Should Multicellular Stage have a 3 dimensional movement system

[Meglomaniac]

Supercharged microbe stage, does it mean it just microbe stage but 3d?

[aah31415 (The maker of SitF, Radiostrocity, The Lifenote and TGBing; The Second Ascended...; And just maybe a security warning come alive...?)]

As I already said they were talking about multicellular and not macroscopic. Macroscopic should be more like an intro to aware with it’s own set of goals for the player to tackle through it.

[hhyyrylainen]

@Meglomaniac

Supercharged microbe stage, does it mean it just microbe stage but 3d?

No, in terms of game mechanics. Redoing the microbe stage but 3D would basically be that intermediate stage between multicellular and macroscopic I talked about that would be a ton of development effort for little gain.

[Meglomaniac]

@hhyyrylainen

More of the latter, because we have only about 2-3 years of money left and then we’ll lose 90% of development speed. So we must reach macroscopic and get a very effective outreach campaign by players sharing their silly creations with each other. Otherwise the future of Thrive is not guaranteed.

So, wouldn’t it be better to create a more fleshed out demo of macroscopic stage editor, just like creature editor spore. it would help gain outreach, as many people right now just think it to be pretty limited. this could show how much you could make with it. Than just paste bunch of metaball

[aah31415 (The maker of SitF, Radiostrocity, The Lifenote and TGBing; The Second Ascended...; And just maybe a security warning come alive...?)]

@Meglomaniac

So, wouldn’t it be better to create a more fleshed out demo of macroscopic stage editor, just like creature editor spore. it would help gain outreach, as many people right now just think it to be pretty limited. this could show how much you could make with it. Than just paste bunch of metaball

The thing is to make it fit if we were to later still develop multicellular for instance. So basically that it’s still reusable in the future. Which is not preferable when compared with making the game relatively linearly.

[hhyyrylainen]

That’s why I’m pushing “multicellular in one year” so that we still have at least a year of resources after that to put into macroscopic (and the editor of it) and hope that if the 1.0 release attention isn’t enough then at that point we could correct the financial trajectory.

So to me it makes sense that multicellular is just a single year-long-roadblock so in overall Thrive timeline we’ll be in macroscopic in basically no time.

[aah31415 (The maker of SitF, Radiostrocity, The Lifenote and TGBing; The Second Ascended...; And just maybe a security warning come alive...?)]

Are we putting any weigh into the 2.0 release possibly also giving a boost?

[Rathalos]

Yeah, sorry about the typo earlier, I was talking about Multicellular being an amped up Microbe Stage. Of course the biggest thing is just being made up of multiple cells of different types. But we are also making plans for advantages to specialising you cell types, making you design your overall organism, specific new mechanics like reproduction, etc.

I think it will feel different enough through emergent mechanics.

@Meglomaniac

So, wouldn’t it be better to create a more fleshed out demo of macroscopic stage editor, just like creature editor spore. it would help gain outreach, as many people right now just think it to be pretty limited. this could show how much you could make with it. Than just paste bunch of metaball

There’s a balance to be found between “making multiple intermediate Stages before macroscopic” and “skipping ahead to a Macroscopic Editor right now”. As aah pointed out, that would risk wasting effort if it does not fit with later development.

And if Thrive stalls, at least we will have a completed Multicellular Stage connected to the Microbe Stage, rather than only the Microbe Stage and a disconnected Macroscopic Editor.

@aah31415

Are we putting any weigh into the 2.0 release possibly also giving a boost?

We are indeed hoping that “We are starting to work on 3D animals” (with some visual evidence perhaps) does also bring in more attention, alongside “Holy Belgium, they did actually finish another stage so soon!”

[Meglomaniac]

If multicellular is just reach 20 cell, then all you need to add are just animation and few distinct feature and abilities. Shouldn’t that take less than 6 month? or are planning something else for it. Like asexual and sexual reproduction’s?

[aah31415 (The maker of SitF, Radiostrocity, The Lifenote and TGBing; The Second Ascended...; And just maybe a security warning come alive...?)]

@Rathalos

We are indeed hoping that “We are starting to work on 3D animals” (with some visual evidence perhaps) does also bring in more attention, alongside “Holy Belgium, they did actually finish another stage so soon!”

