Using the SWReality Unknown Regions codebase created by Gavin, I have been struggling with the modification of his "Birth" code into a "Layeggs" code, which is more appropriate for a mud setting like mine (in which players portray deinonychus'). This struggle has been ongoing and has always bugged me since, as the characters are animals, it has always struck me as an important feature.

Ironically, my requests for coding assistance (and not necessarily from an actual coder) have often been met with derision because some assumed I simply wanted **SEX** code, which is laughable because I skimmed down any actions related to the mating to make it "realistic" for animals.

What I wanted from this particular code was the ability for a female to lay eggs and spawn an auto-generated player file for the hatchling, in addition to controlling things like specific mating periods and update message for such, and to be able to perform the egg laying without the aid of IMMs or other players.

My opinion is generally that siring hatchlings and propegating one's species is likely the most important reason for an animal's existance, whether it is subconscious or not, so the lack of this code was killing me, oftentimes destroying any other development momentum.

I run my mud on a "live" player server and a on a test server and, after more work, seemed to get positive results on the code. I am not now waiting for mating to occur on the live server to see how it goes. Although I don't foresee any issues, I am still keeping my fingers crossed.