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by Raph_Koster
2419 days ago
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Original lead designer of the game here. Richard's recollection is flawed on this (he wasn't close enough to the tech to know why it failed). Reason #1: the closed loop fell victim to hoarding, particularly because the advancement system encouraged the production of goods with no value, as explicated in great detail in Zach Booth Simpson's detailed paper on "The In-Game Economics of Ultima Online." Slides: https://studylib.net/doc/9778818/the-in-game-economics-of-ul... Paper: https://web.archive.org/web/20090207141813/https://www.mine-... Reason #2: the cost of pathfinding for the searches was too great. The Sims later solved this by having the agents in a very similar system use simple hillclimbing, with resources broadcast into a map. |
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I never really got to try Ultima Online during its heyday (I was averse to MMOs and saw them as a step backwards from the narrative qualities of single-player games.)
Re: the ecology, other commenters here and on YouTube have also noted that it was too easy to do things what you shouldn't be able to do, like chasing down rabbits and deer with a sword. :)
Thanks and looking forward to your next game!