Great List of Possible Things

[Drug Enforcement Agency]

I thought of some things that COULD BE CONSIDERED in future updates

* Plant Mutation: Plants can be effected by radiation and can mutate when things like heat and cold are applied. I water reaches them they might become underwater plants.
*Diseases: Rarely, On corpses microscopic life will form. Bacteria/ Virus. They can hurt infected creatures and use the damage points as food. The corpses of the creatures infect others that eat it.Can be altered by radiation to become extremely small life (smallest possible size). Maybe an option to look at a infected creature's disease. (what it looks like. Body shape.)
*Parasites: Small creatures that can be seen (But smaller then the smallest possible size. Like .05) That latch onto creatures (they dont have to be visible. They might be internal) They remove food from the creature they latch onto and use it as their own food.
* Workshop: HIGHLY OPTIONAL!!! Being able to post custom maps and creatures would be cool
*Intelligence: Creatures can become intelligent. They live in huts that they build themselves (like a little house that they spawn infront of themselves, they use this to sleep in so they dont get attacked in their sleep) They cook food (like a bundle of sticks on the ground with somekind of fire gif on the top of it). They can use simple weapons like spears (a stick with a sharp rock), bows ( curved stick with a line to look like string under it), Torches ( Stick with the same fire gif or custom fire look), Clubs (A stick with a blunt rock on the end), And muskets (a stick with a metal tube on it that fires out rocks. Nothing special. Long reload time though)
Ideas for their huts: The huts can have different designs.(Optional) Their huts could also have a different designs where they are 3 long sticks with animal skins. They can move their houses when their isnt any food in they area. Their fires can be either fires or bonfires. I dont care about that one. They can have special crop plots for growing their own plants for food. Maybe fences but probably not)

Okay the only one that I want with all of my body (and I think my cat. I was talking about it and my cat walked over to me and sat on my desk, staring at me) is the intelligence. I like the idea of both nomadic life style (the tent things made of sticks and animal skins) and permenant houses (huts made of wood) and them having their crop plots and fires. Please add this one eventually.

[Drug Enforcement Agency]

So if you want intelligence to be added, Please say so in the comments. Maybe if enough people want it the developer will add it.

[The Moth]

I really hope these make it into the game, they'd all be so fun to mess around with, especially Intelligence. In that case, let the ominous chanting begin!

In-tel-li-gence, in-tel-li-gence, in-tel-li-gence, in-tel-li-gence, in-tel-li-gence-

[Quasar]

Plant Evolution: Planned as part of the vegetation overhaul. It won’t be as complex as creature evolution, and will likely utilize different mechanics for performance and to make balancing easier (I’m considering a far more conventional, fitness-function/generation based system), but the design I have in mind it should be quite versatile and able to produce some fun weird alien-plants.

Diseases: Full-scale contagious pathogens are not likely, as immune system adaptations would be entirely invisible. I want everyone to be able to see the in-game evolution. However, I do think a basic hygiene system could assist in discouraging overcrowding and cannibalism. The current systems in place to prevent those are kind of hacky.

Parasitism: Planned, but it will be full-size creatures that behave as parasites. Certain body parts will bestow the ability to feed from other creatures health, and others will allow them to attach themselves to other creatures.

I also plan to include small, indistinct creatures (swarms/shoals), but I intend for them to serve as food sources, not as threats. Though... I suppose a parasite swarm could serve as a more visible alternative to the hygiene system mentioned earlier. That one’s worth thinking about...

Workshop: Monogame’s content pipeline isn’t the most moddable framework in the world, but I do want to support and encourage modding in the future. I suspect the Steam Workshop will be a big part of this.

Intelligence: To be frank, I do not plan to include sapience.

However, there’s a lot of ‘verging on sapience’ features that could be borrowed from the real life animal kingdom. Simple tool use (the ability to pick up and use objects), construction (building nests, mounds, bowers, etc), communication (calling to request aid, a mate, or something else) and social hierarchies (group behaviour) are all planned. There’s a very large phase-space to work with between mindless bacterium and stone age humanity, and I’d much rather explore that in as much detail as possible than try to overlay a civilization simulator on top of the evolution simulator.

