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

jewelofleo wrote:

I have noticed that there is very little talk on bioluminescence. It could be used in almost all stages in one way or another. For example, it is first introduced during Microbe Stage and is used as a very early communication, in Aware Stage it can be used to light up your creatures world and make them look awesome :P, In Awakening Stage it could be used to communicate with other of your species and in late Industrial Stage and Space Stage utilized for genetic engineering. We will most likely use it at one point or another (mostly likely Aware Stage because, let's face it there is something about cool glowing creature that bring out the 5 year old in us :P) and we really have not touched upon it. How will it work? How else can we utilized it?  Discuss my minions :twisted: :P !

I already have created a concept for one in organ design thread.

Oh :oops:, could you link me please?

https://thrivegame.canadaboard.net/t760p285-organ-design?highlight=organ

Page 20

I don't see anything on bioluminescence....

https://thrivegame.canadaboard.net/t760p300-organ-design?highlight=organ

You actually want page 21

In microbe stage, will there be a back ground texture to make it lively? Instead of it being just a gradient, or a plain simple color. I'm just wondering since I haven't seen or read anything about that.

:) I like your concept Will, though I think it could be built upon.

timetraveler wrote:

In microbe stage, will there be a back ground texture to make it lively?  Instead of it being just a gradient, or a plain simple color.  I'm just wondering since I haven't seen or read anything about that.

Yep, there will be.

I had a question that went unanswered.

With the possibility of microbes of very different sizes, I am wondering what is going to keep one microbe from engulfing another microbe that is much larger than itself, so much so it would be impossible.

Immortal_Dragon wrote:

I had a question that went unanswered.

With the possibility of microbes of very different sizes, I am wondering what is going to keep one microbe from engulfing another microbe that is much larger than itself, so much so it would be impossible.

I am pretty sure that it really isn't that big of a challenge to just check the hitbox surface and see if it is larger than the microbe in question...

I had this thought while watching a film about the african jungle in geography.
The elephants communicate over very deep sounds that no other animals can hear. THe sound can be heard over miles, so if an elephant finds a tree with fruits it calls its mates, wich come and eat from the fruits too. That made me think about some sort of frequency scale. I'm not a anatomy expert but you could maybe edit your hearing organs and the organs you make sound with to change the frequences they can produce and hear (it makes sense to make both equal so they can communicate proberly.)Example: a herbrivore finds some fruits and wants to inform its herd but there are carnivores nearby. If the carnivores only can hear high noises and the herbrivores communicate with deep sounds it could easily call its herd without drawing the carnivores attention on himself.
Sorry if you've already discussed this and also sorry for my bad english...

Too complex of an idea for now. Right now we're focusing on developing the microbe stage. That's something we won't be able to address until much later.

Could you stay in microb stage while other species advance and stuff?
This question goes for all stages.

No they will not, since the timescales between stages will be so different. If you were in the Aware Stage, a sapient species will be in the stone age one day, the next they will be going off into space. And in Microbe Stage you could only encounter other microbes anyway to my knowledge.

Immortal_Dragon wrote:

No they will not, since the timescales between stages will be so different. If you were in the Aware Stage, a sapient species will be in the stone age one day, the next they will be going off into space. And in Microbe Stage you could only encounter other microbes anyway to my knowledge.

Are you saying/implying there isn't going to be a day and night cycle in thrive?

No, there will be a day/night cycle, it is what that cycle represents in game time is what is different. In the Aware Stage for example, one day is going to be a significant part of the planet's year for the player. As the player species advances, the game is simulating less and less portions of time, since evolution for the species itself stops and the progress of their technology begins.

This is why other species won't be allowed to advance ahead of the player in terms of sentience/sapience at least, one day for the player would have the other species be in the stone age and the next they are in space. For any other stages aside from Aware to Awakening I don't know.

I've been wondering about this for a while,

What are the size comparisons (based on gravity) for life forms going to be like?
On high gravity planets for instance, are life forms going to be flat and short, or just big in general?
Or with lower gravity planets are things going to be tall? Or are all life forms going to have the ability to grow any size?

Yes, gravity will have an effect on creatures, higher gravity requires a creature to have thicker legs to grow taller than on a lower gravity planet, where you can get away with stilt legs.

I agree with Immortals logic there with the gravity but I think there's something we should remind ourselves (In general with misc. question):
When we get to actually programming this stage, there may be considerable changes and certain features we thought were going to happen may be removed (or put in later updates).
So in asking the question, are you really really really doing anything except for satisfying your own thirst for knowledge? And are you aware that the answer isn't even an answer usually, but a generalized common sense response?
Questions that possibly stimulate discussion on things that do have a large impact on the game (currently) would be favourable. just sayin'
Plus, I have a feeling the microbe stage will be ommiting quite a few features in order to allow a quicker release. (Following Nick's logic that if we get a nice release we can boost activity on the forums and get the ball rolling again)

Psych0Ch3f wrote:

I agree with Immortals logic there with the gravity but I think there's something we should remind ourselves (In general with misc. question):
When we get to actually programming this stage, there may be considerable changes and certain features we thought were going to happen may be removed (or put in later updates).
So in asking the question, are you really really really doing anything except for satisfying your own thirst for knowledge? And are you aware that the answer isn't even an answer usually, but a generalized common sense response?
Questions that possibly stimulate discussion on things that do have a large impact on the game (currently) would be favourable. just sayin'
Plus, I have a feeling the microbe stage will be ommiting quite a few features in order to allow a quicker release. (Following Nick's logic that if we get a nice release we can boost activity on the forums and get the ball rolling again)

Exactly this.

People need to understand that giving predictions for very far-away future versions is like trying to get a bullseye with darts in a completely dark room. Although major features do have a general concept, even they are very prone to changes, not to mention how unsure one can be when discussing a minor future feature that hasnt event been discussed before.

Imagine having to predict what Minecraft 1.16 will look like....

Exactly Tarpy and Psychochef, these things aren't set in stone at this point, like you both just said.

Anyway, I actually have something for microbe, is the size of an engulfed microbe going to play into how many nutrients it provides to the microbe that engulfed it, and how long it takes to dissolve. Plus, is the player going to be given a possible way to escape being engulfed if it will take time to happen.

I teach high school Biology and we deal with a lot of the topics that this game is looking to include. (I came across this looking for web based simulators for my classes to use dealing with population growth) My questions are :

1) Could this be used for education?

2) Could a shorter version of cells to the beginning of sentience be created? Or modified to play out in shorter time frames (a few hours of class time) The post civilization part seems huge and intense and from what I have read, and that is beyond where my science class ends.



Giving students experiences (in a game or real life) with cells, cell structures, nutrient needs, evolutionary processes, natural selection, environmental factors, ecosystems and the like would be AWESOME! I have always thought that gamers play games to experience a life or environment that they cannot on their own, through gameplay they get to live and learn as that character. What better way to learn about evolution and the multiple topics being covered in this game than to live them. And a game that ties directly to grounded scientific theories would be a great way to do that.

I'm new to the forum and apologize if this has been covered already, just wanted to ask. I have had the idea of a game that helps teach science topics floating around in my head for awhile.

Welcome to Thrive pensist!

It's incredible to see people interested already for the game to be used in educational environments. I do believe it could be used to an educational extent. We are seeking to model as many of the relationships as accurate to observed science as possible. However, as a video game it still has many restrictions in how much detail it can go into. For that reason, I would think that something like Thrive would be optimal for making a student or user develop an interest in what is presented in the game, namely biology, evolution, astronomy, etc.

There definitely will be developments made along the way for the timespans of the game's stages to be reduced, as was used in the Sims games for people who wanted to spend more or less time with each family.

However, the development of Thrive, due to the nature of the project, is quite slow, and so I don't know how helpful we will be to you and others in the short run.

There are some other games that could be of more immediate use to you, in that they have already been developed (the latter is in its early stages). Cellcraft, a fun flash game about managing a cell and its organelles, and also Species: ALRE, a very unique and interesting game that allows the player to observe and even interfere with the evolution of a whole lot of organisms living in an ecosystem.

I've played Cellcraft, and I would have to say it holds up well to other games. As a flash game...just...phenomenal. I even learned a few things, truth be told. Anyway, speaking of the microbe stage, I have an idea: plasmids. No, not the stuff that lets you shoot bees or go crazy, but genetic material that can be sent through different species. These could give you 9-15 mutation points, but would be uncommon. Also, on another note, what is the fundamental difference between chloroplasts and thermoplasts?

Portalfan, in regards to your suggestion with plasmids, please read the READ BEFORE POSTING thread before posting, for in it it states:

Quote :

When suggesting new ideas, make sure that they are implementable. Post them with an explanation of how they will be implemented. For example, it is very easy to suggest continental drift and dynamic planet tectonics, but it's important to take into account the context of the stages before and after the feature, the complexity versus the reward of the idea, and how well it would fit into the limitations of the game's engine and the current planet generation and data storage methods. As such, it helps to have experience in game development, or programming, when suggesting new features for the game.

Also, mutation points cannot be collected from the environment. This is a very important concept to understand.

Quote :

Also, on another note, what is the fundamental difference between chloroplasts and thermoplasts?

Thermoplasts use heat, while chloroplasts use light.