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

Ok, whatevs. :lol!: 

Honest opinion, how visceral is combat going to be, in particular reference to the aware stage. I know there is the thread on aware stage combat but I know it doesn't contain information on things like that.

What do you mean how visceral it will be? If you press the right buttons, your organism will bite, slash, or whatever else it is able to do. Most fights will end quickly as in nature. There's not much to it.

I am talking about things like blood and gore, how torn up can things get, my guess is something like a nature documentary, a balance between the two which is not too extreme but still has a sense of ouch.

There will be blood. Body parts can get bloody when damaged. Refer to the Walking With... series for levels of blood and gore.

Ok, I know I watched the one about life before the dinosaurs once before, and I know this means close to nil, but that level of carnage has my seal of approval!

EDIT: Wait, what about tearing limbs off for eating or combat, I probably already know the answer to this one, but I'll pose the question anyway.

In combat probably not, for eating when dead probably yes.

I have a question/idea concerning the space stage. In Spore, your spaceship would travel from planet to planet in straight lines, whereas in real life such an act would require an extremely powerful engine or would be impossible. I suggest we have the AI plan a ship's route to a designated location using orbital velocity changes and gravity slingshots to get there in the most efficient way possible. It would be similar to KSP, except all the burns would be automated. While I'm on this subject, I'd also like to request that your ship's design changes its fuel efficiency. Spore's spaceships all used the same amount of fuel unless you had upgrades, whereas this way a player would have to think about the design of their craft (again, similar to KSP).

Oliveriver wrote:

I have a question/idea concerning the space stage. In Spore, your spaceship would travel from planet to planet in straight lines, whereas in real life such an act would require an extremely powerful engine or would be impossible. I suggest we have the AI plan a ship's route to a designated location using orbital velocity changes and gravity slingshots to get there in the most efficient way possible. It would be similar to KSP, except all the burns would be automated. While I'm on this subject, I'd also like to request that your ship's design changes its fuel efficiency. Spore's spaceships all used the same amount of fuel unless you had upgrades, whereas this way a player would have to think about the design of their craft (again, similar to KSP).

Seconded

EDIT: Wait, then what about the FTL drives, wouldn't they just be able to travel in a straight line?

Yes, warp drives would use straight lines (unless in the influence of black holes or something).

Just as proof of concept, here are two images showing how the screen would look when using regular fuel and warp drive with the automated route planning system. Not very neat or impressive, I know, but they do demonstrate what I'm talking about.

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Oliveriver wrote:

I have a question/idea concerning the space stage. In Spore, your spaceship would travel from planet to planet in straight lines, whereas in real life such an act would require an extremely powerful engine or would be impossible. I suggest we have the AI plan a ship's route to a designated location using orbital velocity changes and gravity slingshots to get there in the most efficient way possible. It would be similar to KSP, except all the burns would be automated. While I'm on this subject, I'd also like to request that your ship's design changes its fuel efficiency. Spore's spaceships all used the same amount of fuel unless you had upgrades, whereas this way a player would have to think about the design of their craft (again, similar to KSP).

No offense, but an AI that could do something like that hasn't even been invented (or so I think, maybe it has, not sure), and even if it was, it would take so much time and effort to implement that it probably wouldn't even be worth it.

I know it's not realistic, but we should just let the ships fly in a straight line. We don't have to have absolute realism, it is a game after all and besides, if we took absolute realism the player would have to wait 100 000 years for his creature to evolve.

I didn't want to sound rude or anything by saying this, it is just my personal opinion.

Well, the process could be sped up so it doesn't take 100,000 years. Between those two concepts, I won't be bothered in my gaming opinion as Thrive will be cool enough in the other stages as well.

While I am at it, I found a thread by Commander Keen (I think it was) about implementing behaviors like wolf packs teamwork and other group behaviors, has there been some kind of decision on that or is it still up for discussion?

The Behaviour Editor will be discussed soon enough.

EDIT: Good point on that Tarpy.

Ok, with the "Big Three" FTL technologies, how much freedom would there be in making TOs with these techs.

