Spherical Research Tree Visualisation Idea

This idea for the research tree/web isn't about organisation, it is just the in-game visualisation and could be used alongside any sort of organisational method we use.

So, the idea is we present the research tree in-game in a sphere, rather than a flat web/tree. This sphere can be rotated by clicking and dragging or with the directional arrows. The researches themselves are presented in some some of bubble, or shard, and can be read from any direction, unless they are behind another bubble/shard.

When you first gain sentience, and the initial researches are available to you, they are all you can see of the sphere, and as you research the techs, more possible researches appear on the outside of the sphere, which build up to form a bigger and bigger sphere until everything is researched. Things that aren't researched, but are available to be, appear greyed out, and glow when hovered over. Clicking these will begin research. The only way you can see researches beyond the available ones are 'ghost' images of the outer sphere, sort of darker tints on the screen, giving you an idea of how many more researches are possible, without obstructing your view or revealing exactly what is to come.

As you research new things, and get more advanced, new 'layers' of the sphere emerge. These signify the current 'age' you are in, like industrial or information ages, and can also be used for navigation within the sphere. Each age has an appropriate style of bubble/shard. A key at the edge shows the name of each age (so far) and a styled bubble next to it. Clicking on an age in the key will remove every layer above that age from the sphere, allowing you to view past researches. Greyed out researches (that are available to be researched) are also removed if they are beyond the selected age. If there is a possible research in the age beyond the current one, the next age appears on the key, allowing you to view that research and research it, but the name and bubble/shard are greyed out until the age is achieved.

So, any comments, questions, or ideas? And, as with all my polls, vote changing is allowed.

The Uteen wrote:

This idea for the research tree/web isn't about organisation, it is just the in-game visualisation and could be used alongside any sort of organisational method we use.

So, the idea is we present the research tree in-game in a sphere, rather than a flat web/tree. This sphere can be rotated by clicking and dragging or with the directional arrows. The researches themselves are presented in some some of bubble, or shard, and can be read from any direction, unless they are behind another bubble/shard.

When you first gain sentience, and the initial researches are available to you, and they are all you can see of the sphere, and as you research the techs, more appear on the outside of the sphere, which build up to form a bigger and bigger sphere until everything is researched. Things that aren't researched, but are available to be, appear greyed out, and glow when hovered over. Clicking these will begin research. The only way you can see researches beyond the available ones are 'ghost' images of the outer sphere, sort of darker tints on the screen, giving you an idea of how many more researches are possible, without obstructing your view or revealing exactly what is to come.

As you research new things, and get more advanced, new 'layers' of the sphere emerge. These signify the current 'age' you are in, like industrial or information ages, and can also be used for navigation within the sphere. Each age has an appropriate style of bubble/shard. A key at the edge shows the name of each age (so far) and a styled bubble next to it. Clicking on an age in the key will remove every layer above that age from the sphere, allowing you to view past researches. Greyed out researches (that are available to be researched) are also removed if they are beyond the selected age. If there is a possible research in the age beyond the current one, the next age appears on the key, allowing you to view that research and research it, but the name and bubble/shard are greyed out until the age is achieved.

So, any comments, questions, or ideas? And, as with all my polls, vote changing is allowed.

i cant answer if i dont see both ways visually

Sort of like this? (Warning: 60 seconds Paint concept. Lots of imagination required!)

Spoiler:

Commander Keen wrote:

Sort of like this? (Warning: 60 seconds Paint concept. Lots of imagination required!)

Spoiler:

ok . will the tech tree will be like civ with photo and description

I like the idea of a 3D visualization. However, i wouldn't confine it to a sphere, just a 3d ball and stick tree. (like Keen's but in 3d)

~sciocont wrote:

I like the idea of a 3D visualization. However, i wouldn't confine it to a sphere, just a 3d ball and stick tree. (like Keen's but in 3d)

Well, it should be roughly spherical, with branches going out in all directions, but most of the time it wouldn't be spherical anyway, it would only be (fairly) spherical to begin with and when all have been researched. We can't expect the player to research everything at the same rate.

And I just thought about how if we did go for shards rather than bubbles, the completed sphere would look a lot like an anomaly from Primeval, except more colourful... Unintended, of course, I got the idea from the shard style we seem to have. (RG logo has it)

Anyway, Keen's idea, with a lot of imagination, is vaguely what I mean... Sort of. It is flat, has no age styles, no named ages in the key, and the available unresearched researches have colour instead of grey, but apart from that, it is exactly what I mean. Still, it's a mockup, and it's better than I could have done. I'm no good with paint.

And I didn't mention anything about photos... Photos of what?

I'm all for a 3d sphere if it allows for quick interaction, but I fear it would slow down moving through the tree. Still, this will not show until we have actual prototypes to test on. The idea is well worth a shot.

