or enduring physical stress longer if you ate good carbonhydrates before.
That way the player characters would be in tip-top shape if they eat well.. or they would be hiderously fat bastards who only eat grose animal fat and potatoes all day.
If we decide to establish some level of realism, there's easily no end to this task: you can go as far as coding in vitamins, and making player characters ill if they don't get enough of important vitamins ;-)
Perhaps that's a bit too much. My point here really is that we should not have a MUD-typeof nutrition system, but something a rather more intelligent instead. But how will we want to handle that? any ideas or suggestions? and how would a system like that fit together with this foodpoints system? do we estalibsh some sort of FoodQualityPoints variable in addition to these, or give each piece of nutrition the protein/carbonhydrate/fat values?
.M
From: Rakel
Date: 2002-06-23 11:52:12
In-Reply-To: 1682
This is good, and can also work on a more abstract level than the "FoodPoint"-system. So I'm all for this too :)
From: darshan
Date: 2002-06-24 11:06:29
In-Reply-To: 1682
The system seems interesting and sounds practical.
From: Nahl_Shadore
Date: 2002-06-25 01:01:56
In-Reply-To: 1685
of course, having a band of adventurers that eats the corpses of their enemies may prove interesting
a canibilism skill, anyone?
but seriously, I like the idea. more realism!! yeah!! Woo!!
From: ReSpawner
Date: 2002-07-08 13:30:53
In-Reply-To: 1688
Maybe in some religion its good to eat your victims and by eating corpses your God gets power... could be pretty cool i think
