Thought I’d make a topic for this to help organise things.
I’d like to add some very simple Easter egg spawns for the next release (I’ve just added an option for them in new game settings, although for the moment it does nothing). My intention is that there’s a random chance to spawn an Easter egg in a given patch, and ideally I can do something with the spawn system to make sure each only spawns once per game.
Some ideas I have for what these could be:
A cell from Spore. Something easily recognisable like this. It wouldn’t move or do anything, it would just be a static object in the environment, a bit like the iron chunks.
A hexagon cell. Specifically, the starting player cell from Thrive 0.2.4, as seen here. The flagella would be from the current game, coloured blue, but I would need a model for the body. The flagella would animate, but otherwise this is another static object.
I could add more if there’s time, but for now I think these two should be enough. So I’d need a Spore cell model and a hexagon cell body model at some point soon.
Huh, weird that the link’s broken. It worked for me. I’ve changed it now.
Animations would be great, but I’d rather have something that looks good and doesn’t move than something which doesn’t have nice-looking animations. So go ahead, but don’t make it a priority if it’s not working.
I think it’s high time to add another Easter egg. The banana biome seems like a simple one to me - a patch type with a very small chance to spawn on the map and a banana-themed background in the environment. It might work particularly well with the fog of war addition, since it offers an incentive for players to incrementally explore the map to find out whether their world contains it.
If people think this sounds sensible, I can go ahead and add it.
Im my mind, the ideal easter egg is transient. A momentary experience the players might encounter for a good laugh, but does not overstay it’s welcome.
I’m worried that something like the banana biome taking a very real and permanent place in the player’s world might be too far. It’s a bit difficult to convey, but the feeling would be too prolonged, and have a negative impact on immersion.
If exploration is something you want to inspire, perhaps we could have some rare patch types such as crystalline caves, or other fanciful geological features.
Thinking about it now, I suppose it wouldn’t be too far to reimagine the banana biome as a region where rocks are weirdly crescent shaped. Perhaps any organic snow could be almost exclusively nitrogen fixing plastids. Nothing that screams “THIS IS THE BANANA BIOME” But the player might start having some strange subliminal thoughts about bananas. More subtle, less glaring.
I think even something a bit silly like having a banana icon and a yellow themed background would be fine. The Easter Egg wouldn’t really overstay its welcome if we make it sure that the chance is like really low, like one in a hundred or something like that (or maybe even lower but then even a dedicated player might be unlikely to ever see it), which makes sure that casual players won’t be finding it that often (maybe even a small text somewhere on the patch info saying that it is an Easter Egg would be fine). This would finally give the players a reason to share their cool map seeds they find. I bet people would be interested in a community effort to find seeds with good banana biome locations. And of course we already have the toggle in the new game settings to turn off Easter Eggs. I didn’t feel like that was really needed for the googly-eyed cell, but for the banana biome someone might want to turn it off.
I understand the hesitance as well, but if rare enough - and, when dynamic patch maps are implemented, short-lived - I think it would be a funny addition.
I also would like to nominate the disco nucleus with the theme you made eons ago as another cool easter egg.
This isn’t my idea, as it’s something that Hh sometimes alludes to in his interactions with the community; I just want to make sure it’s listed here so we don’t forget.
One fun and potentially simple funny Easter egg to implement is an “Allow Game-Ending Events” option in the advanced settings section, as a reference to the occasional community suggestion we get asking for world ending, unavoidable extinction events to be implemented - quasar beams, supernovas, world-ending impacts, etc. If enabled, upon the player’s first trip to the editor, they will receive a blunt to the point message saying that their world ended for whatever reason, and a button to exit the game. It will always be the first trip.
There could be different random and outlandish prompts, such as:
“Your planet was hit by a quasar beam. All life on the planet shriveled up from radiation.”
“Another planet collided with your own planet. Your planet was obliterated.”
“An advanced alien civilization, failing to detect life on your young planet, has designated your home world as a weapons testing ground. The weapons worked.”
“Your planet’s atmosphere was swept away from solar wind. Your species suffocated to death.”
“The hydrothermal vent your cell population was attached to suddenly collapsed. As a result, life on your planet perishes.”
I totally agree with this. I’d really like the disco nucleus to be an Easter egg - once in a while, you find a eukaryotic cell with the discoball nucleus, and disco music plays when you’re near it. Maybe there’d be a simple light effect round it to add to the disco feel.
I think all the suggestions for the banana biome could work well. If events that switch biome types (such as glaciation changing the sea surface into an ice shelf) are implemented, the banana biome could be set to always disappear after some time.
