http://strategywiki.org/wiki/SimEarth:_The_Living_Planet
joe at strout dot net wrote: On Aug 10, 2006, at 03:48 UTC, Fargo Holiday
wrote:
> Dude, I loved SimEarth. True, it got boring pretty fast, but the concept
> was fantastic. Yeah, I really don't have a whole lot else to offer, just
> wanted to let you know that there was another fan here. I'd happily head
> up such an item if my skills and time were up to it.
Well, we can help fill in gaps in skills, though we can't create more time for
you. :)
I wonder how the design flaws (i.e. not enough to do to stay involved) could be
fixed, without turning it into a totally different game? Let's discuss.
One thought I had was to posit that you (the player) are a member of an
advanced spacefaring civilization, and it's your job to shepherd this planet
over millions (or billions) of years, to foster new civilizations to join the
galactic club. Your project has a budget, which you can spend on reasonable
interventions -- causing (or avoiding) asteroid/comet impacts, orbital sun
shades or focusing mirrors, increasing the mutation rate (by introducing
metagens into the environment), picking up critters and moving them elsewhere,
and making minor changes to the terrain, etc. But you don't get to change any
basic laws of physics, nor tweak every constant in the simulation.
You get paid for results -- at each "turn" (a period of time equal to, say, 5
minutes of play at normal speed), you get more money based on the complexity
and density of life/civilization on your planet.
The game would have a clear goal -- developing a new spacefaring civilization
-- tools to accomplish it with, and a budget to maintain. (I know the original
SimEarth had something similar, but it wasn't as well-defined and tended to get
in the way more than add to the fun.) Different scenarios would all have the
same goals and rules, but would have different starting conditions: some
planets would be outside the normal habitable zone, for example, or might be
inside it but in the midst of some ecological crisis. You're the guy they stuck
trying to clean up the mess and save the planet. You'd get a score at the end
based on the time it took to reach spacefaring, and achievement of bonus
objectives; and there'd be a high-scores list for each scenario.
I think this would be fun to play. But what do you-all think about it?
Fargo, do you still have your SimEarth manual around? I have mine in a box
somewhere. It'd probably provide some valuable insights on the various cycles,
though we wouldn't want to let that constrain us too much -- the key in making
this a doable project would be to focus on the details that make it fun, and
take shortcuts on the rest.
Cheers,
- Joe
--
Joe Strout -- joe at strout dot net
Verified Express, LLC "Making the Internet a Better Place"
http://www.verex.com/
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