Mating......

How are we gonna do it guys?
I'm kinda thinking we should just make it kinda black-out and then a little baby gets born. It just seems the simpler way.

YourBreakfast wrote:

How are we gonna do it guys?
I'm kinda thinking we should just make it kinda black-out and then a little baby gets born. It just seems the simpler way.

Different settings for parental control should handle blood/gore and mating. Auto-skip through the 'intimacy' would be the highest setting, then blurring, then nothing.

US_of_Alaska wrote:

YourBreakfast wrote:

How are we gonna do it guys?
I'm kinda thinking we should just make it kinda black-out and then a little baby gets born. It just seems the simpler way.

Different settings for parental control should handle blood/gore and mating. Auto-skip through the 'intimacy' would be the highest setting, then blurring, then nothing.

Maybe different settings? I really don't want to watch my aliens "do it", but I do, however, want to see something's guts spill everywhere.


MUHAHHAHHA!

InvaderZim wrote:

Maybe different settings? I really don't want to watch my aliens "do it", but I do, however, want to see something's guts spill everywhere.

MUHAHHAHHA!

Point taken. Fully customizable settings.

Again, blurring or blackouts, recognizing this at all comes to the point of how we designate these actions. The game itself won't just know "oh, these aliens are mating, blur it out". It will have no way of knowing what is what, so I think all of this sn't really necessary to discuss, because making the game recognize it will mean we're actually focusing a good amount of time on it, which is something we don't want or need to do. Simply put, the game is about nature, so I see no reason why nature should not be seen.

~sciocont wrote:

The game itself won't just know "oh, these aliens are mating, blur it out". It will have no way of knowing what is what, so I think all of this sn't really necessary to discuss, because making the game recognize it will mean we're actually focusing a good amount of time on it, which is something we don't want or need to do.

Of course the game will know when two organisms are mating. Mating is something we need to code in, and we can always add simple detection to that code. Like this:

Code:

//Somewhere in mating code

alienX.mating_sequence = true;

//Some other code

Then at a place where GUI is handled:

Code:

onScreen = GetAllOrganismsOnScreen();
For (i= 0; i < count(onScreen); i++)
{
      if ((onScreen select i).mating_sequence == true)
      {
            //Shader blurring code
      }
}

(Note that this language is Operation Flashpoint/ArmA .sqf Scripting language, not C++)

~sciocont wrote:

Again, blurring or blackouts, recognizing this at all comes to the point of how we designate these actions. The game itself won't just know "oh, these aliens are mating, blur it out". It will have no way of knowing what is what, so I think all of this sn't really necessary to discuss, because making the game recognize it will mean we're actually focusing a good amount of time on it, which is something we don't want or need to do. Simply put, the game is about nature, so I see no reason why nature should not be seen.

Well then we have some big issues. What you said here is that we should see it all.
First - this will mean we'll have to place sexual organs on our creatures, which will add A LOT of complexity (and probably discomfort for players)
Second - the number of animations to create is gonna be HUGE. Unless we're only gonna have a simple movement with the appropriate tagged parts, in which case the animations will look messy as hell.
Third - players WILL be disturbed by all the sex and birthing. While I don't mind it, there's an extent to which I will be able to see my creatures having sex.
Fourth - will we have a pregnancy time?
And lastly - I see no reason why we're unable to just, after clicking "Mate with", the screen fades black and we see either eggs or live birth.

YourBreakfast wrote:

Well then we have some big issues. What you said here is that we should see it all.
First - this will mean we'll have to place sexual organs on our creatures, which will add A LOT of complexity (and probably discomfort for players)
Second - the number of animations to create is gonna be HUGE. Unless we're only gonna have a simple movement with the appropriate tagged parts, in which case the animations will look messy as hell.
Third - players WILL be disturbed by all the sex and birthing. While I don't mind it, there's an extent to which I will be able to see my creatures having sex.
Fourth - will we have a pregnancy time?
And lastly - I see no reason why we're unable to just, after clicking "Mate with", the screen fades black and we see either eggs or live birth.

1 sexual organs can be quite simple, and we already include them in the organ systems available in the OE. It adds as much complexity as it needs to, and most likely they will evolve to be fairly simple.

2 animations don't matter too much if you don't want to look at it, right? Besides, many methods of reproduction require very little interaction between sexes, like fish spawning. There are many methods of reproduction that you haven't accounted for that could evolve.

3 any actual intercourse will be handled by AI animations, so players can fast forward, look away, etc

4 gestation is something we have to account for if we want a realistic reproduction process. Gestation will depend mainly on how big the young are in the egg/womb and how many there are inside the birthing sex.