I wrote on this subject here: Relevant Blog Post[speciesdevblog.wordpress.com]

[Drug Enforcement Agency]

Okay the intelligence that you talked about
However, there’s a lot of ‘verging on sapience’ features that could be borrowed from the real life animal kingdom. Simple tool use (the ability to pick up and use objects), construction (building nests, mounds, bowers, etc), communication (calling to request aid, a mate, or something else) and social hierarchies (group behaviour) are all planned. There’s a very large phase-space to work with between mindless bacterium and stone age humanity, and I’d much rather explore that in as much detail as possible than try to overlay a civilization simulator on top of the evolution simulator.

sounds pretty cool. I do hope that some sort of intelligence is added in a far future update ( it would take a lot of time to make) similar to what I said is added, but what you said is pretty similar. Some kind of intelligence like weapon creation to hunt food or animal skin houses would be cool, but that would be like hours of evolution later. Maybe if the Steam Workshop is added some kind of option to change their behavior. (building of what I said)
Only somebody that can travel into the future can tell me now though, so I am going to try speeding my car 88 miles per hour down the highway and see if I can travel into the future so I can figure out.

[The Moth]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Quasar:

Plant Evolution: Planned as part of the vegetation overhaul. It won’t be as complex as creature evolution, and will likely utilize different mechanics for performance and to make balancing easier (I’m considering a far more conventional, fitness-function/generation based system), but the design I have in mind it should be quite versatile and able to produce some fun weird alien-plants.

Diseases: Full-scale contagious pathogens are not likely, as immune system adaptations would be entirely invisible. I want everyone to be able to see the in-game evolution. However, I do think a basic hygiene system could assist in discouraging overcrowding and cannibalism. The current systems in place to prevent those are kind of hacky.

Parasitism: Planned, but it will be full-size creatures that behave as parasites. Certain body parts will bestow the ability to feed from other creatures health, and others will allow them to attach themselves to other creatures.

I also plan to include small, indistinct creatures (swarms/shoals), but I intend for them to serve as food sources, not as threats. Though... I suppose a parasite swarm could serve as a more visible alternative to the hygiene system mentioned earlier. That one’s worth thinking about...

Workshop: Monogame’s content pipeline isn’t the most moddable framework in the world, but I do want to support and encourage modding in the future. I suspect the Steam Workshop will be a big part of this.

Intelligence: To be frank, I do not plan to include sapience.

However, there’s a lot of ‘verging on sapience’ features that could be borrowed from the real life animal kingdom. Simple tool use (the ability to pick up and use objects), construction (building nests, mounds, bowers, etc), communication (calling to request aid, a mate, or something else) and social hierarchies (group behaviour) are all planned. There’s a very large phase-space to work with between mindless bacterium and stone age humanity, and I’d much rather explore that in as much detail as possible than try to overlay a civilization simulator on top of the evolution simulator.

I wrote on this subject here: Relevant Blog Post[speciesdevblog.wordpress.com]

Ohh this sounds great! Can't wait to see progress on this popping up sometime :P

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Leiutenant Coffee:

so I am going to try speeding my car 88 miles per hour down the highway and see if I can travel into the future so I can figure out.

ಠ_ಠ

[countingtls]

Hate to be the devil's advocate, but the original "Intelligence" proposal reminds me too much of the frustrations from the promising but problematic SPORE game. A lot of concepts sound amazing on paper, but really not so in practice.

I don't think it would be easy or anywhere quick for complex emergent behaviors to evolve and imagine with no direct control nor direct influence for all the possible "wrong behavior combinations" evolution can subject creatures to try (for hours and hours) where most creatures/species just fail instantly, however players can instantly recognize solution/combinations but do nothing about it. That would be irritating as hell. And if allowing players for interventions we will get a SPORE-ish mechanism of custom made creatures making the whole core concept of evolution game pointless.

I like the idea of complex behaviors and interactions with environments/objects, however I feel we have a long long way to go. The internal mechanisms are still too wonky and unstable IMO to build meaningful structures on top without very strict customization or pre-build conditions to even begin with. We shouldn't force complexity by design, but allow possibilities to evolve, where there are always surprising "solutions" found by evolutionary process, and life really finds its way.

[Drug Enforcement Agency]

@Quasar Okay here are some Ideas
*Wings: Creatures can grow wings and take flight. They can fly around the map to do whatever they want.
*Queens: Some creatures will have queens, particularly creatures that are cold blooded. Only they can give birth to creatures.
* Eggs: Much rather then a creature with segmented chitin giving live birth, they can lay eggs. Other creatures can attack eggs for their own food.
*Simple Diseases: Okay other full diseases would take to long to design, how about a simple common cold where creatures have increased food consumption and lower max health.
*Animal Dens: You said animal dens will probably happen, How about a tree dens. Dead trees with holes in them. Lived in by small winged creatures or egg layers.