Like say, using a Warp Drive to create a "Warp Sled" for smaller ships to use, or Wormhole Generator Gates to allow ships that can't support the generator to travel (the way my thoughts go is through power requirements, larger capital ship class ships would be able to mount the generators on their own).

This is of course taking into account the planned freedom of the TE.

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Now, I know that the idea of a neural network like in Avatar was shot down, but what about an artificial network created through technology, what is the feasibility of that?

Hmm, line break doesn't seem to be working.

Immortal_Dragon wrote:

Now, I know that the idea of a neural network like in Avatar was shot down, but what about an artificial network created through technology, what is the feasibility of that?

I've not watched Avatar in ages, could explain this a bit more?

In Avatar, the Na'vi (big, blue, cat-like people) had long strands of neural tissue in their braids. By connecting these with the same projections on the wildlife and even plants, they could tune into the senses of animals or the planet itself. It was this network that supposedly made the ending, with all of the animals of the planet attacking the humans.

The idea of this evolving was pretty much shot down, as it would leave an organism vulnerable and would only be probably be limited to the player's species if it was implemented. (AI wouldn't make the same choice)

What I am talking about is making something like a network using something like fiber optics that are plugged into brain implants, and from there into ports on other objects or other people's cords. Or even something like a wireless network, using evidence from a Star Wars book, a race had made transmitters that plugged into their heads, and when one plugged another's into them, they could feel the other person's emotions. This would of course require cybernetics research, but would be kind of cool in terms of communication.

Ah right, I see. And what benefit would this have in game, like what gameplay impact would it have?

What about a bonus to Stability, being able to innately empathize with others would be a big help in that regard. Or diplomacy bonuses. Or a slight management bonus, not sure about that one. I can't really see a Happiness bonus from this kind of technology.

If I think of anything else I'll edit it into this post.

• A bonus to Research since the scientists can literally share their brainpower
  
  
• (Possibly) a bonus to Production through the enhanced coordination
  
  

Mind you, this is a list of possible effects, and I'm only thinking small bonuses like 3-4%.

Also, that kind of telepaty could have other effects (maybe disadvantages), for example, given the fact that people share thinks, maybe they would have troubles when its about making a new ideology or religion (mass thinking vs one`s will = goodbye will).

Good point Carlos, maybe this tech lowers the conversion power of all present religions, say by .5? And could lower the chances of a new religion spawning?

Yeah that makes sense to me.

Ok, so what is the feasibility of this idea, now that some possible effects have been kind of discussed?

I think its feasable, as it doesn't change the game itself too much, just applies some modifiers here and there. I think we should take it to its own thread to work out.

Cool.

EDIT: Um, what would be the protocol for setting up that thread?

Wait a second, I'm sorry, but I haven't been as active recently. What is it you want to make a new thread on?

So a new tech regarding cybernetics/mind uploading? I'm pretty sure there is already a tech on that, and as you said it would just give small bonuses across the board (until we can think of something better). However, I disagree that it would cause a decrease in religious conversion effect. What's more, penalizing all religion conversion strengths by 0.5 actually has no effect, because conversion strength is relative to the other religion's conversion strengths.

EDIT: So in conclusion what I was getting at was that I don't think it needs its own thread. It's something that is already basically covered and can be discusses again when programmers start adding the techs to the tech tree.

Fair enough Nick, fair enough. Wasn't going to touch anything until there was something like that kind of approval.

The religions thing was a small bit of forgetfulness on my part. It is after all just another way a player could possibly personalize their species in the end, make them unique.

And just because one part of my brain wants to defend the uniqueness of the thing (sorry :oops: ), I see it as more like an artificial collective consciousness (or hive mind), than mind uploading. I made the references to Avatar for a reason.

EDIT: Or it really could just be a manipulation of cybernetics in the TE.

EDIT the 2nd: I thought of something, what about implementing vehicles that can shift between modes, like a walker turning into a tank or plane, not something as drastic as Transformers. You can just press a button and the vehicle will shift between modes automatically.