Thanks for the input . I guess ill just give up, at least until i find someone with more experience and similar desires. I will see my dream someday...

[quote name='m.boop127' timestamp='1341339066' post='4955383']
6677, Not really, though. The player would control the temperature of the environment and other similar factors, which would in turn affect the type of cultures that evolve, for example, cold environment means the AI hunts rather than farms, hunting makes them develop better weapons, which then makes them more warlike in the future.

Boring.

Things like that are fun to code but boring to play (or rather watch). I suggest to abandon this concept.
[/quote]

Did you ever read the book guns, germs, and steel? I'm still reading it, as it's a complex book, but it details how things like climate and many other factors led to the European-centric world we live in today. It's also a very thick book.

[quote name='aattss' timestamp='1341499643' post='4955992']
[quote name='Acharis' timestamp='1341403782' post='4955600']
[quote name='m.boop127' timestamp='1341339066' post='4955383']
6677, Not really, though. The player would control the temperature of the environment and other similar factors, which would in turn affect the type of cultures that evolve, for example, cold environment means the AI hunts rather than farms, hunting makes them develop better weapons, which then makes them more warlike in the future.

Boring.

Things like that are fun to code but boring to play (or rather watch). I suggest to abandon this concept.
[/quote]

Did you ever read the book guns, germs, and steel? I'm still reading it, as it's a complex book, but it details how things like climate and many other factors led to the European-centric world we live in today. It's also a very thick book.
[/quote]No, I haven't read it. But I made a game similar to the premise described and it was boring very quickly (athrough, I had great time coding it )
[/quote]

Well, it's a good read. Also, I suspect that you could make it more interesting by making it possible to cause "disasters" like in SimCity, or by letting the player play in the world he made.

alright, so i'm going to develop the text based game, for my own purposes, but i am running into an issue. I created a map with several location where tribes could start (i will decide there location with a random number gen), however i want intra tribe relations to be partially based on location, if two tribes are on opposite sides of the map, they likely won't have relations, the problem is i cant find a way to program in an equation that decides whether or not other tribes are near by, how would you do this using numbered locations? thanks!

alright, so i'm going to develop the text based game, for my own purposes, but i am running into an issue. I created a map with several location where tribes could start (i will decide there location with a random number gen), however i want intra tribe relations to be partially based on location, if two tribes are on opposite sides of the map, they likely won't have relations, the problem is i cant find a way to program in an equation that decides whether or not other tribes are near by, how would you do this using numbered locations? thanks!

If you have a map set up using coordinates you would do something like this:

Vec2i tribeStart = thisTribe->getCenter();
int x = tribeStart.x;
int y = tribeStart.y;
for(int i = 0; i < getTribeCount(); ++i) {
Vec2i tribeCenter = tribes->getCenter();
int cX = tribeCenter.x;
int cY = tribecenter.y;
int distance = sqrt( (x-cX)^2 + (y-cY)^2 );
myTribe->relationships.init() = 100-distance;
}


Obviously that's not how it would look in Java, but its the basic point. Calculate the distance between all the tribes and assign a value. I suppose you would want to calculate a value between NPC tribes too, in which case you just need another for or something like that.

well, my idea would be based around a toolbar near the top of the screen that the player uses, the toolbar has different abilities that are progressively unlocked in future game play. Another idea i have to make the game more interesting would be points the player could use to advance a specific tribe, warm or cool the climate, etc. This would give more of a challenge and a purpose to the game. For me, the absolute game-changer for this idea would be the ability for a player to zoom down to the developing tribes and watch the AI work and develop, which would require insane programming and artistic ability, but it is a dream after all. And thanks for the programming help!

Don't give up your dream, but don't be afraid to change your dream a bit if needed to meet your goals.

It almost sounds like a more complex, simulator-focused version of spore. Kind of like sim city, but with God powers. Not so great as a multiplayer/competitive game, but as a rich simulator it'd be fun, I think. Simulators are a strange genre of game to me, but if you add more features to them and market them correctly, they can be wildly successful (Sims and Sims 2 are both in the top 5 selling PC games of all time).

Start small and build up! With effort and with good game design, you can make your dream appeal to even more people.

[edit]: Silly grammar.

The way nations are built are determined by resources, the most determining factor (and most dynamic) being food. Food depends on climate and geography (both of which can change as well) and it sounds like this is the players biggest impact on the civilizations. The biggest design question is how does the player's controls effect the "food" in that region. Keep this in mind as you develop this game idea. It is fun playing at making nature work the way it already works, playing at making it work wrong is fun because you can learn why doesn't work that way. It seems some here are saying that this simulation view of game design isn't fun to play. I think Will Wright would disagree since his career was defined by this passion.

The design idea isn't the flaw here, you could easily take this idea in a fun-to-play direction and players could learn a lot from this simulation as well if you were interested in the eduction factor. The hard choice is visual depiction of the simulated data you want to display. The balance is choosing economic assets and the only way to do this is physically designing them. All good designs start with good concept. Most all great concepts are sketches and doodles. Pickup a pencil, pen or wacom. You are using historic reference so find as many images of the civilizations and environments as you can and use you're knowledge of games to decide on sprite types (2D painted, 2D rendered, 3D) and level design. All the design experience in the world can only tell you what was appealing, you're job as a game designer is to figure out what is appealing.

Consider this, in theory you could play a card game without the cards, you could use stones with engraved numbers and symbols but playing cards feel right, they move right and they sound right and card game's were designed by figuring this part out. Cards are the best game asset designed to depict the data the player interacts with. Sketch out the best assets you think display the way players should interact with the simulation you want to explore and if those assets along with the design idea are successful you should be able to attract other developers to the idea and eventually gamers to the game. You might even find after creating the concepts that you are able to produce those assets yourself, there are lots of tools out there to help learn to craft game assets.

Its nice to hear that someone wants to do the work behind you're ideas, but leadership is fueled by passion and the best way to depict passion is to show that you are willing to do the whole thing yourself if you have to.

Hope this helps. Goodluck!