Let’s really dive in to the actual gameplay. As Thrive’s developer, hhyyrylainen partially agreed on Society/Industrial stage being in RTS style, we have to introduce specialization to resources so we can actually make those two stages RTS style.
The category of resources can be listed differ from person to person, but I’ll list it like this as a starting point.
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Consumable: It might be better to discuss it on Macroscopic stage, but let’s do it with other resources. Someone might say, “Just make subcategories like plant, meat, dairy, water and so on! It’s very simple, isn’t it?”, and actually, it’s simpler, although long to explain. Currently, in game, we have 5 consumable matters which can be used for structure and energy. Phosphate and ammonia are obviously for cell’s structure. Glucose, hydrogen sulfide(which can be processed into glucose), and iron generates energy with correct organelles. Phosphate, ammonia and glucose can be consumed by eating other organisms, so we have two left. Iron and hydrogen sulfide. Although plants with glucose will surely dominate the world when we reach macroscopic stage, there a chance of it not happening. Then our creature have two choices: Photosynthesis and become plant by itself, or it can live beside a volcano so they can have hydrogen sulfide. ‘What about a planet WITH plants?’ you may ask. Let’s picture that it is wartime. Every citizens go inside bunkers, hoping for the war to end. Beside all that, what should they eat? Using grow lights to produce plants? Not ideal because of the growth speed. Meat and harvested plants? You are not here to reproduce, trying to survive! Plus, bunker don’t have such space for all of them. Then what? Yes, you are right. Hydrogen sulfide. It’s space-saving and energy efficient(0.12 Hydrogen sulfide = 0.1 Glucose ≈55 ATP), which means hydrogen sulfide can be used as MRE in wartime. So either way, hydrogen sulfide is substitute but can be used importantly. Next, iron. It cannot be transformed into other matter, no other use, but only for ATP production. No it can’t be produced by lifeform itself, and yes the only source of iron is iron chunk. Is it energy efficient then? Worse than hydrogen sulfide. Then why am i talking about it? Well, let’s deep dive into the underwater caves. Iron chunks and pool of iron are everywhere here, where lifeform only using iron as energy source can thrive. Even when they become sapient and form a society, they will still yearn for iron. Sadly, iron can’t grow on trees. It should be mined or collected, and unfortunately limited resource. It won’t last long but it’s still needed in society stage/industrial stage. So making it simple, consumables can be divided into Biomass, Hydrogen sulfide, and Iron. For your information, this idea can be modified due to future introduction to starch, fat and many more nutrients. But for now, it checks out pretty nicely!
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Raw(Unprocessed) material: Talking about rocks and other minerals would make this part a bit too long, so I’ll pass on that. One thing i can make sure here is that they will be collected the same way as humans(mining). Biomass raw-materials such as tree trunks and straws can’t exist yet on current game due to its system of organisms even with cell walls disintegrating. Plus, unfortunately, there are no clear distinction between types of plants(toughness, toxic, decomposition length) in this game yet, oh right! There are actually no boundary between plants/animals/fungus in this game yet! So yet again, our creativity has to kick in. Lignin is a polymer which can be found inside hard/soft woods, that interacts with cellulose to help cells stick harder. Binding agent which exists in the game presently seems to have miraculous ability on sticking cells together which can be inferred from creature not turning into mush in macroscopic and stages later. But still, in the future game creatures might need skeleton to sustain their body, which will be applied the same to plants. Introduction to lignin would again introduce to new raw material subcategories, hard biomass(plants, fungus), and soft biomass. Also, skeleton means bones in animals, so hard biomass(animals) too. I will yet not make a clear subcategories for raw materials because of rocks and minerals.
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Processed material: Processed materials, not only is big as a sea but also deep as an ocean. A lot can be discussed here, and a lot can be listed in here. It almost feels like I have to divide this category, but here we go. Processed materials, yes. Tools, ingots, planks, chemicals, food, everything you’ve seen in other games are here. The problem here is that the ones I talked about before can be universal and defined unlike this category. Ingots are the most universal and can be defined processed material. Metallurgy should be universal and could be found in every civilizations(except underwater ones prob), therefore ingots must be universal too. Thanks to the game mentioning the elements that exists in real life, so, iron, gold, zinc, copper and many more can exist in the game too. Ingots? check. Instruments? Hmmmm… instruments can’t have same appearances and usage as ours. Yes, they can serve same usage such as breaking, protecting and attacking which can be inferred thanks to octopuses and primates family, especially orangutans. But not appearance. Food? Cooking might be universal but not seasoning and cooking methods. Electronics? Will they even use electric energy beside all the other energy-transporting methods? Chemicals? Well I’m very skeptical about this one. Considering what would fit alien the most, considering what would satisfy alien the most is very difficult. We have to somehow balance science/reason/complexity with smooth gameplay/material specialization. Let me know what you think.
Ever since I’ve encountered this game, I always wondered about how will alien species make society like. They won’t be using same materials. They won’t consume the same food as us. But they also will need some standardization: how they will distinguish materials from other materials. I talked about obvious and universal resources here. How will others even be specialized? I hope collective intelligence to find it’s way again.