Can we've more than one starting couple? Because I'm not into incest....

[Casualgamer]

Hi,

I'm really sorry to make this post but it really did turned me off that the first children I get marry each other, I know this can happen irl but I can't accept that my whole tribe are all... blood related, kids of my kids marrying each other...

Also in the trailer the family we saw, the children grew from toddler to adult but toddler stage seems to have been scrapped and kid just pop up like that...

[Legion88]

Is this really an issue for you? The game just can't be this realistic. What you're asking about is called Minimum Viable Population. You can read about it here on Wikipedia [en.wikipedia.org].

What you're concerned about is called inbreeding depression which is "the reduced biological fitness in a given population as a result of inbreeding, or breeding of related individuals. Population biological fitness refers to an organism's ability to survive and perpetuate its genetic material. Inbreeding depression is often the result of a population bottleneck. In general, the higher the genetic variation or gene pool within a breeding population, the less likely it is to suffer from inbreeding depression."

From what I've read, for the game devs to make this realistic and avoid inbreeding depression the minimum viable population would have to be very large, probably larger than any civilization built in game so far. I may be incorrect but the number I keep seeing is 5,000. You would need 5,000 random organisms from a given species for them to be able to reproduce (without any intervention - people keeping track of family trees and who's mating with who). Do you want to start your game with 5,000 nuggets to keep track of? No, me either.

I do hear what you're saying. When you really sit there and think about it, it's a little odd/funny/gross. However, I think any game/movie/story etc. you enjoy will have these sorts of issues. They just aren't as glaring to you. I can tell you for certain, there aren't any simulations that perfectly (besides illustris maybe, but that doesn't simulate life) immitate real world physics, biology or any other kind of science. Probably the most important thing you take away from this is Suspension of Disbelief: "a willingness to suspend one's critical faculties and believe something surreal; sacrifice of realism and logic for the sake of enjoyment."

I don't think the devs are going to address this issue but maybe I'm wrong.

[Casualgamer]

I've been playing a lot of simulation games and the latest is RimWorld and CitySkylines and the game doesn't need to reach the number you mentionned to avoid incest. You just need to setup some simple rules to the AI like not marrying the closest guy/girl of the pawn age wich is by default the bro or sister.

The incest isn't really what bother me because like you say it can happens what bother me is to have only one couple and my tribe will be only from this couple. Is there a perticular reason why the dev would restrict it to just 2 pawns to establish a civilisation?

Age of Empire didn't started with only 2 pawns neither and it was a great game that I hope this game will follow.

[william.hartanto]

Necroing old thread.

The reason why they started with 2 is because you are A GOD and the first 2 humans were Adam (Adahy) and Eve (Elu).

As most Christians know, Adam and Eve have 3 sons: Cain, Abel and Seth (all males), which means all Christians are offspring of Gay Incest coupling of Cain Abel and Seth before God patched the game and prevented homosexuals from having kids.

[Zefick]

Right from the start on the planet you can find several meteorites with boxes. Sometimes they contain additional nuggets. But be careful when opening them, as the boxes often infect or even kill those nearby.

[Heavy & Ze Medic]

Necro but you do realize that we are all blood-related in a sense, right?

[kveroneau]

Originally posted by william.hartanto:

As most Christians know, Adam and Eve have 3 sons: Cain, Abel and Seth (all males), which means all Christians are offspring of Gay Incest coupling of Cain Abel and Seth before God patched the game and prevented homosexuals from having kids.

This is very eye-opening... So which son was transgender and gave birth to the rest of Earth's population? I'm sure God at the time, was much more powerful and would be capable at magically changing a being gender if they so asked for in prayer. With that said, I think a nice new God Power would be to be able to gender swap a Nugget.