How full of life should the galaxy be? Will it be teeming with space empires like in spore, stellaris, etc. or will it be almost lifeless? What solution to the Fermi paradox will be used? And yes, there must be a Fermi paradox to explain the lack of contact with alien life before the space stage.
5 Likes
The space stage page on the developer wiki mentions that the player would only encounter other space civs late into the stage, so I guess there would be few sapient spacefaring alien civs.
2 Likes
That’s probably mostly due to early space stage being about exploring your own solar system before discovering FTL travel, which unlocks the spreading of your species past that. So that’s the earliest in the game you can encounter other space-faring species.
So the answer to fermi paradox in Thrive is that, it doesn’t exist, you will encounter plenty of other species once you start exploring significant amount of space.
5 Likes
Essentially the solution to the Fermi paradox in Thrive is the firstborn theory which states that we (in this case the species we play as) are one of the first intelligent species. This would also explain why other species have not ascended to the player.
However, some other theories can also be partially implemented, for example, some alien civilizations can be “isolationists” who fear other civilizations (as in the dark forest theory), and etc.
3 Likes
Just how frequently should the alien civs be spawned though?
1 Like
Would it be partially based on the number of save games a player makes, similar to spore, or independent of the number of a player’s save games?
1 Like
Not sure. Perhaps the player could choose if they want their previous playthroughs to influence their current one?
1 Like
This will most likely be a configurable setting at the start of the game, you can make either a nearly lifeless galaxy or a galaxy teeming with space empires.
2 Likes
What do you think would it be set at for the normal difficulty?
2 Likes
This could be decided in the settings when starting a new game.
it could be called FERMI PARADOX SOLUTION
to spice things up, it would be cool if there was a “random” option
the technological advancement of other alien races could be dependent on how fast you go through the stages, on top of a random factor
Here are some of my ideas for “Alien settings” (that’s what it could be called i guess. why not?)
- FERMI PARADOX SOLUTION
- ALIEN EMPIRE AGGRESSION (how likely they are to attack, )
- ALIEN WORLD EVOLUTION SPEED (a setting to control the idea of their starting tech being connected to how fast you go through the stages, higher values mean you must go through the stages faster in order for them to start with the same amount of tech)
- PRE-SPACE STAGE ENCOUNTERS (determines whether or not alien civilizations can visit your planet before you reach the space stage)
- ALIEN LANGUAGE TRANSLATION DIFFICULTY (determines whether you have to translate their language, and how difficult translation will be, or if you can automagically talk to them without having to go through this hassle)
I think a random solution or something similar to stellaris for easy and normal, but random solution for hard.
I also think it is crucial to make sure that the space stage is more than interacting with other empires, because it would be pretty lame if it turns out alien life doesn’t exist so there isn’t anything to do. Maybe some internal conflict stuff could spice things up a bit.
3 Likes
Not sure this is even planned to ever be added…
3 Likes
This would require a lot of extra AI behaviors. That seems unlikely to be officially put in, though maybe a dedicated modder would consider making it.
2 Likes
A dedicated modder might aswell join the devforce instead of making such additions. Though some developers are also modders I guess…
2 Likes
The speed of evolution of alien worlds should not depend on how much time the player spent in the pre-cosmic stages, since this would strain the players because many would most likely linger in the pre-cosmic stages longer, in addition, the player must be one of the first space species in the galaxy, otherwise he would actually lose to the species that ascended before him, for the same reason, there can be no visits by aliens to the player’s home planet before space stage.
4 Likes
Exactly. Although I suppose some “ascendeds” may not resort to burning the whole galaxy to the ground…
2 Likes
It doesn’t have to simulate any extra ecosystems on other planets, It could just be calculated by how fast you progress. It probably is the kind of thing that should be left for the modders if they want
1 Like
Would this be dependent on the difficulty? Because from what I’ve heard it’s not intended that “harder = more realistic”.
1 Like
But it does have to simulate how the visitor might behave, have options for visited players, and simulate how an AI controlled empire might deal with it, as well as how another empire on your planet being visited might effect you. Are these visitors looking to study your planet, benefit your planet or people, or harm your planet or people. Do they ask for tribute? Do they give gifts? Do they involve themselves in wars between empires on your planet? Do they encourage them? Do the visitors think you are savages who need to be reigned in for the sake of other species on your planet? Do they want to use you for labor? Are they looking for resources? Do they teach new concepts and technologies to your people? Do they care if you use what they give you to help or harm others?
There have been many suggestions of letting the AI pass the player and not be considered an automatic game over, and I am a very strong supporter of this. However, advanced AI visiting the players primitive planet is one of the 2 hardest forms of that to properly represent (the other being proper interaction between microscopic and macroscopic creatures, such as a microscopic player evolving to live inside a macroscopic creatures internal systems and developing resistance to the medicines their host develops).
I sincerely hope that interaction ranging from early tiny macroscopic creatures to huge aware creatures to early space stage (your solar system) creatures on your planet will end up being represented, and that the player will be able to interact with unaware lifeforms on other planets, but interaction between AI that have developed the ability to reach other solar systems and players or awake AI on your planet that have not is . . . unfortunately unlikely.
2 Likes
That makes sense. Sounds like a lot to put it.
4 Likes
I recall the current plan regarding microbes and macroscopics is to represent the former like compound clouds once one gets visible to a naked eye. As to being the former inside the later, that has never been planned to be added by the developers to my knowledge.
2 Likes