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

Remember to start with questions like this on the Miscellaneous thread, although having said that at the moment there currently is a discussion there.

Btw, I'm currently in a heap of work, but if no one answers this question I'll come back to it.

Atrox_Somnium wrote:

I was wondering if organisms would age in the game. And if so would it affect the organisms? Would we be seeing some animals have gray fur or some that move more slowly than others? Can organisms die of old age, so if you play as a specific organism for a while can you die randomly because the organism is too old?

The main problem here is that ontogeny is rarely simple. Some aminals undergo metamorphosis, some grow up with different rates in different areas. Until we find a clean way to specify how animals grow over time that can be easily edited and mutated, babies are just going to have to be scaled-down versions of their parents. Here's a nice video on dinosaur ontogeny.

Interestingly, Horner's last reference is to the Tyrannosaurus/Nanotyrannus controversy, which I am about to be swept up into. I prepare fossils in the lab of Dr Thomas Carr, who is one of the world's experts on Tyrannosaur ontogeny, and I'll be going on an expedition out to Hell Creek with his team this summer, where we'll be collecting from multiple sites which contain Juvenile Tyrannosaurus/Nanotyrannus specimens. We're of the view that Nanotyrannus is a Juvenile T. rex and not a distinct species, but the evidence is not as clear cut as Horner makes it out to be in that presentation.

so will you be doing the bone histology thing on the tyrannosaurus and nanotyrannosaurus fossils?

Atrox_Somnium wrote:

so will you be doing the bone histology thing on the tyrannosaurus and nanotyrannosaurus fossils?

We're a bit less enthusiastic about cutting into our bones, and many of the fossils in our quarries and collection aren't exceptionally well-preserved. You can see what some of the fossils Dr Carr has found look like in this documentary. Lots of the stuff I have to clean is completely permeated by plant roots, like the larger t.rex bone they show in the field there.

i see. well that's a cool job nonetheless

Atrox_Somnium wrote:

i see. well that's a cool job nonetheless

If only I got paid. I'm a volunteer,

Very cool scio.

~sciocont wrote:

Daniferrito wrote:

Would that be 11 pm or 11 am?

I will assume pm, as 11am GMT isin the middle of the night for america. 11pm might be a bit too late for europe, though. That would be 1am in europe

2300 GMT, 11pm GMT

Ah . . . I assumed you were talking about 11am. I certainly won't be available for 11pm GMT. If necessary, I don't mind if I'm not in it, but if a better time could be found I'm still up for it.

Oliveriver thank you for showcasing the prototype.
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Hopefully I will be able to update it this weekend ( I have been really busy with school and final exams)

Oliveriver wrote:

~sciocont wrote:

Daniferrito wrote:

Would that be 11 pm or 11 am?

I will assume pm, as 11am GMT isin the middle of the night for america. 11pm might be a bit too late for europe, though. That would be 1am in europe

2300 GMT, 11pm GMT

Ah . . . I assumed you were talking about 11am. I certainly won't be available for 11pm GMT. If necessary, I don't mind if I'm not in it, but if a better time could be found I'm still up for it.

Oh, I'm sorry, I saw WJacobC post 11:00 PM GMT and didn't stop to ask if you were using AM, PM, or a 24-hour clock. Daniferrito and Seregon may be part of the podcast.

I'd still like to be part of it if at all possible. Hmm, let me think . . . I could prerecord something, but what that something could be I'm not sure - it would have to be a part of Thrive I know a lot about, such as the music. I saw WJacobC's said he'll write the script, although if it's not yet finished I'd be perfectly happy to help. Either way, the inclusion of more team members will help a lot. I'll be excited about it whether I'm in it or not.

I don't think I ever said I would write the script... I can go for as early as 9:00PM GMT I believe, but that may come close to another activity I have tomorrow. So, who's writing the script then?

(PS - Scio, what's your Skype?)

WJacobC wrote:

Perfect. Oliver, there should be an option for that if you are on Bluehost, which I believe you are. Anyone who wants to join just add me on Skype (WJacobC (clever I know)). I'll make a bit of a script as well.

Don't worry, it's understandable if you've forgotten. Providing I know who's involved and what everyone will be talking about, I can write the script if you need me to, unless ~sciocont's already started. I think 9:00PM GMT may just be doable for me, but it'll depend on how long we go on for. I'll get a Skype account set up anyway, so I can participate if it's possible.

Wow I feel extremely derpy right now I think I meant I would right down a script for me. Anyway, I've made contact with Daniferrito and Seregon on Skype, so only Oliver and ~sciocont are left. Oliver, make it if you can, but we understand if you can't. Us being so international will make this hard.

