Miscellaneous Bugs And Questions That Don't Deserve Their Own Thread Thread

Please only post in one place. I addressed your idea here (https://thrivegame.canadaboard.net/t1248p15-religious-math#27294).

NickTheNick wrote:

Please only post in one place. I addressed your idea here (https://thrivegame.canadaboard.net/t1248p15-religious-math#27294).

Sorry.

Just went by the concept art thread and looked at ~scio's awesome concept picture, and it got me wondering. How is the game going to handle interactions between creatures of vastly different sizes, not just in combat but in general? Though it also brings to mind how will sapient species that are varying sizes fight each other, when their weapons are scaled to them so they do proportional damage?

I really don't know tbh. I really think that all creatures have to be standardised to be similar in size to a point, just in order to interact with each other. Obviously still allowing a good degree of customisation.

Bigger orgs and weapons do more damage.

Would that mean that smaller creatures would be able to attack and move faster to balance it out?

Possibly, but smaller weapons mean quicker movement.

Well, it's been a few years. I'm pleasantly surprised to see that Thrive still exists, although on the surface it doesn't seem much different from when I was last here. But this isn't exactly on-topic, is it? Let's ask some questions.

First off, did you ever manage to find any devs? I seem to recall a distinct lack of development (no lack of conceptualization!) back in the day, and I would hope that particular hurdle has been dealt with in the years I've been gone.

Also, I believe this question is mandatory for anyone "new" to the site: if you do have people capable of developing the game, then just how much has been achieved? How quickly are things getting done? Also, what are they currently working on?

Lastly, what's going on in the community? It's been roughly three years since I had anything to do with this place so I would imagine some stuff has changed since then- including new members. So, how are you veterans doing, and how's the forum population holding up?

Thanks for your time.

Hey dude, good to see you back! Of the oldies theres only really me still around (used to EMPatrick I think) and maybe ~scio (can't remember when he turned up).

There are some devs yes and work on the game has started, I think currently a save/load system is being implimented. We're working on the microbe stage which is pretty much fully worked out. Currently in the game you can swim about as a microbe and pick up energy.

As for community, theres no longer an off-topic section, we're not as tight-nit as we might be, but theres a good team of people here keeping things moving.

I'd give you a better intro back to whats going on, but I'd ridiculously tired and about to go to bed.

I don't know if anyone has noticed, but if the official Thrive wiki is on wikia rather than wikidot, why does the wiki link on the READ BEFORE POSTING box on the page still lead to the wikidot?

Invader wrote:

Well, it's been a few years. I'm pleasantly surprised to see that Thrive still exists, although on the surface it doesn't seem much different from when I was last here. But this isn't exactly on-topic, is it? Let's ask some questions.

First off, did you ever manage to find any devs? I seem to recall a distinct lack of development (no lack of conceptualization!) back in the day, and I would hope that particular hurdle has been dealt with in the years I've been gone.

Also, I believe this question is mandatory for anyone "new" to the site: if you do have people capable of developing the game, then just how much has been achieved? How quickly are things getting done? Also, what are they currently working on?

Lastly, what's going on in the community? It's been roughly three years since I had anything to do with this place so I would imagine some stuff has changed since then- including new members. So, how are you veterans doing, and how's the forum population holding up?

Thanks for your time.

Ahh, amazing to see you back. To answer your questions as best I can:

1. Yes, we have managed to get several game developers onto our team, enough to work on the Microbe Stage piece by piece, but we will never get any significant amounts until the first stage comes out, at the minimum (don't take that as a guarantee people that devs will flood in at first sight of a cell in a tidepool).
2. If you check out the Read Before Posting thread, there is a link to the current download links. There are also two podcasts that have been recorded (one is WIP), and there are several models and textures that have been done. There are also several prototypes, and work on gameplay/GUI concept. There is a full game design document outlining the whole stage.
3. Population and activity fluctuates from week to week, and even month to month. Back in spring, we had a Reddit post that attracted a lot of attention here and helped jumpstart our development. Since then we haven't had any big booms but have been working steadily. That's not to say we wouldn't like to have more of those booms, especially since the last one really helped us restructure our forum and prepare for the next.

@Immortal Dragon

Thanks for pointing that out. I'll fix that now. Wait, what am I saying. The reason it is so is because we decided to go back to using Wikidot, because of the limit of editing rights, but more importantly because of the quantity of ads on Wikia. It also means we don't have to spend a bunch of time moving content over.

