User:Blueshift/MushroomTheory

Mushroom Generator Theory

Mushrooms grow due to the presence of mushroom generators. These are invisible to regular players, but devs can probably see and interact with them. There is one type of generator for each type of mushroom. These generators were dispersed throughout Egypt and are part of the natural environment, like large stones, cacti, and plants (only they are invisible to regular players, of course.) Mushroom generators survey the ecological conditions around them at the beginning of their spawn time, and if the conditions are right the generator spawns a patch of mushrooms (the size of the patch likely varies according to the strength of the ecological values). Mushrooms operate via a negative feedback loop, meaning that the spawning of a mushroom patch reduces the ecological conditions that spawned them to begin with over time, eventually reducing the next spawn to nothing. This is why some mushrooms spawn in one place several nights, but not after that.

Devs possess the ability to affect mushroom generators, which is how one (or all of them?) Beehive generator was modified/nerfed in T4 to produce a spawn every day no matter what.

How do we test this theory?

• Locate a likely place (preferably remote, away from player activity) where a mushroom generator exists (say, the center of a patch of Nature's Jugs)
• Test all ecological conditions using the Ecology skill, over several spawns. The numbers should change between successive spawns.
• If one or several ecology values decrease as the spawn gets smaller over successive nights, these are the ecology values that are needed to spawn that type of mushroom.
• After the spawn has vanished, do an activity that increases those ecological values back to where they were when the spawn was present.
• See if increasing the ecology values back to where they were when the mushroom spawned before respawns the mushrooms during the next spawn times!