I’ve been thinking on this concept for a little while, and decided that now is a good time to help solidify our ideas a bit more for the microscopic stages. Much of this has already been gone over by Deus above, so I’ll just provide my own thoughts on the general idea, and then cohesively list ways we can address this concept.
I’m going to separate the following concepts into two categories; “Rewards” that provide players with an incentive to explore their world, and “Spectacle” which makes the journey along the way feel more lively.
Optional Rambling
Without “rewards”, there is nothing to compel the player to explore the world around them, as it will not feel worth it aside from sightseeing. Imagine playing a game like Skyrim but without the dungeons and loot. Would be very pretty, but probably not fun or engaging.
Without “Spectacle”, the game would feel more plain and monotonous, with there being little sense of discovery and travel. Sure it could still be fun, but it wouldn’t be quite as engaging as it could be. Imagine playing a game like Darksouls, but everything takes place in the exact same generic dungeon and tilesets. Gameplay would blur together and feel more like a job than a journey given time.
In conclusion, we need both spectacle and rewards to make for a complete experience in Thrive. Without one or the other, the gameplay segments between generations will be in danger of feeling monotonous and unrewarding. We don’t want players to impatiently advance each generation as quickly as possible. We want it to feel good playing at a leisurely pace.
Rewards
The meat on the platter, these features exist to give players a sense of accomplishment for exploring and playing. Their main mechanic is providing the player with various boons in return for seeking them out.
Plasmids:
Loose fragments of genetic material encased in a membrane, these uncommon treasures will grant players a bonus in the editor that can accelerate evolution in the next generation. The player will only be able to receive the effects of one at a time each generation, so trying to assimilate all genetic material in the world won’t be feasible.
The exact nature of this bonus will need to be decided, so I’ve provided three of my own ideas;
- One random free part.
- Discounted MP cost on a random part.
- Overall discount on all parts.
Personally I would prefer one of the first two.
Later on, sexual reproduction might inherit the effects of the plastids, and the player will need to seek out a mate in a similar manner (albeit probably a bit easier).
Ammonium/Phosphate crystals:
Special floating chunks that periodically leach substantial amounts of their respective compounds into the surroundings. These crystals can make for a precious find for players that can boost their reproduction progress. They will likely be pretty rare, but worth seeking out if you are an especially large cell.
Most of these crystals are transparent white and uninteresting in reality, but we could possibly embellish their appearance with a purple/orange aura to represent the chemoreception of their composition.
In later stages, fertile and enriched patches of substrate (and the healthy and nutritious autotrophs potentially growing on them) could potentially take their place.
Spectacle
Swimming around in an empty void full of cells can be fun, but it can be alot better if there’s something cool to look at along the way, or even something to interact with to make the world feel more dynamic.
Decorations:
Various floating objects like rocks, crystals, snowflakes, etc. These objects will for the most part be inert and useless for your average cell. Their primary purpose is to give players something pretty to look at, but can also act as an environmental obstacles that force cells to not move in a straight line for once.
These should be pretty easy to implement, as we already have a large host of models made for them, as well as the baseline code for handling floating chunks.
In later stages these’ll probably be replaced by the terrain itself, and maybe more rocks and crystals but macroscopic.
Interactables:
Objects that assert influence on the world, or can otherwise be influenced themselves. These provide players with a way to interact with the environment, which makes for much more engaging gameplay.
As of now, the only feature I can recall is the aquatic currents, which are a large concept of their own.
Backgrounds:
A good background can make a world feel alive and beautiful, even if it’s beyond the reach of the player. As of now, the backgrounds are abstract and vague, which is acceptable and works well enough but can easily make the environment feel like a nondescript void. By livening up the backgrounds with interesting features, we can make the microscopic world a more beautiful place.
For example, the vents could have a background of basaltic rock veined with glowing fractures. There could be occasional ruptures from the surface that release the ever present glowing “embers” into the foreground.
Caves could be a cold grey stone, but lightened up with frequent crystal growths and veins of ore.
There’s alot of detail that could go into making a beautiful environment via the background!
I feel that these concepts should make for a much more engaging and rewarding experience in Thrive, and would like to hear what everyone thinks about them.