Simearth?

[HueyLong]

Has anyone else ever played that? Anyone got any stories or screenies?

I built a Jared Diamond scenario in sandbox once- and it actually worked! The east-west axis continent got to Iron Age while the North-South continent I had made was still Stone Age.

The east-wests ended up travelling over the ocean, and soon, I assumed, the North-South continent was populated by beautiful east west, Iron age people. (You can't really track one culture, but all the Stone Ages got wiped out pretty quick shortly after the Iron Agers came into play)

It was a pretty interesting game.

[Soyuz]

You do mean the one from Maxis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimEarth)? I played one when I got it from the Underdogs, but now the Underdogs seems to have kicked the bucket and I don't think I'll ever see it again. :( Or any of the other games there.

[HueyLong]

Yeah, the one from Maxis.

BTW, Underdogs is supposed to up in a month or so- the owner forgot to pay his bills.

So, got any stories from it? I've got more....

[Soyuz]

The problem with me is that if I start from the very beginning, I can't get anything sentient to evolve. Wait, back that up a bit... I can't get any land creatures to evolve, because... (drumroll) I can't get any landmass larger than 3% of the area on the planet. So I get stuck with one of the three - complete waterworld (normal temperature), complete iceworld (turn off all temperature), Venusworld (full heat). Yeah, the last one has land, but it's too hot for even the microbes to survive. So far I've had only 1 success - somehow I managed to evaporate 95% of the water and keep it at that. The entire planet was forest, except with grass plains at the poles. Then I evolved (no, actually they did it on their own) - sencient insects.

That brings me to the other part - if you start at the animal/civilization time, you don't need to do anything, since the game plays itself. Even with the StagNation world, all I need to do is move 1 settler to the other continent and then enjoy. Oh, and also crank up all the energy sources. Only once did I have a big problem when my civilization got addicted to nuclear energy in the form of nuclear explosions.

[HueyLong]

I always played in Sandbox (whatever unlimited was called) and would mess with the climate to get different results.

That is where the real fun is. Try to regulate a Venus or a Mars without wiping out civilisation.

[Blackbeard]

I've successfully raised a Mars that had civilization on it, but it was weird, the planet became covered with water after the ice caps melted and only large islands were left. It was in Sandbox, so I placed dinosaurs on the largest island, which was about the size of Africa, they evolved into sentient tribes frequently fighting each other. Some fish I put into the sea became these mega-monster things, and on another island, I put a nanotech city, and after a while, robots evolved. The largest of the dino tribes started colonizing the other islands, eventually leading to a nuclear war between dinos and robos, all that was left after that were insects, which eventually became some strange sea creatures

[Blackbeard]

I've successfully raised a Mars that had civilization on it, but it was weird, the planet became covered with water after the ice caps melted and only large islands were left. It was in Sandbox, so I placed dinosaurs on the largest island, which was about the size of Africa, they evolved into sentient tribes frequently fighting each other. Some fish I put into the sea became these mega-monster things, and on another island, I put a nanotech city, and after a while, robots evolved. The largest of the dino tribes started colonizing the other islands, eventually leading to a nuclear war between dinos and robos, all that was left after that were insects, which eventually became some strange sea creatures

[Blackbeard]

I've successfully raised a Mars that had civilization on it, but it was weird, the planet became covered with water after the ice caps melted and only large islands were left. It was in Sandbox, so I placed dinosaurs on the largest island, which was about the size of Africa, they evolved into sentient tribes frequently fighting each other. Some fish I put into the sea became these mega-monster things, and on another island, I put a nanotech city, and after a while, robots evolved. The largest of the dino tribes started colonizing the other islands, eventually leading to a nuclear war between dinos and robos, all that was left after that were insects, which eventually became some strange sea creatures

[Fenwick]

In the Modern era scenario, the cities in Russia reached the nano age, then a war broke out. In my mind it was the United States attacking to stop the Soviets from becoming any more advanced.

I then recieved a robot. It spread out along Eastern Europe, Asia, and even the Middle East. The temprature on the planet rose causing mass extinctions and most of the oceans to disappear. So the humans died out, and the planet was one big desert.

The Robots where still up and moving though. I was proud to say the Robots lasted a whole nine evolutions as the dominate lifeform. The word was fixed as well thanks to biospheres. So I got a earth looking similar to what we have now, but most of it a lush forrest.

[eschaton]

It's been years and years since I played SimEarth, but I remember it fondly.

The most amusing thing I did was use monoliths to move life along extremely fast...basically as soon as the crust cooled down, but before the oceans formed. Once the Jellyfish people moved off into space I couldn't do shit though....all the oceans turned to desert and nearly everything died.

The secret to life evolving is to turn up diversity and turn down...umm...density from what I remember. Otherwise you only get the earliest type of each class and no real evolution.

Hardest thing to do by far is get amphibians to survive.

[Xen]

Speaking of this game a somewhat similiar game will be released in late 2k6 to early 2k7 called Spore. Looks pretty fun.

According to Wikipedia it says this about the game

Spore is, at first glance, a 'teleological evolution' game: the player molds and guides a single-celled species across many generations, until it becomes intelligent, at which point the player begins molding and guiding a society into a spacefaring civilization. Spore's main innovation, the basis of its scope and open-endedness, is that Wright has returned to procedural generation.