WJacobC wrote:

Wow I feel extremely derpy right now I think I meant I would right down a script for me. Anyway, I've made contact with Daniferrito and Seregon on Skype, so only Oliver and ~sciocont are left. Oliver, make it if you can, but we understand if you can't. Us being so international will make this hard.

I've written a script on Toxins for myself, and told Dani and seregon to write scripts of what they want to talk about. I've sent you my information on skype.

In that case I think I'll write a script for myself explaining about the music of Thrive (it may be that I do a music update for each podcast) and prerecord it anyway, just in case I can't participate in the actual recording. I'll send you everything on Skype once I've made an account and recorded it. Would it possible to change the time of the podcast to 9pm GMT as Jacob suggested or not?

Oliveriver wrote:

In that case I think I'll write a script for myself explaining about the music of Thrive (it may be that I do a music update for each podcast) and prerecord it anyway, just in case I can't participate in the actual recording. I'll send you everything on Skype once I've made an account and recorded it. Would it possible to change the time of the podcast to 9pm GMT as Jacob suggested or not?

I'm fine with 9 GMT, I'll see about seregon and Dani. If they're not up for that time, we can easily do 2 recordings.

Oliveriver wrote:

Right, I have a couple of miscellaneous points to mention here.

Firstly, I've made this gameplay video of the prototype:



From playing the prototype a few times, there are a couple of things I've noticed. Occasionally, due to the fluid dynamics, the cell will become stuck or will just move between two places for a few seconds (as you can see at 1:47 and 2:07 in the video). Furthermore, it seems to be taking up a lot of processing power for such a simple game/program. However, it is, in all honesty, very fun already. Even something as basic as moving a cell around to gain parts is enjoyable, and if I wanted to I'd have no trouble spending much longer playing it than I did in the video (note to self - don't kill your cell, it will make your species go extinct ).

The second miscellaneous point is that WJacobC and I (well, mostly Jacob admittedly) have come up with the idea of doing a Thrive podcast. Once every two weeks (or whatever time frame is eventually decided) we could use either Skype (which I don't yet have but could get if I needed to) or Steam voice chat to discuss recent updates about Thrive. Some of the ideas we've come up with so far are:

• Playing the prototypes/early releases and highlighting any recent changes (in fact, we could even have competitions during the podcast with everyone playing the prototype at the same time to see who can survive the longest).
  
• Presenting any recently composed music.
  
• News updates on all matters Thrive.
  
• Answer questions from people commenting.
  
• Interviews with the programmers themselves on their progress.

So far, Jacob's set up an RSS feed (http://wjacobc.com/thrive/thrivecast.xml ) and we've worked out how to upload it to iTunes. It would be easy to allow other members to take part in the discussion using Skype/Steam, or even simply text chat that we then read out if they don't want to reveal their voice (although I'm not sure how well that will work).

The more we thought about it the better an idea it seemed, so with everyone's permission we'd like to go ahead with it. Also, Jacob said he was going to post something here, so I apologise if I got in before him. He's probably got a few more points to add about it that I missed.

Thirdly, I'm sorry I haven't been able to update the website for a couple of weeks. I've been quite busy and haven't had enough time. I'll probably manage to update it sometime in the next few days.

Fourthly, I've had a crack at creating some concept art:

Spoiler:

It's pretty simple, but it's the best I've managed so far. The waterfall image I created myself, while I found that having the logo in the shards and adding it over the planet created quite a powerful effect.

The video load directly on the original channel. I would have done it myself, but in recent weeks are really busy.

The only thing is that it changes the song since "officially" that song is not suitable while you play, but you have to use more ambient music.

I'm perfectly fine with whatever time you choose. Actually, 9 pm GMT is much better for europe, as it is no longer 1am.

I am untrustedlifeakamike on skype, I would like to participate in the podcast.
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GML is a slow language, but I did not put any processing savers here, you can set the priority to normal as it defaults to high,shouldn't lag anyway then.
I might redo it in C++

I'm afraid I won't be able to participate in the actual recording of the podcast (partly because I failed to realise it's currently British summer time and therefore GMT+1 ), but I've recorded my part about the music of Thrive and sent it to WJacobC so he can forward it to ~sciocont for the editing process.

Sup guys, hope you don't mind me asking but whats the current concept of pseudopodial movement?

One question- Are we going to have specific rulers in strategy mode? (The game will tell you who is the current ruler of your nation and his stats)

Tritium wrote:

Sup guys, hope you don't mind me asking but whats the current concept of pseudopodial movement?

At this point, we're not including it.

Tarpy wrote:

One question- Are we going to have specific rulers in strategy mode? (The game will tell you who is the current ruler of your nation and his stats)

Yes, they will be included. Most government forms will randomly generate individual leaders with procedural names, but partisan systems will generate both a leader and a party that that leader represents.