Finalizing Aware Concept

Begining:

The stage begins simply enough. If possible, we want to equate your Multicellular colony to an OE made template organism, and automatically provide the player with that. If this is not possible, a selection of template organisms will be given and the player will be allowed to choose one. Note that the player CANNOT play as an autotrophe, or at least not progress to sentience if they do play as one.

The player will universally start out as an aquatic organism. Depth or biome is still to be determined. Diet is still TBD, and will possibly vary between template orgs.

Movement Controls:

Aquatic controls will use the mouse to aim, (with a central retical) and WASD to move along that axis. SPACE will cause the player to move up, and CTRL to move the player down. SHIFT will cause the player to go into a sprint, which will move them significantly faster but drain stamina.

Terrestrial controls will use the mouse to aim, (with a central retical) and WASD to move along that axis. SPACE will cause the player to jump (if possible), and CTRL will cause the player to crouch (if possible). SHIFT will cause the player to go into a sprint, which will move them significantly faster but drain stamina.

Arial controls will need to be split into multiple types, depending on possible movements.

If the player can hover, like a bee or a Humming Bird, controls will use the mouse to aim, (with a central retical) and WASD to move along that axis. SPACE will cause the player to move up, and CTRL to move the player down.

If the player flys like a bird or bat, using flapping wings, controls will use the mouse to aim, (with a central retical) and WASD to move along that axis. SPACE will cause the player to flap their wings, and holding down space will cause a continual flap. Flaping causes the player to move up slightly, a la Spore. CTRL will cause the player to pull their wings closer to the body, preventing glide and making them fall faster. If the player does nothing, they will glide with wings out-streached.

Other modes of locomotion may need to be discussed.

Gameplay:

The primary goal of Aware Stage is survival. The player will have certain requirements they need to fill in order to survive, such as nutrition, hydration, and energy. These will be represented by shards on the bottom right corner of the screen, which will change colour, pulse, and throb depending on the need.

Nutrition will steadily decrease over time, and give the player energy and growth. More strenous actions will cause the meter to drop faster. If the player eats, then the meter will rise up. The rate of drop can be reduced by developing more efficient digestive systems. The nutrition level will also reflect directly on the player's organism through fat stores that grow and shrink accordingly. If the meter reaches zero, the player will begin to starve, which reduces muscle streangth and damages health.

Hydration will steadily decrease over time. If the player drinks, than the meter rises. The rate of drop can my reduced my developing more efficient digestive and/or excretion systems. If the meter reaches zero, the player will become dehydrated, which significantly damages health and reduces muscle strength.

Energy will steadily decrease over time. The player can recharge this by sleeping. The rate of drop can be reduced by developing more efficient respitory and/or circulatory systems. If the meter reaches zero, the player will pass out for long enough to recharge 1/4 of their stamina shard. They will be very vulnerable in the meantime though, so passing out is never a good thing.

Provided the player's energy levels are high enough, if on land or in water they will be able to go into a sprint, which reduces stamina. Stamina is a very small meter, but can be upgraded by developing more effecient respitory, circulatory, or muscular systems. In addition to sprinting, nearly every strenous action will cause the meter to drop. As stamina recharges, it siphons away energy to refuel. As Energy can be regained only by sleeping, you will naturally want to use as little Stamina as possible to conserve your energy.

The player will have the ability to examine anything in the world by pressing E when next to it. When examining, the camera will focus on the object and the player will become translucent. Next to the object being examined, a shard will appear giving some basic information about the object, depending on the player's sensors. Within the shard a small orb will serve as a visual short-hand for some attributes, like texture, weight, and heat.

Combat:

Okay, so looking back on what we and Bashi had been tossing around when he was still around, most of our animations will probably need to be a combination of premade and context based.

So what I think we might be able to do is identify a number of points on the body (Exposed hardness at the end of an appendage) as a weapon. The game can then try a number of directional attack animations with the weapons.

Mouths will need to be another matter. I'd say that if the game detects the weapon's appendage as being the very front of the bezier curve that makes up the spine in vertebrates or worm-body in invertebrates (minus arthropods), the only directional attack that can be made is forward, preventing awkward attempts at directional attacks with the face. This will make it slightly more difficult for some of the more 'alien' designs, but in the long run I think it will look better.

