Thrive Game Development
Would you like to react to this message? Create an account in a few clicks or log in to continue.

Thrive Game Development

Development of the evolution game Thrive.
 
HomeHome  PortalPortal  Latest imagesLatest images  SearchSearch  RegisterRegister  Log inLog in  
Welcome new and returning members!
If you're new, read around a bit before you post: the odds are we've already covered your suggestion.
If you want to join the development team, sign up and tell us why.
ADMIN is pleased to note that this marquee has finally been updated.
ADMIN reminds you that the Devblog is REQUIRED reading.
Currently: The Microbe Stage GUI is under heavy development
Log in
Username:
Password:
Log in automatically: 
:: I forgot my password
Quick Links
Website
/r/thrive
GitHub
FAQs
Wiki
New Posts
Search
 
 

Display results as :
 
Rechercher Advanced Search
Statistics
We have 1675 registered users
The newest registered user is dejo123

Our users have posted a total of 30851 messages in 1411 subjects
Who is online?
In total there are 22 users online :: 0 Registered, 0 Hidden and 22 Guests

None

Most users ever online was 443 on Sun Mar 17, 2013 5:41 pm
Latest topics
» THIS FORUM IS NOW OBSOLETE
Starting a New Game Emptyby NickTheNick Sat Sep 26, 2015 10:26 pm

» To all the people who come here looking for thrive.
Starting a New Game Emptyby NickTheNick Sat Sep 26, 2015 10:22 pm

» Build Error Code::Blocks / CMake
Starting a New Game Emptyby crovea Tue Jul 28, 2015 5:28 pm

» Hello! I can translate in japanese
Starting a New Game Emptyby tjwhale Thu Jul 02, 2015 7:23 pm

» On Leave (Offline thread)
Starting a New Game Emptyby NickTheNick Wed Jul 01, 2015 12:20 am

» Devblog #14: A Brave New Forum
Starting a New Game Emptyby NickTheNick Mon Jun 29, 2015 4:49 am

» Application for Programmer
Starting a New Game Emptyby crovea Fri Jun 26, 2015 11:14 am

» Re-Reapplication
Starting a New Game Emptyby The Creator Thu Jun 25, 2015 10:57 pm

» Application (programming)
Starting a New Game Emptyby crovea Tue Jun 23, 2015 8:00 am

» Achieving Sapience
Starting a New Game Emptyby MitochondriaBox Sun Jun 21, 2015 7:03 pm

» Microbe Stage GDD
Starting a New Game Emptyby tjwhale Sat Jun 20, 2015 3:44 pm

» Application for Programmer/ Theorist
Starting a New Game Emptyby tjwhale Wed Jun 17, 2015 9:56 am

» Application for a 3D Modeler.
Starting a New Game Emptyby Kaiju4u Wed Jun 10, 2015 11:16 am

» Presentation
Starting a New Game Emptyby Othithu Tue Jun 02, 2015 10:38 am

» Application of Sorts
Starting a New Game Emptyby crovea Sun May 31, 2015 5:06 pm

» want to contribute
Starting a New Game Emptyby Renzope Sun May 31, 2015 12:58 pm

» Music List Thread (Post New Themes Here)
Starting a New Game Emptyby Oliveriver Thu May 28, 2015 1:06 pm

» Application: English-Spanish translator
Starting a New Game Emptyby Renzope Tue May 26, 2015 1:53 pm

» Want to be promoter or project manager
Starting a New Game Emptyby TheBudderBros Sun May 24, 2015 9:00 pm

» A new round of Forum Revamps!
Starting a New Game Emptyby Oliveriver Wed May 20, 2015 11:32 am


 

 Starting a New Game

Go down 
3 posters
AuthorMessage
NickTheNick
Overall Team Co-Lead
NickTheNick


Posts : 2312
Reputation : 175
Join date : 2012-07-22
Age : 28
Location : Canada

Starting a New Game Empty
PostSubject: Starting a New Game   Starting a New Game EmptyTue May 27, 2014 3:53 am

I'd promised to make this thread a while back, but I first wanted to find an old thread in which the concepts for this had been laid out. Unfortunately, I could not find it after a lot of searching, and racking my brains has yielded no result, so we will have to start from scratch. 

Before the player enters the Microbe Stage, before they reach the initial loading screen, before they even start playing the game, the player will have to setup their game. They will enter the New Game screen where they will set the settings for their new game to play in. Now, certain points of discussion here rely on what we agree on in the saved games thread, so we will need to discuss wait on some concepts on galaxy generation to be laid out there before this can be fully answered. 

Basically, the questions to address are:

How much power does the player have in customizing their starting location?
How much of the power to customize is only unlocked through in-game accomplishment? (i.e. completing a certain number of stages)
How many of the settings are out of the player's control, regardless of accomplishment?

