Early tools

Early tools and simple technologies defined our course of evolution. Once we had the right tools, we were able to kill any animal we needed to eat or which threatened us. So here's my idea on tools for early civilization and somewhere I think spore failed. Species should not follow the same path when it comes to making tools. The player should define what their species uses to battle the forces of nature. Each element in the environement has certain stats (the exact values are never clearly stated in game so the player needs to test things out for themselves rather than know immediately what to craft. Let's say the stats are: Range, strike, and weight. These are very basic, but lets say a member of my species finds a stick. The stick could have a range of two, strike of one, and weight of one. Next, another member discovers a rock. Rocks could have a range of one, strike of two, and weight of two. Now my species can use these to make one tool. Lets say I make a hammer (a rock on top of a stick), Now the rock and stick get their attributes merged. range of three, strike of three, and weight of three. Strike determines how much I hurt whoever I'm attacking, range determines how far I can hit from, and weight is how long until I can hit again. So with this hammer, I can hit from maybe three feet away, dealing a certain amount of damage, hitting every three seconds (because its heavy). You don't need to use tools to fight, but they're better than raw materials. There would of course have to be maximums for the stats (except weight so people wont make over complex tools for no reason). I think it would be very accurate to evolution as it is a species deciding what THEIR goals are and building things to help them achieve them, as opposed to the game deciding what they want for them.

You might want to read up on the Tech Editor if you haven’t already, I think it has already been decided that quite a lot of this will be built into it. Basically, you get materials (such as wood, not sure about sticks; an early TE for making tools from natural formations of materials may be something worth bringing up) and function parts (like rope, or very advanced structures (like circuits) that would be difficult (or impossible) to make with the basic materials) and can make stuff from them. All tools (tech objects, which include anything from a supercomputer to a mud hut) are made in the Tech Editor, so the player makes all their tools themselves.

The Uteen wrote:

You might want to read up on the Tech Editor if you haven’t already, I think it has already been decided that quite a lot of this will be built into it. Basically, you get materials (such as wood, not sure about sticks; an early TE for making tools from natural formations of materials may be something worth bringing up) and function parts (like rope, or very advanced structures (like circuits) that would be difficult (or impossible) to make with the basic materials) and can make stuff from them. All tools (tech objects, which include anything from a supercomputer to a mud hut) are made in the Tech Editor, so the player makes all their tools themselves.

I know, but I wasnt sure if the whole values thing had been introduced before. I'll read over the tech editor again though

Not sure about values, this isn't really where my understanding lies. It lies with the early sentience team, if they exist. There must be someone who understands this bit, I'll call them over...

Hello‽

P.S. Anyone else notice the 'Recommend this on Google+' in the Read Before Posting bit on the left? I didn't realise we'd sunk that low... Next thing you know we'll be on FaceBook. Using Social Networks is as bad as knowing something about celebrities, it's terrible.

The Uteen wrote:

Not sure about values, this isn't really where my understanding lies. It lies with the early sentience team, if they exist. There must be someone who understands this bit, I'll call them over...

Hello‽

P.S. Anyone else notice the 'Recommend this on Google+' in the Read Before Posting bit on the left? I didn't realise we'd sunk that low... Next thing you know we'll be on FaceBook. Using Social Networks is as bad as knowing something about celebrities, it's terrible.

I hate to tell you this... Social networking really is a great way to make fans remember we exist. We want reach, networks like facebook have it.

~sciocont wrote:

The Uteen wrote:

Not sure about values, this isn't really where my understanding lies. It lies with the early sentience team, if they exist. There must be someone who understands this bit, I'll call them over...

Hello‽

P.S. Anyone else notice the 'Recommend this on Google+' in the Read Before Posting bit on the left? I didn't realise we'd sunk that low... Next thing you know we'll be on FaceBook. Using Social Networks is as bad as knowing something about celebrities, it's terrible.

I hate to tell you this... Social networking really is a great way to make fans remember we exist. We want reach, networks like facebook have it.

They're not reaching me. They're a place where you can give away you're email address and get spam, your street address and get spam, your phone number and get spam... And talk at people you see every day at school/work to distract you and them from more important things to tell them about what sandwich you're eating. Why do people feel the need to use this stuff? The whole world's crazy.
It's terrible. My final word. Five words. Seven. Nine. My final thirteen words.

Now, I also hate to tell you this, but this seems to be slightly off topic. Well, maybe more than just slightly. So, what are people's thoughts on values, people?

Well, ideally we will have a more physics-oriented method of creating values. There is one section of the TE which is the Test Environment. In this environment, the player can tag a TO with a certain tag, so long as their Nation has unlocked the appropriate Research. When it is tagged, the object is tested to see if it can perform the task designated to it. As an example, a "water vehicle" will be tested by a buoyancy algorithm to see at what level in the water it sits, how much load it can carry, and how fast it can move and change direction. These things would then be set as simple values attached to the TO.

Obviously, the values that you were talking about have to do with the materials, and that does come into play. But not esactly like you mapped it out. More like wood has a strength value, a weight value, a flexibility value, etc. These values would then be used in the testing environment when you try to tag it with things. Obviously this plan could change a lot if it is tough for the coders, which is why a lot of it is not discussed often.

I could honestly see basic values applied to materials and these values in turn affect the tech object.
such values could be like buoyancy, radiation resistance, malleability, weight, heat resistance and possible something like a "friction score" to determine factors like grip, or if it should be made into things like handles, gears, tires, or cables.

Moreover I think there should just be certain types of tech objects like "throwing weapon" or "cutting tool" that consists of several components by default, each component is then assigned to a specific material by the player.

So for things like "cutting tool" you'd have the components of Handel and Cutting edge. The player could assign a material like wood for the handle and something like stone or iron for the cutting edge. (I also see size as another manipulable factor)

The tech object would only have limited applications, witch makes things much easier for the programmers to code, and for the player/computer to understand and organize.

However this should probably just apply to simple things like early tech, later on I could see other tech object types being consisted of mostly other tech object types rather than materials.

Dr_Chillgood wrote:

I could honestly see basic values applied to materials and these values in turn affect the tech object.
such values could be like buoyancy, radiation resistance, malleability, weight, heat resistance and possible something like a "friction score" to determine factors like grip, or if it should be made into things like handles, gears, tires, or cables.

Moreover I think there should just be certain types of tech objects like "throwing weapon" or "cutting tool" that consists of several components by default, each component is then assigned to a specific material by the player.

So for things like "cutting tool" you'd have the components of Handel and Cutting edge. The player could assign a material like wood for the handle and something like stone or iron for the cutting edge. (I also see size as another manipulable factor)

The tech object would only have limited applications, witch makes things much easier for the programmers to code, and for the player/computer to understand and organize.

However this should probably just apply to simple things like early tech, later on I could see other tech object types being consisted of mostly other tech object types rather than materials.

Well, ideally we'll have the Test environment find out where the blade of a "Cutting Object" is, and the most effective place to hold it after it knows this info. Let's face it, if the player can't make a sword correctly they should probably just select premade TOs and let the tech evolution do the rest.