5 sure, if your species has a point-click mating interaction, then mating is already defined and you can skip over it. But remember, you're not the only thing that has to mate.

Finally, we must look at this with open minds. Sex is the crux of quick, healthy evolution and should be treated as such in our game. We cannot forsake a fundamental of evolution for risk of someone not liking a small part of our game.

What about the Gender? Is the Player's Organism's Random.

GamerXA wrote:

What about the Gestation Period?

#4 in above post

Blurring is so easy to code I could (almost) do it myself, so if some players will not like what they see, they will just turn it on.

Commander Keen wrote:

Blurring is so easy to code I could (almost) do it myself, so if some players will not like what they see, they will just turn it on.

The problem is the game knowing what and when to blur.

Nope, it isn't, not from the coding site. If something will be used in mating by the game, we can easily detect it. The same applies for timing (For technical details look at my first post in the topic).

Unless you think the problem is in unfinished concept, then I agree.

Commander Keen wrote:

Nope, it isn't, not from the coding site. If something will be used in mating by the game, we can easily detect it. The same applies for timing (For technical details look at my first post in the topic).

Unless you think the problem is in unfinished concept, then I agree.

I suppose if it'll be that easy, it's no problem. I just opposed this idea because i see it as unnecessary.

i think for comedic effect there should be a mode putting a big black "CENSORED" between them.

koiboi59 wrote:

i think for comedic effect there should be a mode putting a big black "CENSORED" between them.

Nah, blurring I believe is the way to go. Those big black CENSORED things always come up on those funny home videos and don't really fit with the game.

Quote :

i think for comedic effect there should be a mode putting a big black "CENSORED" between them.

Taht would totally suck as then it would be a joke of a game, and as the dude before me said, it wont match the rest of the game..

gabbe wrote:

Quote :

i think for comedic effect there should be a mode putting a big black "CENSORED" between them.

Taht would totally suck as then it would be a joke of a game, and as the dude before me said, it wont match the rest of the game..

Not as bad as spore, teletubby baby making.

And if when you reproduce you get moved to a future organism, possibly offspring, possibly descendants, then how can you reproduce and continue using the organism? What if you want to raise the offspring, showing the rest of your species how to care/not care for them?

The Uteen wrote:

And if when you reproduce you get moved to a future organism, possibly offspring, possibly descendants, then how can you reproduce and continue using the organism? What if you want to raise the offspring, showing the rest of your species how to care/not care for them?

Maybe we should continue to control the organism, and when it dies we should get to next newborn member of your "family".

Though some people might not want to keep control of the Organism and may want to start anew straight away.

GamerXA wrote:

Though some people might not want to keep control of the Organism and may want to start anew straight away.

Hm. True, but it would get quite annoying asking the player if he wants to control the baby or the parent. Interesting problem.

Also, there might be differences between baby and parent. The baby may have to learn all the skills the adult (you) have learned so far, so I know I'd pick the parent at least. But let's say there's perks to being the child. You may pass abilities through birth and the young creature might gain the ability to be faster or stronger. Then maybe I'd pick the baby. Also that could probably be changed in settings or such

Commander Keen wrote:

GamerXA wrote:

Though some people might not want to keep control of the Organism and may want to start anew straight away.

Hm. True, but it would get quite annoying asking the player if he wants to control the baby or the parent. Interesting problem.

And the solution? Settings! Hooray for giving non-repetitive yet still completely free choice to the player!

The Uteen wrote:

Commander Keen wrote:

Hm. True, but it would get quite annoying asking the player if he wants to control the baby or the parent. Interesting problem.

And the solution? Settings! Hooray for giving non-repetitive yet still completely free choice to the player!

If you mean having a listbox with settings: "Parent", "Baby", "Always ask" and "Random", then it's good solution. But this should be an exception, we don't want to clutter options with tens of choices like this.

Commander Keen wrote:

The Uteen wrote:

Commander Keen wrote:

Hm. True, but it would get quite annoying asking the player if he wants to control the baby or the parent. Interesting problem.

And the solution? Settings! Hooray for giving non-repetitive yet still completely free choice to the player!

If you mean having a listbox with settings: "Parent", "Baby", "Always ask" and "Random", then it's good solution. But this should be an exception, we don't want to clutter options with tens of choices like this.

We could use a separate gameplay setting box for things like this, setting 'gameplay styles'. Then neither would get as cluttered. Or would this confuse casual players? I don't think so, others might disagree.