Invader wrote:

Well, it's been a few years...

Good to hear from you!

Welcome back! :D 

I've been trying to post replies to your Thrive topic on the 2K forums every now and then for the last month, but none of them seem to have worked. Even so, I'm glad you found Thrive of your own accord.

As I said in those messages I kept trying to post, we've made more progress in the last six months than the preceding four years put together, most of it due to the Reddit boom Nick mentioned. We have a new website (http://www.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/), several prototypes, a Game Design Document outlining most of the microbe stage's functionality, an actual game engine, plenty of new music, cell models, GUI elements, and a microbe stage concept animation which puts most of these things together.

Apart from Inca, ~scio and the odd visit from Mysterious_Calligrapher, The Uteen or Tenebrarum, there won't be any current major contributors you'll recognise from back in 2010.

It's a little disappointing to hear that there are so few oldies left, but I'm glad to see there's work being done and that we've still got some contributors. As for how I found my way back, I was actually informed that this place still exists by a couple of comments on YouTube advertising the project, though I don't recognize whoever posted them.

I'll probably look through the wiki and check back every now and again but I don't think I'll stick around the forums. Now that we've got the concept of the game more or less settled, I don't think there's a whole lot I could contribute. That being said, this new boost in productivity is definitely promising, and hopefully you'll get some more publicity as the project moves forward. I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys are able to produce and hopefully I'll see you all again soon.

Welcome back to the forums! I am new here, and I'm excited to be a part of this project! I haven't done anything productive...yet. If only I knew how to code in c++ and compose...:( 

Ok, two things.

1) How is the game going to handle hybridization, aside from it requiring a species that branched off from yours, this may have been answered before but I am not sure.

2) I think it has been confirmed (not 100% sure) that the player's species and others can actually be knocked to earlier stages of technology after gaining sapience due to war/destruction. Well, what would the game do if a Space stage civ was in a massive war (thinking something that makes 40k look like a firecracker) and is cut off from various colonies that it used to have, how will the game handle this?

Seriously though who would be running around searching for cousin species to rape? And most hybrids being infertile makes it even more pointless.

I was playing Star Control 2 alot recently, and that is why i was so inactive lately. (Oh, and its a reason for my new avatar).
However, it made me think, will interstellar race enslavement be possible in Thrive? But more imporantly to me, will it be possible making other sentient species your battle thralls?

@Tritium

I'm really asking about hybridization in general, not just the player's own species. The hybridization process could also make better domesticated animals with hybrid vigor, if that's in the plan. (stronger, faster, more stamina, etc.)

@WilliamstheJohn

What exactly do you mean by battle thralls?

Immortal_Dragon wrote:

What exactly do you mean by battle thralls?

Slaves or etc. which fight on side of whoever enslaved them.

I don't know, slavery is a bit of a touchy subject, especially its portrayal in a game. I'm not against slavery being in the game personally, but how it's portrayed is what matters. One of the devs will probably need to put some kind of definitive answer on this, I know I can't provide one.

EDIT: no this is not me saying I would be okay with slavery in real life, slavery was a horrible thing, I'm just talking about possible portrayal or nonexistence of the practice in Thrive.

You can subjugate other nations into puppet states, and have their troops fight with yours, but slavery is too complicated to be in the game, considering the switch from Pops to Specialists.

What about something like irregulars, units that aren't professionals, and are only gotten when allied to another nation. I know Empire Total War did something like this, if you played as a European nation and allied with one of the Native American factions, you could recruit Native American irregulars, among other units.

My thoughts on a possible implementation if this idea is not shot down immediately is to simply make Irregular a tag in the unit editor, or its current equivalent, the nation that made it can still recruit them, but they are also available to allies for recruitment. May give the protectorates and other allied countries a bit of a boost if they can use each other's firepower. Hmm, maybe that isn't such a good idea now that I think about it.

Irregulars are not treated in that sense. Military units can either be recruited from Military Specialists or any other specialists (including citizens). There is yet to be clear cut terms for the different positions, but any military unit recruited from specialists other than the military specs have lower stats and are basically irregulars.

Wow, great, thanks for answering Nick, I completely forgot about the Specialist system.

Now two of my questions have remained unanswered.

1) Hybridization in general: is it going to be implemented at all, and what sort of ideas for implementation are there?

2) I think it might have been confirmed, the possibility of being knocked back to earlier stages of technology by war, what would happen if a space stage empire had this happen and they are cut off from stellar colonies, what will be done if/when this happens?