In a speech on procedural generation at the 2005 Game Developers Conference, Wright revealed the game to the public, saying "I didn't want to make players feel like Luke Skywalker or Frodo Baggins. I wanted them to be like George Lucas or J.R.R. Tolkien."

Because the Spore gameworld is procedurally generated, it can be as large, varied, and detailed as it needs to be without an expensive team designing each element individually. This emphasis of function and algorithm rather than manual data creation also helps users' creatures, societies, cities, and planets to react realistically to a wide range of customizations.

In Wright's first public demonstration of Spore, he created a tripedal creature in the creature evolution editor. The game then figured out how a lizard with three legs and a prehensile tail should walk. Wright then showed several pre-made creatures which moved realistically, despite their exotic design. Other examples showed insectile creatures with multiple heads and six legs, a walking bird whose massive head caused it to tilt while turning, and a dog-like creature with a set of unusual branching limbs. He also demonstrated a creature that looked exactly like a Care Bear, indicating that players could create animals similar to those found in nature or popular culture.

Wright noted that he hired a handful of demoscene programmers and artists because of their familiarity with procedural generation.

[Superdude]

Oh yeah, and you can get involved in interstellar war in Spore as well.

[Tom Veil]

I've been following Spore; it's going to be literally the most CPU-intensive strategy game ever, but if you computer can handle it, it should be excellent.


Ah, Sim Earth. Lots of fond memories. My favorite trick was to go into sandbox mode and force the Trichordates to evolve into sentiency.

[Othniel]

http://www.spore.com/screenshots/screenshot_2.jpg

Seems Doctor Suessish...

[Superdude]

Did you watch the video?

There was another that conquered that one that was all technological and soulless.

[Scarecrow]

Did you watch the video?

There was another that conquered that one that was all technological and soulless.
the hour long Spore video where Wil Wright plays? that is one of the best things i have ever seen. gunna make a whole lotta wierd creatures...mwahahahaha

the whole time i was watching it i just kept thinking; I will NEED a better PC by far...so i am stocking up on memory and graphics cards now:p

[Matt]

Spore is just the most awesome looking thing ever.

[Max Sinister]

Yes, I can hardly await it too...

[HueyLong]

Actually, Spore is expected to be fairly low on the requirements... from what I've read, lower than the Sims 2.

Gotta love procedural generation......

[Scarecrow]

Actually, Spore is expected to be fairly low on the requirements... from what I've read, lower than the Sims 2.

Gotta love procedural generation......
really? that will be cool. Wish i was going to E3 this year though...

I still need a new graphics card though, due to a little game called Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends...:eek:

[Fenwick]

The way the game was discribed is that every single thing (10,000+ creatures, plants, and structures) is in a zip type file. When the game sees the need for an object it opens the file and brings it to the world.

A plant eater who moves slowly, and has a long neck? Game allows tall trees to appear more often, and a meat eater that is fast is brought into the world.
Will Wright says this cuts down on the game slowing, allows the player to adapt more and more to ever increasing changes.

Also what interested me was how the AI for the creatures works. Say you make a creature with a long neck, short legs, and long muscular arms, when this creature evolves into the prehistoric age the game decides what is the best way for the creature to move in terms of using tools.

[HueyLong]

The movement isn't even tied to Part A or Part B. Instead, it examines the structure as a whole and then determines the movement. The movement isn't tied to a certain file or anything else for that matter.

I've already got a few designs cooked up and written down. Using the Care Bear as inspiration, I'm going to try a few pop culture designs. Hutts, Argonians, Jawas, The Wild Things (from that kid books)

Then, I'm going to check out some RL examples.

And laugh at how miserably humans fail.

[sunsurf]

I liked it but didn't have time to do much with it--to many other things to do like posting on internet discussion boards! :p

[Fenwick]

The movement isn't even tied to Part A or Part B. Instead, it examines the structure as a whole and then determines the movement. The movement isn't tied to a certain file or anything else for that matter.

I've already got a few designs cooked up and written down. Using the Care Bear as inspiration, I'm going to try a few pop culture designs. Hutts, Argonians, Jawas, The Wild Things (from that kid books)

Then, I'm going to check out some RL examples.

And laugh at how miserably humans fail.

I have this one idea I hope I can try out.

The creature has two legs, and two tails. It leans down so its face is lower then its knees and the tails are in the are. I read about figuring out arrows and it just sounds cool to see such a thing shoot.

[Douglas]

I have this one idea I hope I can try out.

The creature has two legs, and two tails. It leans down so its face is lower then its knees and the tails are in the are. I read about figuring out arrows and it just sounds cool to see such a thing shoot.

Sounds kind of...awkward.

[Fenwick]

Sounds kind of...awkward.

Thats the point!:D

It's up their with my four story house in Sims 2. Everything was on the first story, but the bathroom was up three stories.

[Highlander]

I pirated this, and played it for a bit, but couldn't keep up with it. To many outdated graphics.

It would be cool if they remade it.

[chunkeymonkey13q]

I did the same and think the same as Highlander.