I think gore is a must. We need it. If it winds up being disgusting, make a setting, set the default to low gore. As for sex scenes… I don’t think they’ll hurt, I mean, there are these cool slugs who, for some reason, stab one another during they’re mating. I want to see my crazy mating rituals that I overhauled to be wildly efficient, so we should be fine if the default setting is that, when you evolve internal fertilization, you can no longer see reproductive ritual. I’d just turn that off. Another thing I’d like to see is my sequenceal hermaphrodite’s combat ready genitalia, and their symbionts consume their feces, so I’m sure those don’t need to be censored. Human genitalia are only going to evolve if you make it happen, as they are that specific. That’s just my two cents.
Now that’s weird. But it’s exactly what I mean by saying that you may have really useful or interestung mating rituals that actually do something, or might even require the player’s input. If you happen to design that kind of ritual you don’t want to miss it. So all we need is a setting that affects that!
As long as there is a skip button, I’m fine.
It could always do something similar to what “Ancestors, the humankind Odyssey” did and just zoom out into the sky or something
I’m having a strange sense of deja vu…
Same… Great minds think alike!
The only time I’d want to skip a mating scene would be if it was a super long one. I just can’t be bothered to watch an animal that takes as long as a human doing its thing. Other than that, since there are so many methods to reproduction, it would be kind of disappointing to never actually see how my creature does it. Like someone else said, what if it’s one of those insects that stabs the other to mate? Or something even crazier?
So in my opinion it should be that if an animal takes a certain amount of time to do its thing then yeah skip it because nobody wants to sit for several minutes watching an animal do the do. But for short scenes there’s really no reason to skip it other than squeamishness.
As for the censorship of genitalia, that’s a definite no. I mean think about it. Some genitalia are used for purposes other than breeding, like the ovipositors of many hymenopterans. They are used to sting. If genitalia were censored, you wouldn’t be able to build genitals for anything OTHER than breeding. Not only that but I believe building something that’s actually capable of reproducing is important and inevitably the structure of the genitals is part of that.
I would say most censorship should be left to mods or kept as an optional thing. I am definitely on the side of skipping long sex scenes, but that’s it. And the skip should be a button rather than forced.
the problem i see with that is that would make thrive an M rated game, and could lose a huge chunk of possible players
it would only lose children lol
plus, its a biology game, sex (and reproduction) is quite a big part of biology
I mean if it gets in im fine I just hope it’s togglable cause im not into seeing how my creature…uh… Gets it on, that’s just weird to me
AIUI, being freeware, Thrive would not be rated at all – each player will decide for themselves, I suppose.
i dont think i want to design a cock for my creature
What do you mean you dont want to design a chicken?
Please censor that or use less informal ways of saying it
If we want to discuss this we need definitions: All of this is moot if we don’t know what we’re talking about
Let’s start simple, with genitalia. Here are some challenges to define genitalia:
- First, define human genitalia; Come up with a definition or process that includes every bodypart that is human genitalia or a part thereof, and excludes every bodypart that is not
- Next, define all extant animal genitalia; Amend your first definition to include the genitalia and parts thereof found on every living species, while excluding every bodypart that is not genitalia
- Finally, define genitalia in general; Amend your secon definition to include all possible genitalia and parts thereof, and excludes every possible bodypart that is not genitalia
Once you have finished this last challenge, post your finalized definition for us to check over. Maybe also throw in the other two to show your working
Only after we have acertained a definition should this discussion go on
If you manage that, then try my challenges again with the other subjects of this topic, such as defecation, sex, or gore
Did you know? Definitions for all these things already exist, and taking into account the scientific context, the definitions being used are the scientific ones, except for obvious logical exceptions like “sex”.
Then we’ve only reached the second challenge there: I doubt anatomists and dictionary writers are thinking about speculative alien reproductive methods when they write their definitions
How about this? Have an option in the menu “censor obscene mating” that detects if any body parts are inserted into any others in the process of mating and blurs out the general area that takes place while mating (yes this includes stabby snails and ants/bees, but those are pretty kinky and anyone who wants to see that can turn the feature off), and a “censor genitalia” that censors any body parts that either insert into or are inserted into during mating 100% of the time, and have a skip button. All of these could be disabled by default, and the game as a whole would actually be more family friendly then spore. Sporn exists. There is no way to avoid sporn if playing with other people’s creations. Similarly, human-like genitals only exist on creatures very anatomically similar to earth amniotes or on players whose minds reside in gutters. It is completely optional. Many amniotes don’t have visible genitalia, ducks are really the exception for diapsids and their parts are retractable. Mammals are the only animals to constantly have penises, and many are semi retractable. You don’t have to see a phallus unless you yourself make one. Yes some creatures might independently evolve reproductive members that are outwardly visible, but they are unlikely, and probably retractable or small, and probably censored by the above feature.
What is insertion? How deep does something have to go before it is inserted? What measurement dimension will be used to decide that? And what precisely is bodypart? Specifically, what separates one bodypart from another? Does it include temporary structures like sperm packets? What exactly is mating either? Does that include courtship? Is the exchange of pollen-type organisms counted? How about belgium sex or sex for pleasure?
All of these questions (likely many more) spring from just 3 words in a single sentence