Now you might be thinking about the original SimEarth, that old game where you basically just watched little icons of lizards and that awful polution and then at the end of the nuclear winter your final race goes in a space ship and ends with having an orbital space station...at least the version I remember.
All in all there wasn't much "medling" to be had unlike Spore which seems to be a recent offspring of what SimEarth could have been in recent years, but while Spore had some ground-breaking ideas....the endgame was pretty horrible IMO.
So getting back to what I believe would be a true successor to SimEarth, it would require the greatest AI engine ever made. Yes you would be the god character but the god character shouldn't need to do everything just so the races stay in check(or dont kill themselves).
Basically my premise for the ultimate SimEarth is AI...AI that is not only about figuring out what to do, but AI that takes a virtual-bioligical form. I am talking about Artificial Life, a subject less studied even from AI. The game would serve a revolution in computational biology by using "virtual-dna" to create the basis for each living race, be it animal or humanoid. Characters would virtually be living creatures, having virtual organs, virtual intelligence, virtual social tendencies, and the like. Now in recent yes the Morpheme and Europhoria engines were all about simulating muscles, but only for physics purposes. SimEarth goes beyond that for more of intellectual purposes so the characters would feel "mortal". Being wounded realisticly, be able to evolve their abilities based on their "biology", and other realistic precedences to create the ultimate simulator.
Of course there are other mechanics that I have yet to see be touched personally. Though it's obvious that the race you're bound to get stuck with is the fittest race and one that gains sentience, but after that they usually don't get much smarter besides making stuff. Now with SimEarth they would have the ability to develop their own languages based on an amazing soundwave generator, their own religions or cults, and of course build their own empires....themselves. Of course now you're thinking, "What is in it for me?". Since you are playing "God" you will of course be able to influence the superior race with things such as effecting weather, giving boosts to the underdog or otherwise in a large war, and even creating or preventing natural disasters. Gaia will of course be the spirit of the Earth, and it's easy to say IMO that she'll be your CNN news and give you tips or suggestions on what is favorable on the basis you want to keep your Earth intact.
Now those are outta the way, what would your Earth look like? Well it would make plenty sense to me that you would be able to influence how many continents, islands, and oceans the planet has, by simply tweaking the Land to Ocean ratio during the beginning stages of when your planet is coming into form.Now that you have a greatly diverse looking planet, you pretty much want to see the mile-to-mile eye candy? Well, I agree! If anything SimEarth not only should generate the planet in full-view, but it should be nice that while you are causing havoc or spying on tribes that you have something similar to CryEngine 3 while you're at it!
Now what about endgame? Well, while I'm not sure what it would be like myself, wouldn't be nice that you had more options besides staring at space station and an ice covered planet? I THINK SO!
No comments:
Post a Comment