Virtual Ecology Implementation

I want to take another stab at how to do virtual ecologies, specifically how to implement them.

Add them to an existing world. I know I work best with an existing system, and I think this may be the best route to take in figuring out how virtual ecologies can be created (because from the literature I’ve read, nobody quite knows how).

I’ll take Eve Online as an example with which to work, because that’s what I’m playing at the moment. The economy is player-generated for the most part and it’s wonderfully dynamic. The PvP is pretty darned good, though there are some changes that could make it great- though they might be too broad-sweeping to be practical. The missions, from what I’ve experienced, strike me as very very static and scripted, with no *real* ramifications to success or failure. By “real” I mean you get the exact same mission multiple times from the same mission-giving agent in the course of a 4 hour session. There is an element in there that is ripe for introducing a virtual ecology: the rogue drones.

“Rogue drones” are the spawn of former human-made machines that spontaneously became conscious. They have run out of control and on occasion drive off human mining ouposts and infest the left-behind structures, salvaging parts to make more rogue drones. Currently, you are just given the occasional mission to “go destroy the rogue drone threat”. Each time it’s the same. Same script, same asteroids, same complexes, same graphics, same rogue drone placement (different solar system sometimes). Once you finish it you get the same commendation and reward. Blah.

Design a “Rogue Drone Level Progression Ladder”. Each level up defines stronger combat potential, better mining capabilities, and the qualifications to reach the next level. The drone level is determined by the amount of ores they mine from asteroid belts and the number of rogue drones killed by players compared to a level-defined spawn rate. Since various systems already have spawn spots set up for “pirate” NPCs in asteroid belts, just make it so those spawn spots can be “taken over” by rogue drones as determined by surrounding populations of rogue drones. Then, keep track of how many drones are killed in that spot per day, and then keep track of how much ore they mine as well. The object/entity whose performance we track here is the “Rogue Drone Spawn Spot”; not the drones themselves. These spawn spots look to reproduce into a neighboring astroid belt or system if they have mined a sufficient amount of ore over the last few days and if they have “reproduced” more drones than they have lost by some multiple.

Then, you would have to create a script that reviews the populations, levels, and performance of rogue drone activity surrounding various space stations scattered throughout the high security solar systems. Based on that analysis (that happens at server reset each day) these scripts feed inputs into “Rogue Drone Mangement” agents whose missions are then modified according to how “dangerous” the nearby rogue drone activity has been. If the drones have achieved pretty high levels then the missions are populated with high-level drone equipment. So, in addition to what the players actually experience in asteroid belts as far as rogue drone infestation, interference, and competition for ore, there will be a dynamic, responsive mission-customizing NPC element that gives out missions with rewards and difficulty adjusted to the actual threat level of the drones it is “monitoring”.

The beauty of it is that non-combat players and player corporations will have an incentive to pay fighters to keep real rogue drone populations at bay. Rogue drones will thrive in solar systems with little to no player activity and tend to spread out from there.