[Drug Enforcement Agency]

@Quasar Or some other ideas
*Parasitic Nests: Creatures that can latch on build a lump-like nest on the host target, Able to lay eggs or give live birth inside of the nest, then let its offspring roam free to infect others (this makes a zombie-carrier theme,not intended but kinda cool)
*Lodges: No not houses, Animal houses. Made if several twigs, they should look as simple as possible, even though this would be a house for the most hard working, intelligent creatures
MAP THINGS TOO!!
*Rivers: Little streams and rivers, maybe some kind flowing water bringing corpses or animals downsteam.
*Weather: Simple weather, rain effects, snow for cold areas, nothing major. Maybe this can make creatures not inside of a nest or den cold
POSSIBLE INTELLIGENCE!!
*Fire: you said creatures wont enter the stone age. How about a simple "Fire Age" Like a pile of sticks burning, Maybe they can pick up sticks and use them as fire. I played Spore today and realised that intelligence wouldnt be the best idea. maybe simply inventing fire would make you the smarted creature around.
*Crops: i said something like this before, Maybe they can gather seeds and plant them near their possible nests or dens. An easy source of food. literally a regular plant. For example, Palm Tree Crop.
I am sorry to keep bringing up ideas, but I literally had a dream of what this game would look like if these features were in last night, Same graphics as it has ingame ( a creature made put a bundle of sticks on the ground, it set on fire, it went to a palm tree, went back near its lodge, a palm tree grew labled "Palm Tree Crop" and it used a flaming stick to attack something)

[Quasar]

*Wings: Planned
*Queens: I don’t see any reason this would be tied to cold-bloodedness, but castes are... complicated. I don’t want to force anything onto the simulation, so I’d have to work from the bottom up to implement a caste system with enough versatility to support eusociality. Quite a challenge! We’ll see...
* Eggs: Planned.
*Simple Diseases: As mentioned, we will probably have a sickness for creatures suffering from hygiene problems. Beyond that, we’ll see.
*Animal Dens: Planned.
*Parasitic Nests: That’s an interesting idea. Putting that one in the mental filing cabinet.
*Lodges: Would effectively just be an extension of the planned nest system.
*Rivers: Maybe. Would be neat, but is a low priority feature.
*Weather: Planned.

[Drug Enforcement Agency]

@Quasar Okay more ideas.
*Throwing: This is very simple, rather then attacking with melee, creatures that can pick up items can throw them too ( I was at the zoo today, at the ape area, I saw a ape throw a rock at a bird and the bird died, as bad as I felt for the bird, and scared of the ape, I thought of this. R.I.P Bird)
*Dirt Piles:Okay so intelligence wont be added, but simple sapience. So how about dirt mounds, built by creatures. These piles of dirt have a high chance of growing a plant on it, like a farm, allowing them to grow food. This WOULDNT be intelligence, (well it would be, but not stone age) because Ants and Beetles have been farming a fungi 50 million years before we began farming (before humans even existed, but after dinosaurs existed). So a creature making a pile of dirt with a high chance of something growing in it wouldnt be moving into the stone age, or close to it.
*Sharp Sticks and Rocks: Simply a rock or stick that fell from a tree, and is sharp. Sticks can be broken by animals to be sharp (that isnt a tool, it is a broken stick) or break a rock (still not a tool, just a broken rock) this would to more damage then a regular stick or rock, but the creature would have to be high up on some scale to know how to do this.
*Torso Items: So I thought it would be cool if a system of simple mutation could happen. Like spikes or a spinosaurus spine on its back. Just giving a creature a more unique look to other creatures.
*Poison: A simple poison attack delt from other enemies. It does damage over time. Making a creature have a better attack, and making them different from other creatures too.
*Hair: Very simple too. Creatures can have fur on as a special part of them, rather then a skin type. Just making creatures look different to other creatures.
Just thought these are some good, simple ideas.

[Drug Enforcement Agency]

Oh and and another thing
*Education: Simple education. For instance, if a creature is to stupid to build its own hut, another creature from its species that knows how can tell it how. If a creature is to stupid to break a stick to make a sharp stick,another creature of the species that knows how can teach it. Very simple. It can also teach it not to attack things that are more powerful then it, not to go in areas without a lot of food,and not to attack creatures that have large numbers of their same species around them. Simple, But effective

[Drug Enforcement Agency]

@Quasar Okay got some more things
*4th leg set: as of the moment, creatures can only have 6 legs. It would be cool to have 8 legs. I can finally make a spider
*Special "Worms": If a creature doesnt have legs, the torso can elongate to be more snake or worm like.
*Digging, Creatures can dig into the ground to make their own nests/ dens. The hole would probably have to refill itself naturally somehow.
*Shells, Like another skin type, But it will have a shell like a turtle.

