I was wondering, how would the part editor work? Would the player use preset parts like Spore? But doesn’t that go against the main concept? If you have preset parts, then like Spore, you would be very limited to creatures that are very similar and earth-like. And i belive that Thrive can be more than that, it could be a simulation of what an alien species could look like (of course, it’s features are dictated by a human, but still), even what an entire ecosystem would look like. I know this has been discussed in the past, but i found most of the discussions scattered on different Topics. So i might as well make one myself.
I think developers will have a good strategy, look forward to it!
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I’ll start with my suggestion, which is player made organs. I know, it’s not an uncommon suggestion and has already been discussed, but i want to add how i think it should work.
So, first of all, i think that the part editor should be more like sculpting in 3D software and placing your player made organs rather than increasing your snail-thingy size and placing presets on it, like Spore did. First, the player would develop the basic organs in the Multicelular-Stage, and start branching from there. The shape (skin) of the creature would be sculpted, based on some kind of mutation points.
Next, i would suggest for bones to be set automatically and be arranged by the player, but that is assuming that alien life would have bones in the first place. I know there is the LAWK (Life as we know) and everything, but still, a have an idea that might be a better way than just assuming that it has a heart, a bone and all; of course, that’s how we, from earth, evolved, still, kinda bold to assume that life in another planet following another evolutionary path would follow the same rules. My idea being: No organ defaults.
Instead of the game asking for the player to create a heart, brain or etc, there is just upgrades to some kind of sense, or a function that needs to be filled. Example: The animal needs to pump oxygen to the cells, instead of making a custom heart or lungs, they would click to create a new organ. After that, they would be met with the Organ Creation screen. There, there would be basic parts, for example:
- Pump Organ Part: Pumps components in storage to the connected organs.
- Storage Organ Part: Stores selected components
- Neurons Organ Part (memory): Stores information
- Muscle: Can contract organ parts
The list goes on. These could also be based on parts created in the multicelular stage, if we wanted to avoid presets.
So, the player would be able to create to create their own, specialized organs. They could make a brain that pumps blood, who knows. But then comes the main criticism: Boring. Too much complication. Well, i would argue that it’s possible to keep it relativily simple. The way i think of it is like the Bulding Editor in Spore, you create your separate buildings and place strategicaly across the city. Of course, in Spore, what the building is made of doesn’t change it’s efficience. But it would be similar to that. The organs would also be the skill tree, you can only place so many stuff in your personalized organs, so you have to strategize. It would tell how efficient your creature is. It’s the main part of making the creature, placing the organs is just half of it.
After finishing with your organ, you would save and give it a name (the name doesn’t matter, only for storage purposes). You would be able to make infinite types of organs, but only place so many? I don’t know, unsure about that part.
So, after being done with your organ, you could automatise it’s placement. Like, selecting an organ to be bone stile, so it will be centralise in the average shape of your creature, so if you sculpt some elevations in the body, the bones follow the pattern.
There is also the whole member deal. Before, i was talking about internal organ, which are not the most rewarding to make, since you can’t see them during gameplay (i don’t know how to counter that, maybe make the organ creation not the focus and very simple, or just more like a skill tree where you place the points to get more efficiency, so you don’t see them visually, but the effect of their placement is still felt during gameplay), but the members are visible and probably the focus.
The member editor would be the same idea, but different parts. You could place muscles, nerves, meat, nails, all that good stuff (rough examples). The main nerve riging wouldn’t be in there, though.
The last part of editing the creature would be the rigging. This is supossed to be very simple, maybe could be done automaticaly. You draw lines through which parts you want to connect with nerves, veins, and alikes. So your creatures movement would be totally personalised.
How it would be played
If that was too much text, dificult to understand, or sounded too boring to be a thing in the game, i will try to explain from the player’s point of view.
You created some organs in the Multicelular Stage, you can start building your creature based off that. You enter the editor, and select “new organ”. There is only a few options for organ parts, your creature is still young in the big scale evolution process. You place a Blood Pump, some Storage connected strategily so not to waste energy, there are many ways to do it and many strategies, you just go simple and place 'em side by side. Give it a name and be done. You click “new organ” again, place some Neurons and finish the organ.
Now you open the internal system viewer, place the two organs strategically so not to cripple the creature with bad placement, and save space, and be done. Now you do some sculpting, shape the size, neck, space for members, you already have in mind some interesting ones to make.
The members themselves are more specialized, so a tail, for example, would only be part of the sculpting process, because it doesn’t have a specific function like movement or grabing, it just swings around. Now you click “new member”, shape the size of the member, add some buffy muscles, all the important stuff, and finish it. You place the members around until it has a balance of looking good and being efficient, then you are done. You click “evolve”.
Later, some members or organs might mutate, in which they upgrade without your input. When you learn new stuff, you get new parts and add to those organs and members. If you get something really good, you make a new member or organ to specialize in that and get more efficiency. If there is a O.P predator, you change things around, experiment and get done.
Of course the suggestion is very flawed, but i think it’s a good start. Please post your criticism, and what you like about it as well. I might make a concept drawing thing later, to make it easier to understand. I didn’t re-read by the way, so tell me if it’s confusing.
Yes, and that’s why there isn’t premade parts. Late multicellular editing will use a sculpting type method to place tissue types on your organism.
There’s already a thread about this:
https://community.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/organism-editor/1740
I’ll close this as we don’t plan on having a part editor (instead using a sculpting type method), and the thread about the organism editor is more general and fits all discussion on how the species are edited in the late multicellular and aware stages.
Update: the thread has moved to:
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