Applying the resource system to each stage

This thread is meant to explore the ways in which we can apply basically the same compound system to each of the stages in thrive, an idea I got from NickTheNick's post in this thread.

The idea is that in each stage, there are components which perform comparable roles. For example, organelles (cell stage), organs (creature stage), and factories (society stage), all process compounds/resources into other compounds/products.

While there will be a few differences (factories trade resources with eachother, whereas organelles draw from a common pool of compounds in the cell), we should be able to account for these with only minor changes to the same basic system.

What this means is that we can use the same compound system as a component of each stage, and as this is one of the more important systems, it could save us a significant amount of development time. We may even be able to use the relationship between the compound system and auto-evo (which I'll explain at another time), to drive the 'evolution' of businesses in later stages.

I've made a quick diagram to show this more clearly. For each stage, I've highlighted the component which works with compounds (i.e.: factories, organs), the level at which evolution could act, and from which perspective the player will primarily be playing.



All of this could be tweaked, evolution could act on a nation in the same way it does a business, as well as on a village or tribe, but I highlighted those components which fell very clearly into those categories. Additionally, the player should have some control over other components, what I've highlighted is simply their primary perspective.

I've also seperated compounds/resources roughly into groups, to show how the focus shifts from very simple materials to much more complex materials as the game progresses. This is very important in order to avoid micromanagement, both by the player and more importantly, the cpu, which is allowed to base calculations on ever more generalised data.

This looks really good.

So Seregon, I was wondering if there is a list of compounds that you have, and what leads to what, and what composes what, that sort of thing. I made a quick chart here on that program you showed me about the relationships between the basic elements and the important resources for Microbe Stage. I was thinking that, based off of a small number of basic elements, we could have a variety of combinations to encompass all of the resources in the game. I only made the relationships for the basic elements and molecular resources. However, I left some of the resources necessary for later stages hovering above to consider how to extrapolate this process further.

For example, steel could be a composition of iron and carbon (coal), and gunpowder a composition of nitrogen, oxygen, and potassium/sodium/calcium.

Also, I notice I forgot to include protein in the chart.

Hmm... somewhere I've got a chart which looks rather like that, let me see.

Ah, heres one:


So far I've only considered compounds for the cell stage, and its rather unfinished, hence why I never posted it before.

Using the chart in the OP, there is a progression of compound levels, from basic compounds (oxygen, water), through organic compounds, organic polymers, organic materials, and other materials. At some stage each succesive level should coexist with the one before or the one after, so as you suggest, there should be a route to produce most advanced materials from the most basic materials available (with obvious exceptions, like steel, which comes primarily from iron ore which is itself a 'material').

The question really is how much detail we want, and that's not something we can answer until we have an engine to test. For example though, I wouldn't include o2 + h2 -> water, we simply don't need that level of detail at the cellular stage. Paradoxically though, we might want the reverse reaction available at the industrial stage...

So overall, yes, there should be a series of reactions (which may be chemical, biological, or artificial) which link most or all possible compounds together, but until we decide on all the componds we want that may be a little preemptive?

Ahh ok. So there are still more compounds to decide upon then. Which of those will be significant to the player, or shown on the GUI?