Now, if a joint is detected at the base of two weapons or weapon arrays, the computer will try and animate these to function as a 'grip weapon.' Wolf mouths, lobster claws, raptor feet and the like would fall under this catagory. A grip weapon is not used in a quick strike, but to hold onto prey and keep it still as it dies. This is where animations come in again.

Grip weapons will have a basic, universal array of animations that are not context based, however, they will get contextual animations as well. The game will identify all the prey items for a certain species in a certain biome anyway, and can then run through animations of predators with grip weapons actively attacking the prey in a realistic manner, with more accurate model contact and a long period of grip. Predators will instinctively go for the most vulnerable parts of a prey item's body, ergo the neck for most Earth fauna. (This may need to be changed to allow crocodile style ambushes however) These animation attacks will be the goal most predators have in mind, as they will do massive damage, and count as a successful lunge/ponce/etc would for an Earthly predator.

Now, on the player's side of things, players will be informed of all weapons on their organism once they have completed their direct-edits, by highlighting the area the game has identified as a weapon. The player can mark any of these as not counting as a weapon, but may not mark areas for weaponization themselves. They can then assign the different weapons to either different hotkeys or the mouse wheel, which will cycle through them when turned.

In game, a selected weapon will have it's 'portrait' at the bottom right of the HUD. This will merely be a picture of the highlighted area. If the weapon requires any chemicals to function, such as venom or a ranged weapon (which need to be discussed), there will be an 'ammo counter' next to the protrait. These will be the same in the society stages, but regenerating the 'ammo counter' in Aware stage will consist either of simply waiting if the materials are naturally produced by the organism, or collecting required resource combinations if they are not.

Attacks will be a simple mouse-click affair. Directional attacks will work as the do in the following stages, click to ready the weapon, and release to attack. Directions will be detected through mouse movements. I'm not sure how to deal with awkwardly placed weapons though, like tail-clubs.

Grip attacks will require the player to be within a certain vicinity of the area of the prey's anatomy they wish to attack. This encourages lunges and pounces.

Camoflauge will take a role in-game, with each ecosystem/biome having a number of areas that the game will record the basic colors and patterns of, in a number of different sensory patterns. The game will analyse the various inhabitants of said biomes and compare them to the background patterns it did earlier, and give each a visibility rating that will determine the likelyhood of their being detected. As with most games, crouching will likely be the shorthand for sneaking.

Vemon and poison will we included in-game, though the use of glands that can evolve or simply be placed in the OE.

Mating:

Mating behaiviors will vary depending on players reproductive forms. Some species may develope a distinctive mating call. Many will compete for mating rights, in everything from combat to dances. If the player's species instinctively goes someplace to mate at a certain time, the player will be informed of this when the time arrives, and guided to the mating grounds. They will also be informed of mating behaviors and any competing they will have to do.

Intelligence:

The only way to prgress into the Awakening Stage of the game is to develop sentience/sapience. This is does by earning intelligence.

Early on, the best way to earn intelligence will be to hunt. Not merely eating meat will do, the player will have to kill it themselves. Ambushes will give a small reward, chasing down the prey a medium reward, and pack hunting will give a large reward.

Later on, the player will learn to manipulate their environment. Simply picking up a stick will give a small reward the first few times it's done. Later on the player will be pushing to actively use objects in they're world to solve problems, like throwing rocks at predators or using sticks to dig.

A constant throughout the game will be exploration. Finding new places and resources will always provide the player with intelligence.

Intelligence may or may not be treated as a skill-tree, allowing the player to pick and choose various behaviors and psychological traits to improve their chances of survival. This would allow for increased complexity and realism in cultural development in later stages.

Endgame:

Once the player reaches a certain level of intelligence, they will be promted to perform a certain task. This may be to create a fire, a shelter, or a complex tool like an axe or spear. This action will serve as a "final boss" of sorts, testing the player's skills and problem-solving capabilities. when successfully completed, the player will be able to progress to the awakening stage.