This seems to be a rather decent idea, but the main problem would of course be navigation inside the sphere/tree. Google SketchUp, Max and other programs didn't solve it in a decent manner, I'll tell you. If you overcome navigation and make colorful layers, I'll be rooting for you (yay for rainbow =3 )

Darkgamma wrote:

This seems to be a rather decent idea, but the main problem would of course be navigation inside the sphere/tree. Google SketchUp, Max and other programs didn't solve it in a decent manner, I'll tell you. If you overcome navigation and make colorful layers, I'll be rooting for you (yay for rainbow =3 )

The bubbles/shards would different objects, joined by some sort of line. (I don't think that would have to be modeled)

Navigation inside the sphere would be done by clicking the ages on the key, allowing you to remove layers so you can see beneath/behind other researches. (Ideally the layers would only be one 1/2 research bubbles thick, max (by half I mean they could be sort of ridged))

If you don't want to click an age on the key, you could also use the scroll wheel, as that isn't used for anything in this panel/page/window at the moment.

Also, when you are haven't finished the tree, there wont be any bubbles above it, so navigating inside the sphere wont be a problem unless you particularly want to look back on past researches.

I like the idea. I think I have an idea of what it should look like. The scroll wheel seems like it would be a good idea for navigation. One thing that might make it less cluttered would be to not have all researches from fusion back to fire showing all at once. How about if you scroll in, outer researches would fade away and lower research bubbles would become bigger.

Or we could just use a circle. So much cleaner than a sphere, and no scrolling issues.

Poisson wrote:

I like the idea. I think I have an idea of what it should look like. The scroll wheel seems like it would be a good idea for navigation. One thing that might make it less cluttered would be to not have all researches from fusion back to fire showing all at once. How about if you scroll in, outer researches would fade away and lower research bubbles would become bigger.

Or we could just use a circle. So much cleaner than a sphere, and no scrolling issues.

But that ruins the experience, rainbow and complexity D=>
Joke aside, it might be cleaner, but not as pretty

Darkgamma wrote:

Poisson wrote:

I like the idea. I think I have an idea of what it should look like. The scroll wheel seems like it would be a good idea for navigation. One thing that might make it less cluttered would be to not have all researches from fusion back to fire showing all at once. How about if you scroll in, outer researches would fade away and lower research bubbles would become bigger.

Or we could just use a circle. So much cleaner than a sphere, and no scrolling issues.

But that ruins the experience, rainbow and complexity D=>
Joke aside, it might be cleaner, but not as pretty

Exactly. And the idea of this layout of the tree/web is to visualise it in a clean, simple, and cool way.

And the idea of them changing size is cool, there probably will be lots of researches. But several layers should be visible at about normal size at once, to keep the scale right for ages with many techs, and to hide the shrinking effect a bit, keeping it from appearing to be a research black hole.

And as you scroll in, the outer layers will be removed, presumably replaced with the black tinting that you get for unavailable researches. (Obviously they are available, but the tinting should always be there, or the background becomes a bit boring) Scrolling is basically an alternate method of using the key for navigation, and they remove above layers, as I mentioned, so so should scrolling.

I like this idea in principle, and we're probably going to need something way more sophisticated than a tree to handle all the researches based on the level of detail on even the incomplete research tree we have. However, this could easily get visually confusing if implemented wrong.

One question: On the outer layers, wouldn't researches have to be spread apart further and therefore harder to locate individually?

Also: perhaps there should be an option in the game to switch between this and other, less innovative methods of displaying it (like a simple tree or web.)

Xenopologist wrote:

I like this idea in principle, and we're probably going to need something way more sophisticated than a tree to handle all the researches based on the level of detail on even the incomplete research tree we have. However, this could easily get visually confusing if implemented wrong.

One question: On the outer layers, wouldn't researches have to be spread apart further and therefore harder to locate individually?

Also: perhaps there should be an option in the game to switch between this and other, less innovative methods of displaying it (like a simple tree or web.)

They would be spread further apart after the first few layers - We have a lot of researches. Although, it might be hard finding specific researches, maybe we could have a search option!

And we could have a 2D tree too, for people who don't like navigating in 3D. But I think most people would like the 3D web. 3D would be a fun way to go. In fact, this would be really cool if we had an option for stereoscopic visuals (Red & blue glasses thing, not the one that needs a special screen), but people generally don't like that.

It could look like a 3D holographic molecule-like structure, with all the writing on or inside the balls.

i have an idea , its a evolution menu, so as you play you unlock parts right, so the idea is that when you unlock these parts u can upgrade them and later if you got two specific parts you can merge to get one part with properties of both. its like a tech tree but with parts

EXAMPLE

Spoiler:

its not exactly what we are talking about over here but is an idea

Well, i believe we are not going to unlock parts. Thats what spore did, and it was awfull. Finding limbs under rocks, and sticking them into your body is as far from realistic as possible. No matter how you look at it.

The parts are going to get evolved. There are random chances the parts will be mutated, either when eating another cell, or just by evolving. Then, depending in wether the part is actually usefull, it will get boosted, or just deevolved, in order to save energy.

will there be a creature creator like in spore? where you got all the parts and just build

Maybe for something like ascension, god-mode, or something like that, but not for the main game