A Possible Problem with Niches...

Hmmmm How about an in game dynamic auto-evolution system...
(Prepare for a very long and probably a not very deep and well thought out concept)

But ANYWAY

Every time you do perform an action, or spend a long amount of time in specific environment, or get predated by another species etc etc, you increase a progress bar for a concordant stat (No! don't run away this isn't exactly a stats system)
For example... Digging frequently will push up the dig speed, claw size, shoulder size and other alike progress bars. If you dig enough you can fill the progress bar and you get a nice friendly looking button, probably in a corner reading, say "Increase dig speed" Or "Increase claw length". You can either choose to add this trait, or not. Increasing dig speed for example will have slight effects on the look of your creature, but physical changes such as "Increase claw length" Will have a more focused and larger appearance effect on your creature.
BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO APPLY THE TRAIT.
For example, you could read a dossier of the stat.
EG. Larger claw size will make the creature faster at digging but slower at moving on land.
OR
Increasing your resistance to cold environments will make you less resistant to heat. Slight Visual insulation will appear (Ie. Fur, blubber)
OR
Becoming amphibious will allow you to breathe indefinitely on land or in water, but it will decrease your respiratory efficiency, and lower stamina.

Some of these effects may not be to your liking... Maybe you don't want your species to become amphibious because you need to be able to sprint away from those lizards which keep nabbing you and you can't afford the stamina loss.
So For example, when you get the option "Specialize respiratory system: Amphibious" You click the little cross, and the progress bar will reset. If you spend more time in the water, eventually it will give you the option to turn amphibious again.

Now if you click yes, there will need to be physical, physiological and skill changes.


Heres two options of how it could be added in:


A) The physical/physiological change WONT happen instantly. It should take about five-ten minutes game play to see this physical trait appear, and you may just notice it gradually appearing. Same goes for digging speed, you shouldn't be able to dig faster straight away. The skill change should be noticeable about 10-15 minutes after clicking the tick. (About 5 minutes after the physical change.

OR

B) You could click a button, or mate etc to advance in several generations to incorporate these gained skills/traits. The traits increased will only show up when you advance through the generations.



Heres a break down of what I generally mean...


I am a frog like creature (Lets call him Frogling). I spend a lot of time near the water. I tend to swim in it a lot. In fact I get a lot of nutrition from plants which live at the bottom of the pond. These plants are better than the other plants that I can eat which grow on land because they have a positive effect on my species brain power. My goal is to become sentient one day.

However I cannot breathe properly underwater. I can only stay under for about thirty seconds. After swimming down several times to get this food, I eventually get a pop up button which reads "Increase swimming speed". Naturally, as I want to continue eating these plants, I click the tick. After about 5 minutes playing around I notice my froglings webbed feet getting larger and a there is a slight increase in the back leg muscles.

When I eat enough plants I get several pop ups, at different times, some include:
"Increase Specialized Digestion" <--- This would mean I would need to eat much less of these plants to get the benefits from them, but it would also mean I would get much less nutrients from other food sources. Because I want to keep my options open and gain an equal amount of nutrients from other plants, I click the cross. No changes are made to my species digestion system.
"Increase Brainpower" <--- Makes the creature smarter, I'm not quite sure how you guys are implementing it, but In clicking yes I would be further on the track to sentience, If I click no, I could prolong my species physical evolution.
More things could include: Increase fat, Specialize mouth, Decrease Nutritional neccesities I'm sure there are many more that could relate to the plant itself...

After about ten minutes, I notice that the frogling is beating his legs much quicker in the water and as a result is swimming faster. After spending more time underwater, I get a Physiological pop up which reads: "Increase Breath Threshold" Again, this is something I want so I click the tick Soon I notice that I can stay under for longer.

Lets say after an hour or so of not just eating plants, also a bit of running around on land, clambering over trees doing lost of intresting stuff, but it seems that the most repeated thing I do is to eat these plants because they are helping me acheive my supreme goal. Eventually I can hold my breath for a very long time, and My frogling has much larger feet and more pronounced leg muscles. I notice that he aint as fast on land as he once was...
Amazingly I get a pop up which reads: "Specialize respiratory system: Amphibious". If I click yes my Frogling would suffer a significant loss in energy (Ability to frequently sprint, attack, swim etc mainly due to a less effecient repspiratory system) but he'd be able to breath indefinitely in land and water.

If I clicked yes, and kept spending more time in the water I may develop something similar to gills. If I click no, I would still be able to work equally efficiently on land and water.


For option B, IE advancing to the next/advancing through several generations all the changes will be noticeable as soon as you hatch from the egg/fall out of the mother etc.

On a side note which could relate to a Darwnistic game-style...

Imagine later in the game you could see species which share a common ancestor with you. Species which clicked yes for what you clicked no. IE a fully aquatic and much different looking version of my Frogling that still shares some similar traits such as mouth size, limb config and feeding pattern. It lives in the pond, and its legs now resemble fins. Its MUCH faster at swimming than me too.
This would be cool to see what would of happened if you had gone down a different path.

Note that here I have not taking into account natural selection IE pressures from other species but I think it could be a similar process IE get killed by a species enough and you get a pop up that reads "Increase toxicity level" (Making you very slightly poisonous, develop slightly brighter colors and the species will not predate on you as frequently) OR "Increase skin thickness" (Increases health and makes you harder to kill)


I think that this way a player would have more control over where their species is headed without the need for direct editing...
Its just a concept atm Im not sure if it could be smoothly integrated but Im no programmer