Here is the master concept for most of what we have related to dynamic environments, available for some discussion before implementation approaches. If someone who is more knowledgeable on climate science would be willing to contribute, I’d very much appreciate that; my knowledge over the area is lacking.
THE DYNAMIC ENVIRONMENT MASTER CONCEPT
What should we expect from a dynamic environment mechanic in the Microbe Stage?
- We want to represent the evolution of a planet’s biogeochemical processes as life proliferates and influences the atmosphere. The distribution of resources, gasses, and the resulting climate changes from these changes. This will provide scientific accuracy and storytelling.
- We want to represent some level of shifting resource supplies and outputs depending on the characteristics of the organisms in a patch. This will emphasize strategy.
- We want there to be some capacity for patches and the map to change overtime as geological eons pass. This will provide a level of dynamism through each playthrough, and create new situations for the player to deal with.
- We want to represent environmental events that are significant to the evolution of life on Earth, such as glaciation, warming, oxygenation, and catastrophic events.
General Playthrough Experience
- Flux - Players will spawn into a world with cloud resources that are volatile and unpredictable. Resources will dramatically and unpredictably swing on a young planet, especially near in the depths; surface patches will change as well, but generally have more identifiable “trends”. This will make players either play it safe, retaining a basal and tweakable organism, or risk specialization, becoming more complex and having a head start at the risk of their food source rapidly diminishing. This fluctuation will gradually taper down and settle on an average, seeding initial resource distribution dependent on the characteristics of your planet.
- Oxygenation Crucible - Oxygenation begins slowly at the surface, slowly spreading deeper with every generation. Resource distribution is affected, as hydrogen sulfide diminishes and iron depletes in oxygen-rich environments. Along with the inherent toxicity of oxygen, organisms are challenged and forced to redistribute as available resources change in behavior. To top it off, rapid oxygenation dramatically increases the likelihood of a Snowball Earth event, presenting an even greater challenge to organisms. Players must manage environmental changes while marching forward and achieving the nucleus.
- Stability - After the advent of oxygen and the initial crises, the climate settles into more predictable trends. Oxygen will generally increase, while iron and hydrogen sulfide are bound more to deeper waters and more exotic environments. Periods of glaciation and warming happen, though usually to a lesser extent than the swing seen in Snowball Earth. This stability paves the way for more complex life.
How Should the Compounds Generally Act?
- Hydrogen Sulfide - Initially widely present, though will diminish with time as oxygen spreads, especially at the surface.
- Iron - Similar to Hydrogen Sulfide, although slightly more sensitive to oxygen.
- Oxygen - Initially non-existent, oxygen will appear as photosynthetic life becomes more prolific. Gradually increases.
- Carbon Dioxide - Carbon Dioxide will start off very high, representing the volcanism of an early planet. As time progresses, it will gradually decrease as the ocean absorbs more carbon dioxide (note, does this mean that a patch can have increasing CO2 but still cool as the climate cools?). Carbon dioxide will influence the temperature of the planet, influence plant productivity, and impact calcium carbonate membranes.
- Nitrogen - Nitrogen can remain pretty stable since it tends not to have a direct impact on the planet’s atmosphere and since a lot of our processes in game don’t really utilize it, though it should interact with nitrogen-fixating plastids.
- Glucose - Glucose in the game acts as a proxy to the free organics available in an early bioproductive ocean. It will reduce as it does now.
- Phosphate & Ammonia - Both will act somewhat similar and will also gradually reduce, though not to the same degree as glucose. Certain environmental events can also cause phosphate/ammonia spikes and dips.
- Temperature - The planet should generally start off warmer than it is, and gradually cool down, allowing for the emergence of cold regions. Temperature will dramatically plummet in global glaciation events, but will return to stable temperatures gradually. Temperature can randomly warm or cool through glaciation and warming events. Higher temperature environments will slightly reduce the amount of oxygen present in a patch.
- Light - Light will start off lower than usual, but will increase as the atmosphere gets less hazy. Light will generally be stable outside of environmental events, which will dramatically challenge photosynthetic life. It will have a slight influence on temperature.
Patch Dynamism
The map will change dynamically through two mechanisms:
- Surface Patch Changes - Most changes to the environment occur on the surface - shifts between estuaries and regular surface water, frozen patches, etc. The depths will remain generally stable, allowing players a refuge.
- Patch Connector Shifts - Some patch connections will appear and disappear, sometimes outright denying movement from a patch cluster.
Surface patches - Epipelagic, Shallow Seas, Estuaries, Frozen Seas, Tidepools - can change into each other.
- Epipelagic can become either Shallow Seas or Frozen Seas
- Shallow Seas can become any.
- Frozen Seas can become any.
- Tidepools can become Shallow Seas, Frozen Seas, or Estuaries.
- Estuaries can become Shallow Seas, Frozen Seas, or Tidepools.
Environmental Events
Environmental events represent global trends and phenomena which can either randomly occur or occur as a result of compound changes. Here are some existing concepts:
- Volcanic Eruption - Increases CO2 & decreases sunlight over a certain area depending on size. Can be small, affecting local patches, medium, effecting a patch cluster, or large, affecting multiple patch clusters.
- Meteor Impact - Decreases sunlight over a certain area, and causes temporary dramatic shake up of compound availability. Increase in CO2, but not to same extent as volcanoes. Can be small, affecting local patches, medium, effecting a patch cluster, or large, affecting multiple patch clusters.
- Cooling - Decrease of CO2, causing cooling weather. Frozen seas more common.
- Warming - Increase of CO2, causing warming weather. Frozen seas less common.
- Glaciation - On surface patches, indicates a change to or presence of Frozen Seas. In non-surface patches, indicates the formation of ice shards.
- Snowball Earth - Rare event in which the entire planet dramatically cools, causing most, if not all surface patches, to freeze. Very likely to occur after initial introduction of oxygenation.
- (Bonus) Earthquake - Legacy concept; all currents flip in the current patch.
Global Atmospheric Scores
Buckly proposed a way of dealing with dynamic atmospheric gasses. I linked the post above, in case it can be used as inspiration for the actual handling of dynamic compounds. I also think it’s our best existing concept, though Buckly had mentioned passingly on a potential improvement he is conceptualizing.
Planet Editor
The planet editor ties heavily into dynamic compounds/climate, but concepts for it aren’t very fleshed out currently. Would it be best to have a planet editor concept ironed out, or is it possible to tack on the planet editor afterwards?