Re: Ruins and Quests

Rob McNeur (ROB@ccc.govt.nz)
Fri, 14 Aug 92 19:58:00 GMT+12:00

Croaker McGuillicuddy [506] on Fri, 14 Aug 92 said :-
>> o Any unoccupied building has a chance of (100-current damage level)% to
>> collapse at 1% per week. Hence, when the building is totally safe,
>> but is unoccupied, current damage level = 0. This has a 100% chance
>> of taking 1% loss per week.
>I'm not too sure about this. A building that you've taken the time and effort
>to bring up to 100% completion should be resistant to this auto-1% damage
>effect. it's when the building is in an actual state of disrepair is when
>the degradation accelerates. Just ask any builder/construction worker.

The idea as suggested is just a straight line and is only relevant if the
building is totally unoccupied. If you want it to remain in good order, you
appoint a house-keeper. Otherwise it ages fast but it's breakdown slows
signifcantly the worse it gets. Most of the initial damge it incurs will be
primarily cosmetic surface damage as paintwork etc falls down.
Actual structural damage doesn't really occur until further down the track.

>> o When the building reaches 85% damage, it is primarily a pile of
>> rubble and is rapidly becoming overgrown and is now a total ruin.
>>> o At the stage the building reaches 100% damage, it has totally
>> disappeared from view and no longer exists. Until this stage, it is
>> still repairable, after this stage it is too late to do anything
>> except start again from scratch.
>
>Hmm. This is where the acceleration degen affect should rebound. After
>a structure gets to a certain point, it actually slows down in it's
>breakdown. This is why you get buildings that look awful, but seem to
>hang around forever.
>Say, slow erosion from 100-95, accelation to 40, slows to 10, very
>slow from 10-0, and at 0 it becomes trash?

The chance of (100-current damage level)% means that the erosion starts
fast and is continually slowing. Paint fades quickly, windows are broken
quickly, but these are mainly cosmetic (0% - 15% damage level). The real
damage occurs when iron starts rusting and wood starts rotting (20% - 50%).
These are much slower effects and take place more slowly. The roof then
falls in (50%) and the walls start slowly falling in (50% - 75%) and then
the remains lie around and rot away (75% - 100% damage)

Scott Hauck on Thu, 13 Aug 92 said
>As soon as a castle becomes vacant, I'll bet there'll be a stampede for them,
>and I'd surely occupy even a random house if it became available.

True, but only as long as buildings are rare. Once they become more common,
then the demand will be less. And if they have been build out of the way so
that they aren't easily found, then there will be much less of a rush,
because less people will know about them.
But for this, we need a mechanism to HIDE new buildings. People will want
to build public buildings as well as private buildings.
What would help this all, would be for the number of regions to be expanded
by a large factor (x10 ?) with a large number of areas off the public trails,
roads etc. everyone using the current trails will go to the current
locations. However, it will be possible for scouts to travel to regions
BETWEEN the current regions. These are random regions which match the
type of the surrounding ones (forest, plain etc). The point is that most
people will not visit them all. The more there are, the less anyone will be
able to map it all. Already, mapping the currently known regions is a major
job for those who maintain them, boost this by a factor of 10 and it
becomes impossible and suddenly people will be keeping local maps for
private regions. And in these private regions, anything may occur.
They don't even need names, merely a location number.
e.g. between Drassa and Pactra are 4 regions in a block. The normal route
still goes directly from Drassa to Pactra in X days. But someone who
followed the trail for 2 days and then stopped, would find himself in
Wilderness [7560], with more wilderness all around. No trails, no routes,
or at least nothing you can find without exploring.
Then ruins can really get interesting, and hidden !

Kaspar [581]
Aka Rob McNeur
rob@ccc.govt.nz


Main Index  |  Olympia  |  Arena  |  PBM FAQ  |  Links