A fear about the evolution... in that GDC video, it looked as though Mr. Wright had full controll over the creature editor. Now, I am willing to assume that as you progress further, moer options become availible to be used, but I fear the number and amount of changes that are possible. He did an awful lot of changing to his creature from the underwater to the one that walks on land. Will there be a cap on how much evolution can actually take place? The change from two arm to three legs was just a little bit too much for me, as well the addition of the grasper. I think it would be cool if the evolution was slower, giving you time to watch many small changes occur rather than several large ones. It would make me feel that I own the creature more, for as you play longer, not only will you have more options, but you will have made a very unique creature. If the editor was shipped with the same principles that Mr. Wright showed in the demo, It would make it much easier to create realativly the exact same as someone else's, and while that is not horrible, it would detract from the experiance in my mind. Of course, I'm also looking to find a very complicated evolver, and one that would perhaps closely mimic the real life; and need to remember it's just a game... Regardless, It is my opinion that there should some restrictions to the evolver. Am I alone in this opinion, or do others agree?
It depends on how you want to play I suppose. Now remember that Will Wright had at most an hour to do his presentation. He had to definitely speed some things up and so yes, he probably had more domain in the editor than we will have. But on a different note, making people sit through hours of attacking and meat eating just to grow one more leg would be a bit dull. Extrapolate that to growing from a unicellular organism to a creature that can take over the universe, and you've got a very long game on your hands. A VERY long game. There's nothing in the editor that would ever restrain you if you only wanted to make the tiniest changes though. By only evolving in small stages, I'm sure you could slow the game down to your own pace. The game is supposed to balance itself with creatures that will match your abilities and not be insanely difficult. I wouldn't worry about the speed of evolution.
The system that, in my opinion, makes the most sense, would be a model similar to the level-up system in Fable (I hate having to make references to other games, but it's for the sake of clarity). I think the more you eat and explore and whatever it is you do in the creature stage, the more points you will rack up towards your next evolution. If you've gone a long time without mating, you can make more drastic changes; likewise, if it's been a short while you probably won't be able to do as much. I'm not saying this is way they'll do it but like I said, it's what makes the most sense to me.
evolution works by you running around and eating things or 'progressing' in the mini game of that era, then you can make one change, add one thing, or change the shape of your creature a bit. then u carry on with the mini game adding stuff each time... eventually you add the stuff that puts you into the next era, legs in the underwater, brains later on etc.
Wright said something about its like saving money for college or something like that, when he explained the brain. I take it as you gets points every time you lay an egg. When you lay an egg you gets some evolving points. You can choose to save the points and make a greater change later or make a little change. Wright probably cheated at the video. :spin:
Your goal is to get to the top of the food-chain as fast as possible, time is your enemy so you have to evolve as quick as you can, but since the computer adapts to your playing speed it wouldn't be a problem of how fast you evolve, but what you change to your creature. But if they computer does happen to evolve quicker than you, well you gotta be pretty damn quick!
I agree in that fact.... the more you eat with out going to the evolving stage the more you can evolve.... but if you want to evolve slow.. you could just only make a little change and then go back to the living stage... you can control it yourself :smile:
what I want to know is, will the other species get tougher as you evolve? Since there is no cieling to how much you can evolve before you need to move on to the next stage of the game you could possibly create a perfect creature, giving you a massive advantage over everything else. Yes, this game is all about you and as such you the player will probably be more powerful anyway, I still enjoy a good challenge.
Yeah I was thinking the same, that there could be a chance that you don't get to the top of the food-chain but there is always someone better or as good as you. I would like something of that sort. Which is where that online download thing kicks in, your computer would just download some superior creature from their server that could match yours or even beat it. Physical advantages are irrelevant at a later stage of the game though (Civilization) so then you have to concentrate on gaining power by culture or military and other things such as in Civilization 3. And then after that you just go crazy in the galaxy, by then no other species can match you because you will cunningly oppress them so they do not develope, using your former enemies as cattle or food. Oh I am gonna love this game heh.
I guess that depends on what the player want... tough creatures = all the evolution points on claws and stuff smart creatures = all points on knowledge, technology and teamwork :smile: just a guess!!!! I hope it'll be kinda like that!
