The more I look at the way this game currently is and the way people hope it will be, the more obvious it seems to me that the current style of play just isn’t going to cut it.
Right now, you play this game by directly controlling what is assumed to be a nominal member of your species. But, I feel that this doesn’t get the right feeling across with how the game should be.
The game is supposed to simulate evolution while giving the player control over the actions of their species as a whole, which is why I propose a new method of gameplay.
Instead of directly controlling your creature, what if it was to take a more RTS like approach. In this way, you could direct the actions of your creature without having complete control over them. This would also allow better for the senses of your creature to actually come into play. Additionally, this would allow packs and herds to form naturally in gameplay by giving the player access to more creatures, as well as provide a much smoother transition into the later stages of the game.
With a format like this, the specific behavior of your species would play a role as you direct actions, but your creature goes out to perform them in whatever way it can without controlling it yourself.
Someone correct me if I am wrong about something, but when I read the GDD, there said that when the player reaches the (early) Society Stage, you control both an individual and your tribe/group. I’m not sure about the Awakening stage, but I think its the same, but without a Society Center, and less technologies.
Yeah it is late awakening and early society. Like nomadic type civilization.
Also @MisterMustachio Thrive is still a game. It needs to be fun for a lot of people. I personally don’t care which way the game is, but I am sure many people would prefer the model right now. Also, the game already has planned smooth transitions.
I think a very strong argument could be made for allowing the player to have limited access to that RTS-like-approach in earlier stages for specific cases. The various behaviors we see in things like ant-societies, pack/herd based strategies, and other collaborative interactions within species would be very hard to represent in-game without being able to control multiple organisms at once, and I think that certain upgrades should allow players the ability to have this level of control.
That being said, I still think the crux of this game is dependent on that ability to play as your creation. I personally always found the cell, creature (especially creature at that), and space stages of Spore to be the most fun because that ability to influence the traits of your creature and utilize them in the life of said creature is such an amazing feeling. If it gave off a feeling of legitimately taking control over a creature’s life and a specie’s evolution in a game so obviously focused on being cartoonish, imagine how amazing that same feeling would be in a game more focused on reality, such as Thrive.