Player migration

[Deus]

I wanted to bring this topic back up in light of some thoughts in the environmental tolerance discussion thread:

Environmental Tolerance Adaptations

Let’s hash out a conversation using environmental tolerances categorically in accordance to the above logic. I say first order of business is agreeing upon some rough estimates for what environmental condition ranges should count for what categories by going through each one. Then we might want to start a discussion regarding general principles for general principles regarding environmental conditions, which can help us answer questions like: how will the player have sufficient environmental to…

Implementing environmental tolerances will fundamentally alter the constraints placed on a player regarding mobility, so I think it is important to start some sort of discussions here to see some ideas flowing.

The basic problem is that, because we can’t significantly jack up the number of patches since auto-evo could proceed at a snail’s pace, introducing environmental constraints in the current maps generated would mean that players would have to be very precise and deliberate with the management of their population. This is a good thing in terms of gameplay as it introduces another layer of strategy, but it does mean we have to rethink the way we currently deal with migration.

Right now, a certain proportion of your patch’s population comes with you when you migrate (what is it, 10% now?). This isn’t sustainable in future Thrivian playthroughs where you have to adjust your environmental tolerances to not get beat up in whatever new environment you are moving to. What happens to 90% of your species if you hop from a saltwater to a freshwater environment, or from a deep patch to the surface, or from a hydrothermal vent to a less-warm region? They’d just die right away since changes are applied to your entire species, so whatever new environmental adaptations you’ve made would be a death sentence to your old population.

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I think we ultimately are heading towards a system in which the player must make a decision as to what percentage of your organism’s species will move with you to a new environment. I think the ideal system would look something like this:

1. Your first turn in a new patch works similar to how it does now, where you essentially have a small enough population to have a single life in a patch. If you die, you get booted back to your original patch. During this turn, your species receives a reduced penalty from the environmental aspects of auto-evo, but it also receives slightly lower population growth.
2. If you successfully reproduce in a new patch, you get an option to move whatever proportion of your population from your prior patch to the new one. Once you move, auto-evo effects apply as they normally do.

This works to offer the player a chance to not die because they want to move patches, but it also minimizes the possibility of exploitation. My only question is if it would work with the way auto-evo calculations currently work. And, of course, if someone has a different opinion in regards to this way of dealing with migration.