Wavinator - I read your reply and I'm off to work soon, but I just wanted to say that considering the bigger picture you manifested when I asked about goals, I wouldn't make this all that involved, unless you are conquering the world through gardening. ;) A task suited perhaps only to Martha Stewart.

If this is indeed the case, then I'm a bit lost as how you get from a strategic puzzler about gardening to a world domination sim with a philosophical primary objective escapes me. I'm quite certain it could be done, but any responses I could make would be dependent on that undisclosed connection.

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unless you are conquering the world through gardening. ;) A task suited perhaps only to Martha Stewart.

I don't know about that. I have read several sci-fi stories where plants were just plain dangerous.

- Sky-scraper sized pods that would explode after being set on fire thus shooting spores into space and on to other planets.
- Vines that physically attack anyone that comes into, emmmmm... vine's length.
- Grass that would cause hallucinations to anyone who would walk over them.
- Trees/bushes that could shoot poisonous needles.
- Ents from Lord of the Ring books.
- A plant that would scream if it was pulled out of the ground and kill everyone with in ear shot.

One story I read even had an epic battle going on between a plant race and the red-bloods. The generals could form a hard bark-like barrier around themselves and go into hibernation for very long periods of time if they were trapped or exposed to the vacuum of space.

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Original post by dink Wavinator - I read your reply and I'm off to work soon, but I just wanted to say that considering the bigger picture you manifested when I asked about goals, I wouldn't make this all that involved, unless you are conquering the world through gardening. ;) A task suited perhaps only to Martha Stewart. If this is indeed the case, then I'm a bit lost as how you get from a strategic puzzler about gardening to a world domination sim with a philosophical primary objective escapes me. I'm quite certain it could be done, but any responses I could make would be dependent on that undisclosed connection.

Sorry for the late reply on this, I've been swamped...

Here's the connection: Your two main goal are survival and social ladder climbing, both of which have a bunch of different strategies. Invention, and colonization are two avenues. In the world's story, big corporations are largely gone, so communities survive on small scale inventiveness. (It's a world of file-cabinet sized factories, AI and nanotech, after all.)

Any item creation (including gardening) has two purposes: It will feed you and whatever community you join / build; and it can be traded to build wealth (either the food itself, or the genes you've patented).

I'm thinking of trying to bend the story to whatever gameplay you're most heavily interested in, as well. So if you're really into gardening, there are going to be all of these food-based challenges, such as curing a plague by blending the cure into food, or creating something that will survive a harsh environment so people can move into it.

(Hope that's a little more clear)

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Original post by Kars - Sky-scraper sized pods that would explode after being set on fire thus shooting spores into space and on to other planets. - Vines that physically attack anyone that comes into, emmmmm... vine's length. - Grass that would cause hallucinations to anyone who would walk over them. - Trees/bushes that could shoot poisonous needles. - Ents from Lord of the Ring books. - A plant that would scream if it was pulled out of the ground and kill everyone with in ear shot.

You sir, are a genius! This is a perfect example of blending the fuzzy with the hard.

You mentioned terraforming to create water channels, how were you planning to go about doing that? Actual raising and lowering of polygonal terrain would be great, but is that outside the scope of your game?

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Original post by CIJolly You mentioned terraforming to create water channels, how were you planning to go about doing that? Actual raising and lowering of polygonal terrain would be great, but is that outside the scope of your game?

The engine I hope to use can do it. But I'm curious about the last part of your question. How would you determine what is and is not within the scope? I guess obvious elements, like furry purple dinosaurs with sing-alone minigames probably won't work. [wink] But what sort of other things would you see as being inside, or outside?

I guess by scope I meant the things that you would be including in your game given the focus of the gameplay and the ease of implimentation versus the payoff.
Deformable polygonal terrain is a very cool idea, and you may have a way to get it to work, and then combine that with a fluid dynamics engine, and then give the player a nice interface to be able to play around with it.

However, if the whole point in it is just to be able to get water from point A to point B in order to supply the real point of the game, the engineering of life forms, then there are probably easier ways to go about it. For example; having a grid keeping track of the land elevation and water content of each tile in the level. Each frame, tiles with water in them determine their water level by adding their elevation to their water volume, then ask the tiles next to them for their water levels. If they are lower, then an amount of water determined by (leveldifference/waterviscocity) flow's from the high tile to the low tile.
I could whip up a system like this in a few mintues, and it would have all the functionality needed.
Or, even easier, the player can just build irrigation ditches from reservoirs.

Having said that, given the time, resources and know how, deformable polygonal waterways sound pretty cool. I really do question how difficult it is to implement though, as I have yet to see a 3D game with flowing water.