I want a Sim Earth-like

[ZechsMerquise73]

Given that Maxis is practically gone, and even before that Will Wright had practically abandoned the concept, I think its time to explore making something like Sim Earth, which is one of the most ambitious grand strategy titles ever conceived. The game models from lifeless planet, to the first seeds of life and atmosphere, to animal life, then sentient and civilization. This was originally done in an elegant, simple way, that was very clever.

It need not be a sort of Europa Universalis set in "Genesis 1:1" (not literally) as some, myself included, have suggested. But an exercise in modeling climatology and a very linear concept of evolution, in a fun way. Of course, it would need some cool self-made disasters like taking away your planets atmosphere through teraforming and watching everything horribly die.

Anyway, I'd love to see a revitalisation of something like Sim Earth, especially seeing as how nobody has done it sense, as far as I know.

 

[Johan]

Me too.

Why haven't anyone done this?

 

[Woody Man]

I would definitely be interested and can guarantee the support of the silent majority!

But genuinely, this'd be cool, as long as it's more Sim Earth, less Godus.

 

[mant123]

I would buy it in a heartbeat

 

[ZechsMerquise73]

I think Paradox is the right studio to make this. You guys aren't afraid of the American anti-evolution crowd like EA was with Spore.

Sadly, evolution, being one of the most complex scientific theories, might be too much to model within the parameters of modern scientific thinking. Especially sad, the fact that many people who believe in evolution only have a very primitive understanding of it (ex.: that all life descended from some few species now extant, in ascending fashion; that evolution intentionally strove towards complex species; that the plausibility of life arising so easily from non-living matter is verified). If it were possible to make an accurate representation, and make it popular, such a game would be an amazing teaching tool. To sow a thousand flowers, if you will.

 

[MetalTaberna]

I think Paradox is the right studio to make this. You guys aren't afraid of the American anti-evolution crowd like EA was with Spore.

Sadly, evolution, being one of the most complex scientific theories, might be too much to model within the parameters of modern scientific thinking. Especially sad, the fact that many people who believe in evolution only have a very primitive understanding of it (ex.: that all life descended from some few species now extant, in ascending fashion; that evolution intentionally strove towards complex species; that the plausibility of life arising so easily from non-living matter is verified). If it were possible to make an accurate representation, and make it popular, such a game would be an amazing teaching tool. To sow a thousand flowers, if you will.

Paradox gains +10 Prestige

 

[Sand3r205]

I was searching for a project. This seems fun. Maybe in the far future you will see this actually happen.

I wanted to be a God anyway.

 

[CabalTheFriendlyAI]

Indeed, I'd love to see something like this happen. I grew up on SimEarth.

Would be interesting to see how PDX would tackle this.

 

[magritte2]

I'd like to see a SimEarth style game, too. It amazes me that it was never really attempted again when it was such a cool idea.

 

[Incompetent]

I think Paradox is the right studio to make this. You guys aren't afraid of the American anti-evolution crowd like EA was with Spore.

Sadly, evolution, being one of the most complex scientific theories, might be too much to model within the parameters of modern scientific thinking. Especially sad, the fact that many people who believe in evolution only have a very primitive understanding of it (ex.: that all life descended from some few species now extant, in ascending fashion; that evolution intentionally strove towards complex species; that the plausibility of life arising so easily from non-living matter is verified). If it were possible to make an accurate representation, and make it popular, such a game would be an amazing teaching tool. To sow a thousand flowers, if you will.

Natural selection + random mutation is really easy to implement. It's hard/impossible to simulate the details of how genes and proteins work, but you don't need to do any of that to produce a game where evolution is a big factor and works in a plausible way on a large scale. The difficult part is creating a world with enough potential for complex ecological niches that many different species emerge, rather than having one or two species dominate. It's quite possible that the real-world Earth is anomalous in that respect - we could potentially find life on other planets, only to find that in most places, life consists of a handful of very simple species that represent a 'local optimum' of ecological development, with no likely scenario for new species to appear. You don't want that happening in your Earth sim game, even if it is realistic at some level.

 

[TheDecider]

You mean like Spore but more "hands-off"?

The level of control varied of course with each stage, but in the final space stage you could pump in greenhouse gases until it became a molten laval planet and raise sealevels, planting different plants and creatures you'd collected from the biomes of other planets.

 

[sermaciej]

Me too.

Why haven't anyone done this?

because you are our last hope

 

[heliostellar]

Yes, I actually downloaded an SNES emulator to play that version of it a while ago. I think it had better graphics than the DOS version. I wish someone would bring back some of the classics. Unfortunately, Maxis is now a gutted EA property and they can't DLC games like that to death.

 

[Nashetovich]

Me too.

Why haven't anyone done this?

I tried to do something like SimEarth, but with realtime water erosion on sphere. But like one of those unprofessional gamemakers, I coded several games in once and did not finished or published anything.

On this stage It only can simulate water flow from high place to low places taking some ground with flow.
Here is planet screenshot

Spoiler

I also made several 2d prototypes which confirmed such effects as river delta formation, basin silting if there is no way for drain. Unfortunately, it does not look so good in 3d, at least without textures and postprocessing.

May be, if PDS would not take this idea, we can self-organize and made something opensourced. Like those guys who gave second birth to "Colonization" game, named "FreeCol". There should be many skilled people interested in such game.

 

[Lord Canterbury]

Have you tried Species: http://www.speciesgame.com/

It's focused on the evolution bit... I played it a while back when it was buggy as, but still fun for a while... I haven't picked it up more recently... but I agree, the geological+biologic evolution game genre is a gaping void at the moment... I'd love it to be filled.

 

[LP90]

And everbody will say if this comes out:

"Let my rule beginn!"

seriously...that game would need an multiplayer where we can absh each others heads (planets)in.

 

[Liniert]

There is a game that got kickstarted last year called Universim that sounds similar

 

[Andrelvis]

I liked Evolution: The Game of Intelligent Life. That was pretty nice.

 

[Nashetovich]

There is a game that got kickstarted last year called Universim that sounds similar

Yes, but it is more like Spore, not like SimEarth. No geological simulation, no wild life simulation (as I got this).

 

[ZechsMerquise73]

You mean like Spore but more "hands-off"?

The level of control varied of course with each stage, but in the final space stage you could pump in greenhouse gases until it became a molten laval planet and raise sealevels, planting different plants and creatures you'd collected from the biomes of other planets.

Spore was very linear. For example, in what you mention, there were only a few states a planet could be in: about 5 for a 'terra', 3 for lava, and 3 for ice, then a few for atmospheric density. This was cosmetic as well as a gamepaly element, but not a simulation by any means.

Plants and creatures weren't static. You might go hundreds of lightyears away and encounter the same exact creatures you encountered on your homeworld. Nothing evolved in any sense of the word, besides the player race and those 'uplifted' with player-built monoliths. There was no consistency outside the player's doing.