[countingtls]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Leiutenant Coffee:

@Quasar Okay got some more things
*4th leg set: as of the moment, creatures can only have 6 legs. It would be cool to have 8 legs. I can finally make a spider
*Special "Worms": If a creature doesnt have legs, the torso can elongate to be more snake or worm like.

These 2 suggestions are somewhat connected. Currently the "limbs" are attached to different sections of the body - chest, stomach, and hip. So should more pairs of limbs be added by adding more sections of the body? Or each section can have more than 1 pair (like 2 each section, totally 6 pairs)? Or simply free form and disassociate sections with limb pairs (which might require extra genes to tell where these limbs to be attached, even their orientation)? Added sections could be a way to elongate the body (the locomotion and create by different section's interaction might also require extra genes to regulate). Or maybe we even allow many more tail section than just one?

Right now the creature evolved to be most snake-like would be a creature without limbs (or tiny limbs) and a "fat long tail". These kind of creatures do sometimes evolved usually around water since most tail types provide added swim speed, and some with added attack bonus. So one way to make it more interesting, might be allowing other body sections that has contact with ground also provide bonus/minus to walk/swim speed/stamina with their own "section type" (skin type might also help since locomotion of some snakes do rely on their scales)?

[countingtls]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Leiutenant Coffee:

Oh and and another thing
*Education: Simple education. For instance, if a creature is to stupid to build its own hut, another creature from its species that knows how can tell it how. If a creature is to stupid to break a stick to make a sharp stick,another creature of the species that knows how can teach it. Very simple. It can also teach it not to attack things that are more powerful then it, not to go in areas without a lot of food,and not to attack creatures that have large numbers of their same species around them. Simple, But effective

This would venture into the machine learning territory where internal states/parameters of the behavior trees can be tuned within the lifetime of a creature. Right now it seems most parameters are determined quite directly from behavior related gene. Some seems to be quite random (like targeting/roaming decision).

On top of that, there will be issue about knowledge transferring/distilling from the teacher to students. If the teacher is mute, the way for students to learn would be to mimic the behaviors of the teacher (to make learning process more effective, might need certain ways for teachers to generate learning examples). Or should we simply directly copy the internal states/parameters of the teacher to students during certain period of the student's life cycle? A simple type of meme spread/evolution from creatures to creatures not genetic related?

BTW right now there is a behavior gene to make a creature more friendly toward their own species and make them attack other species - empathy gene. It is somewhat crucial for current predator-prey dynamic to function. Default build-in predator species has the highest empathy so they will hunt the prey not their own, and would grow their pack size without internal cannibalism to reduce their already smaller population size compare to the prey population. Also there is cowardness behavior gene for creatures to flee a dangerous target, the default build-in prey will flee very easily to avoid been hunted. So the learning process reinforce these trends like multipliers? or just more precise and controlled (such as a coward prey can also learn to be brave in numbers?) I don't think current pack behavior has a pack attacking/defending mechanism yet, the attack event is one-on-one.

[Drug Enforcement Agency]

@Quasar Okay I have some more.
*Roaring: The first noise in the game. Roaring is a gene depending on their head shape, neck length, and diet. For instance. Brontosaurus sized neck, Shark shaped head, carnivore. Has a loud, echoing roar. Heres another. Has no Neck, Omnivore, Primium Specium Head (The normal creature). Has a low toned growl.
*Hissing: Some creatures (mainly ones without limbs, snake like) will hiss. (snake hiss). Other creatures can do it too.
Tree Climbing: Creatures can climb up trees to get food that hasnt fallen yet, build a nest, Or just hang out (no pun intended)
*Spiting: Creatures can spit at others, Like camels or llamas
Sprinting: Creatures can sprint. I dont code but that would probably be just adding an action which makes them move faster when they are performing the action.
*Import Defaults: What this does is it adds all the regular species. The Primium Predator (Predator) Primium Litilo (The Prey from predator and prey. The herbivore) Primium Specium ( Default Omnivore) And Primium Aqualtium (The Water Species). That way you can have an everything bagel of LIFE!!! ( I think its a good idea to have several different interactions of species from the very start.)
*Aerobic?: Can I get some clarification on what aerobic breathing is? Is it like how frogs breathe. They need their skin to be wet so they can breathe through their skin (Cool isnt that, they can breathe through their skin). Or is it like they can walk on land for a while but they need to get back into the water because they breathe water.