From what I recall, I believe the idea was that the player can choose a completely randomized home-world, or they can choose from a list of preset planets. The ability to customize their homeworld to a greater extent would be unlocked by reaching either a certain stage (such as the Society Stage) or completing a whole game up to Ascension, it was never really decided. This unlocked customization would still be limited, but would be an improvement over complete randomization or picking from presets. 

Other than that, I don't want to say anything more at the moment, as I try to remember what else was said. So, we need ideas. Discuss.

---------

New Game Settings

Galaxy Generation

Star System Generation

Planet Generation

Microbial Generation

Gameplay Settings

AI Difficulty
Evolution Rate (Generation Length)
Technology Rate
Natural Disaster Frequency


Last edited by NickTheNick on Sat May 31, 2014 1:49 am; edited 5 times in total
Back to top Go down
Oliveriver
Music Team Co-Lead
Oliveriver


Posts : 579
Reputation : 59
Join date : 2013-01-21
Age : 26
Location : England, United Kingdom, Europe, Earth, Solar System, Milky Way, Virgo Supercluster, The Universe

Starting a New Game Empty
PostSubject: Re: Starting a New Game   Starting a New Game EmptyTue May 27, 2014 7:26 am

Wasn't there also going to be a set of difficulty customisation options in the initial setup menu? For instance, the player would choose the likelihood and frequency of natural disasters and mass extinction events. Of course, this doesn't apply to the microbe stage and won't be applicable for some time, but there are other factors that can influence the difficulty level of a game. I think AI evolution rate was discussed somewhere as being a useful variable, with a shorter generation time equating to harder difficulty as it would require the player to think more about which adaptations they utilise to combat ever-changing AI cells. Likewise, a longer generation time will reduce the reaction rate of the rest of an ecosystem to the player's changes, overall making it easier.

These three factors (natural disasters, mass extinctions and evolution rate) could be changed individually by the player (some will want to pit themselves against a strong AI without random event interference, while others may prefer an environment where they see how well they can adapt to random catastrophes rather than facing the AI). Alternatively, values of each of these could be used for preset difficulty levels (easy would have a slow evolution rate, zero chance of mass extinctions and a small chance of natural disasters, and extreme/hardcore at the other end of the spectrum would have a rapid AI evolution rate, frequent natural disasters and the odd mass extinction). I think allowing each variable to be changed separately would be better, but preset difficulties could be provided too.
Back to top Go down
http://oliverlugg.com/
moopli
Developer
moopli


Posts : 318
Reputation : 56
Join date : 2013-09-30
Age : 29
Location : hanging from the chandelier

Starting a New Game Empty
PostSubject: Re: Starting a New Game   Starting a New Game EmptyTue May 27, 2014 7:38 am

Another important question (since I have no time to answer right now): Once we decide on a certain feature set, what will we focus on first?
Back to top Go down
NickTheNick
Overall Team Co-Lead
NickTheNick


Posts : 2312
Reputation : 175
Join date : 2012-07-22
Age : 28
Location : Canada

Starting a New Game Empty
PostSubject: Re: Starting a New Game   Starting a New Game EmptyWed May 28, 2014 3:43 am

@Oliver: Ah, those are some good settings as well. I agree that setting the likelihood of individual components is better than a general difficulty slider. 

I think it's a good idea to have a setting for evolution rate, because the evolutionary stages could potentially get very long for a player waiting for the civilization stages. The question becomes, should a higher rate of evolution decrease the MP costs of all mutations, or should it decrease the length of a generation (i.e. the time between birth and reproduction)?

I don't think mass extinctions should be their own setting, because they are caused by natural or artificial phenomena, so the natural disaster setting would effectively control that. 

As such, it appears we have several different categories of settings for a new game, because I was also thinking that the player might want to customize how their solar system and their galaxy is generated. We can use this thread to brainstorm all the different options we know we will need at the moment. I'll update the OP to create lists.

@moopli: What do you mean? Could you elaborate?
Back to top Go down
moopli
Developer
moopli


Posts : 318
Reputation : 56
Join date : 2013-09-30
Age : 29
Location : hanging from the chandelier

Starting a New Game Empty
PostSubject: Re: Starting a New Game   Starting a New Game EmptyWed May 28, 2014 7:29 pm

NickTheNick wrote:
@moopli: What do you mean? Could you elaborate?
Certainly. Currently, when you start microbe stage, you immediately start controlling a standard template cell, in the same tidepool every time. Once we've reached the tenth or so space/ascension release, or some other suitably far time down the road, we'll presumably have a well-featured game configuration / galaxy generator. Since it's pretty clear to me that we wouldn't create the entire galaxy generator for Microbe stage, I want discussion on features to also include the general milestone for inclusion.