We could perhaps add to this by slowly adding more stuff into the macroscopic editor, especially once we’re confident our formats for multicellular organisms will be settled in firm soil to be used to make the baselines of macroscopic organisms later on.

@Meglomaniac

If multicellular is just reach 20 cell, then all you need to add are just animation and few distinct feature and abilities. Shouldn’t that less than 6 month? or are planning something else for it. Like asexual and sexual reproduction’s?

Pretty sure the reproduction WILL be a major part. And the “small” stuff can take surprisingly long.

[Rathalos]

@Meglomaniac

If multicellular is just reach 20 cell, then all you need to add are just animation and few distinct feature and abilities. Shouldn’t that less than 6 month? or are planning something else for it. Like asexual and sexual reproduction’s?

We do indeed have plans for reproduction, and we are still looking into ways to make players want to make mini-tissues out of cells instead of a random scramble.

Personally I also don’t want “reach 20 cells” to be the advancement requirement once we’re done, but rather meeting some other requirements that need some more focused effort.

[aah31415 (The maker of SitF, Radiostrocity, The Lifenote and TGBing; The Second Ascended...; And just maybe a security warning come alive...?)]

By the way should the “YOU HAVE THRIVED” message eventually be moved to multicellular? Since it seems weird to congratulate the player when there will soon be two “playable” stages to complete and not one, within which one the message is supposed to be in.

[Meglomaniac]

It does give a sense of accomplishment, so replacing it would be better, than just outright moving it.

[aah31415 (The maker of SitF, Radiostrocity, The Lifenote and TGBing; The Second Ascended...; And just maybe a security warning come alive...?)]

Pretty sure it’s like a relic of an era before microbe stage was even close to complete now

[Meglomaniac]

I mean, the difference between multicellular and macroscopic is the size of it, i believe. I don’t like it, but i understand why the requirement of 20 cell is done. As there are currently no measurement system in the game, until then 20 cell is the size identifier of a macroscopic organism.

[aah31415 (The maker of SitF, Radiostrocity, The Lifenote and TGBing; The Second Ascended...; And just maybe a security warning come alive...?)]

I think there was a measurement made a while ago with LUCA and an eukaryotic cell but it was deemed inaccurate iirc

[Meglomaniac]

@hhyyrylainen

So the question is do you want macroscopic or an intermediate stage that we somehow might get working between multicellular and macroscopic?

As i have been just informed, i don’t think intermediate stage would be a good idea, if you are planning on moving as quickly to macroscopic stage. You can always comeback to it. But if the macroscopic stage is mostly about creature editor, then i believe it better for it to like the otterfly theory type camera system. As it would be more simpler than a full fledged 360 degree dynamic camera..

[aah31415 (The maker of SitF, Radiostrocity, The Lifenote and TGBing; The Second Ascended...; And just maybe a security warning come alive...?)]

@Meglomaniac

But if the macroscopic stage is mostly about creature editor, then i believe it better for it to like the otterfly theory type camera system.

I think it’s already set in stone that macroscopic will be a fully 3D stage just like aware…

[Rathalos]

@Meglomaniac

I mean, the difference between multicellular and macroscopic is the size of it, i believe. I don’t like it, but i understand why the requirement of 20 cell is done. As there are currently no measurement system in the game, until then 20 cell is the size identifier of a macroscopic organism.

It’s true that the size is the difference. But macroscopic organisms have certain traits that allow them to get that big. Making you develop your organism into something more complex before you go into macroscopic is what we want to see. Simply building up to 20 cells is both too easy and would have you skip the gameplay.

@Meglomaniac

But if the macroscopic stage is mostly about creature editor, then i believe it better for it to like the otterfly theory type camera system. As it would be more simpler than a full fledged 360 degree dynamic camera..

Have you seen the prototypes? We have the camera, it’s “just” the mechanics that are missing.

@aah31415

I think it’s already set in stone that macroscopic will be a fully 3D stage just like aware…

Also, similar to Microbe to Multicellular, the idea is for Aware to use the same base as Macroscopic, just with additional layers on top.

[aah31415 (The maker of SitF, Radiostrocity, The Lifenote and TGBing; The Second Ascended...; And just maybe a security warning come alive...?)]

The quest in macroscopic development will be to make a good base that will last until awakening’s end I suppose?