One Universe

Future Game
1

Proposal: Have all runs by the player exist effectively in the same universe. You can find your old planets when you’re going around in Space Stage.

4 Likes
3

How would you find these planets? Would they just have a bias for existing close to each other?

1 Like
4

They’d be distributed through the galaxy. Little easter-egg.

It might actually be… pretty difficult to get all of your saves integrated into the same world. So maybe just easter-egg mode there. Your old species can appear in their worlds at varying levels of development.

3 Likes
5

I remember I heard of a similar idea where an ascended save could start influencing the other saves of a player

6

I have not played Spore, but I recall that Space Ships would appear from the Creature stage onward; they would cause chaos by either abducting creatures and objects, or destroying them. It would be equally hilarious and terrifying to have a similar mechanic in Thrive.

4 Likes
7

I don’t think it would be very realistic, perhaps that could fall under some sort of “rare fictious events” option

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8

I think it should be more likely if you take ages in the early stages.

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9

Perhaps such “visits” would also deplete your planet’s resources as if the aliens were mining them?

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10

I think it should be related to difficulty setting.
Easy Mode: It never happens.
Hard Mode: Alien abduction is possible.

3 Likes
11

Nah, non-LAWK should be a slider.

Far end, you can be abducted by aliens.

4 Likes
12

What happens then? Do you just instantly die?

1 Like
13

Ah, the classic, making Thrive an RNG simulator. Favoured by the underwater and game ending meteorite impact enthusiasts. I’m still totally against spending the effort to add game ending randomness (or so majorly altering events that they will take an absolute ton of development resources).

2 Likes
14

To be fair there still should be events which are supposed to cause a mass extinction, but are still survivable for the player if they know what to do in such situation.

1 Like
15

The ideal Thrive does need to have mass extinctions at some point in-game. The Great Oxygenation would be the first one, presumably the tutorial for the mechanic - but most mass extinctions do happen randomly.

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16

The leading cause of Earthly mass extinctions have been mass volcanic eruptions, alongside some less common events like major meteorite impacts and perhaps supernovae and other dying star stuff. My best guess is that if the amount of volcanic eruptions passes a certain threshold, it may end up causing a mass extinction. The less common causes would be pretty much unpredictable to foresee before they arrive unless some sort of a warning is given prior to their arrival.

2 Likes
17

You can add player saves to the pool of planets that can appear in the space stage
it’s much easier to do than a common galaxy for all saves

4 Likes
18

I guess that could work too, especially as early on the “Saves only” Galaxy would be worryingly small.

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19

Would players really be happy just seeing their other saves as possible easter egg planets? Or would they want the other saves to actually be affected if they do something to that planet in the space stage?

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20

Including the Great Oxidation, I believe we are up to 7 Mass Extinctions, which I understand were caused by:

  • The Great Oxidation
  • Snowball Earth
  • Plants moving to the surface broke up the soil, causing a surge in ocean nutrition, which caused Plankton population to boom, which plummeted ocean oxygen levels, causing Suffocation of Marine Life Near the Surface
  • Volcanic Eruption lasting 100 Thousand years lead to: Acid Rain, Loss of Plant Life, Mudslides, Global Warming, and Warmer Acidified Ocean losing Oxygen
  • Different Volcanic Eruption broke Pangaea and led to loss of deserts and creation of wetlands, rivers, and a new ocean
  • A Big Meteor hit Mexico
  • Human Race Over Hunting, Polluting the Oceans and Skies, Cutting Down Trees, and Over Populating and Taking To Much Usable Land for Crops

I would think the first 3 (and arguably the last) would be more or less required, and the others would be chance related. Although they really defined evolution on our planet, and the first 2 “chance” related are related to our active molten core, which protects us from space radiation, so really, the Meteor was the most random. The volcanoes are a side effect of a necessity of being an “active” planet. Though when and how big those eruptions would be is at least partially chance.

I would find it amusing to run across another creature I had created. There could be achievements based on it.

Edit: For the record, my new save effecting my old save would in most cases probably be a bad thing.

5 Likes
21

Perhaps there could be a setting to turn these inter-save interactions off and on?

2 Likes