For example:

  1. We stick with some basic tidepool customization  for the Microbe releases
  2. Some time in Early Multicellular we add a more fully-featured start-biome customization
  3. Either soon before, or soon after, our first Aware Stage release, we add planet generation, and that includes some customization options too. By this time, people will probably add options for disasters and so on whenever they feel like.
  4. Chances are we'd have simple solar system generation in a release soon after; replacing whatever temporary solution (skybox?) we had before. Thus, people get the chance to poke somewhere (okay, not just anywhere, but somewhere with a viable star) on the HR diagram, and play a planet orbiting such a star.
  5. The rest of the galaxy will probably come in bits and pieces, until an imminent Space Stage triggers a rush of interstellar work.

NickTheNick wrote:
The question becomes, should a higher rate of evolution decrease the MP costs of all mutations, or should it decrease the length of a generation (i.e. the time between birth and reproduction)?
Decrease generation length -- I'd find it more realistic to model more small steps than fewer big ones.


Last edited by moopli on Sat May 31, 2014 9:24 am; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : formatting -- ugh why do lists have so much padding)
Back to top Go down
NickTheNick
Overall Team Co-Lead
NickTheNick


Posts : 2312
Reputation : 175
Join date : 2012-07-22
Age : 28
Location : Canada

Starting a New Game Empty
PostSubject: Re: Starting a New Game   Starting a New Game EmptySat May 31, 2014 1:47 am

Ah okay, that makes more sense and I agree with it. So then, the question becomes, what are some configurable settings we could have for the Microbe Stage?
Back to top Go down
moopli
Developer
moopli


Posts : 318
Reputation : 56
Join date : 2013-09-30
Age : 29
Location : hanging from the chandelier

Starting a New Game Empty
PostSubject: Re: Starting a New Game   Starting a New Game EmptySat May 31, 2014 9:51 am

NickTheNick wrote:
what are some configurable settings we could have for the Microbe Stage?
For one,
Oliveriver wrote:
AI evolution rate was discussed somewhere as being a useful variable
I've also seen mention of location -- tidepool, stromatolite, hydrothermal vent, etc. Above I mentioned that we start with a template cell, perhaps starting cells could be chosen from a template set, or procedurally generated (ie, you keep clicking regenerate until it gives you something you like). We could also choose "start time" -- pick one of the (possibly quite a few) points in the auto-generated early history of your world when eukaryotes are flourishing. Together with start location, this would make a starting scenario of sorts, which we could template at first and generate later.

For a more rigorous approach, here are some variables that could technically be customized:

  • Environment
  • --Compound concentrations -- covered by choosing location
  • --Free organelle concentrations (we probably won't want to expose these in the starting options)
  • --AI cell types -- covered by choosing location, hopefully procedural
  • Microbes
  • --You -- not too much I'd say
  • --AI cells themselves -- probably bad idea, god powers should be saved for ascension
  • Game rules
  • --Evolution rate
  • ----Mean generation time
  • ----mutation budget
  • --Biochemistry/cytology -- probably best left for modding, but, for example, we could have a LAWK toggle to disable thermoplasts
  • ----Compounds
  • ----Processes
  • ----Organelles
  • In-game options it would make sense to be able to choose before starting
  • --Visual themes (realistic, colorful, something for the visually-impaired)


Last edited by moopli on Sat May 31, 2014 10:47 am; edited 2 times in total (Reason for editing : added start time)
Back to top Go down
NickTheNick
Overall Team Co-Lead
NickTheNick


Posts : 2312
Reputation : 175
Join date : 2012-07-22
Age : 28
Location : Canada

Starting a New Game Empty
PostSubject: Re: Starting a New Game   Starting a New Game EmptySun Jun 01, 2014 2:35 am

From what I can see, stromatolites are found on beaches, in tidepool-esque environments, so I don't think it's really any different from a tidepool. But I like the idea of choosing whether to start in a tidepool or near a hydrothermal vent. We ought to include descriptions, though, so that a player could decide which one suits how they want to evolve their species better. 

For the starting cell, I'm pretty sure you just start with a kernel/nucleus, so there is not much  in the way of customization other than the colouration of your cell. 

Otherwise, those all sound like good microbial starting options to me.
Back to top Go down
Sponsored content





Starting a New Game Empty
PostSubject: Re: Starting a New Game   Starting a New Game Empty

Back to top Go down
 
Starting a New Game
Back to top 
Page 1 of 1
 Similar topics
-
» Miscellaneous Bugs And Questions That Don't Deserve Their Own Thread Thread
» Will this game be 3D?
» Accesing later in the game
» Game dependencies?
» game distribution

Permissions in this forum:You cannot reply to topics in this forum
Thrive Game Development :: Development :: Design :: Game Features-
Jump to: