Awoken

I'm sure this question has been asked before, but in grumpyOldDude's post about growing out of games I kinda felt like talking about the time I've been the most obsessive about a game and am curious to know what you all consider to be the most obsessive you've been about a game. So, what' the most obsessive you've been over a game? for me that title easily goes to counter-strike ~1.3 to 1.6. I bought my first computer to... that's right, play counter-strike. I bought surround sound speakers and built a little hole in my basement to immerse myself in counter-strike. I've lost more hours to counter-strike than probably any other game. And it was hard, I remember when I first started playing I would just die endlessly and maybe get a kill every now and then. I so badly wanted to be like the guys at #1 in a match. Then slowly I got better and better and have my own domination stories I'm still fond of to this day. I lived and breathed cs_italy, that was my map. hahaha

I can rarely get into games these days. I enjoy thinking about what my game could be then actually seeing what other games are. Maybe twice to three times a year I'll lose a weekend or maybe even a week to a game.

Thanks, some of those photos I no longer have.

My question is... I noticed the pictures that were attached to older blog entries are no longer visible. Is this a permanent thing affecting all blog entries prior to the update? Would I need to go through and re-attach them? It was nice seeing the visual history of my project.

I am fascinated by the origins of life. I love entertaining ideas about where this all came from, and why and what is subjective experience? Is conscious experience really just an inevitable expression of the brain and free-will is just an illusion as Daniel Dennet suggests, or is it an essential ingredient in defining self-organising systems as Christopher Langan says ( My own interpretation of the his mad...?? genius ), or is it a waste of mental energy thinking insight could be gleaned from the unknowable. Anyways, if you're on board so far I'd like to say that I'm particularly fascinated by Pilobolus fungus. The first time I saw Pilobolus fungus on BBC documentary 'Life' I was just in awe. How does such a thing achieve such complexity? Especially since fungi came before cellular life.. so interesting. So one day while at work I came up with a proposed computer simulation that could ~kinda~ simulate the life cycle of Pilobolus fungus. I'm going to be making up a whole lot here and I'm going to make a lot of erroneous assumptions about the complexity of cells. I'm hoping someone who knows what they're talking about can show me the errors in logic. When I talk of 'system' I mean the actual Pilobolus fungus, o.k I'll try my best to convey the idea: - Within the fungus is DNA containing instructions/chemical bonds which have developed in complexity over the many iterations of the self-organising system. Through inevitable external/environmental interactions, the fungal spore synthesises and facilitates the processing of billions of chemical bonds resulting in RNA. Through similar processes mentioned in the previous sentence Protein bonds begin to fill the system. O.k, this is where I just simplify the hell out of this idea, so the system creates protein A, B, C, D and E. Each Protein has a bonding-potential given the right external conditions. At first the single spore develops a disproportionate amount of Protein A, which is good because protein A is responsible for cellular division ( hyphae ). Mean while Proteins B through E just slowly build up in concentration. Eventually the concentration of Protein B reaches a point where it's forced to develop an equilibrium with it's surrounding environment (thanks to maybe sunlight, moisture, dryness, nitrogen...) as a result a new type of structure emerges ( stalk ). Perhaps with the addition of the stalk a new set of environmental conditions allow for protein C to begin doing its bonds to achieve an equilibrium and develops the ( cap ). Now the cap happens to have an elastic component to it. As moisture is pushed to the extremities of the system the concentration of protein D builds up and creates a sort of one-way valve/gate, and moisture begins to accumulate within the cap. Eventually the whole system develops an equilibrium with its external environment and an equilibrium within itself. Once this state is achieved the system begins to self-germinate ( or it begins to foster the creation of spores within the system ). These spores are pushed to the extremities of the system and are trapped behind the one-way gate. Eventually the cap bursts. Protein E does nothing significant during this iteration.- What do you think?

That is true, you can pause all the mentioned games and yes this game could not be paused; at least not the multiplayer version of it. This is something I've thought about a lot... What I've drafted up borrows elements from traditional browser games in that the player can only do so much at any given time. Like most browser games, which can not be paused, the player's choice of action is restricted into 'time-blocks' so to say. A player only needs to attend their game session for an hour or two max per day and over the course of many weeks, even months do they see their efforts pay-off. A big difference that I can see between the game I'm creating and traditional browser games is just how dynamic and organic an experience could potentially be given that the game's session is dependent on thousands of interacting AI. menyo, do you like the games I've mentioned ( civ, sim-city, 4X), If so, what do you think about this idea I've had running in my head. Yeah, some players will have a heavy advantage because they commit more time manicuring their simulation; however, I was thinking of incorporating gaming bonuses which could be earned within a different game session. So let me explain the idea a bit: --During the course of one game session you're playing, and thanks by the way for playing , you've managed to build up a pretty sizeable tribe. You've developed some healthy farms, raided a few surrounding tribes for booty and your tribe boasts over 100 simulin. Things are looking good and you've spent an hour or so every night just making sure things are running smoothly. One day you return to your game session and find out your tribe has been raided and you're 20 strongest have been deleted, 50 taken for work and 20 deserted you. Now you only have 10 simulin left and everything you've built has been decimated. Things seem bleak, why carry on?... Your 10 remaining simulin, and the 50 which are under another player's suppression, now have a conditional moral bonus modifier which can be unlocked. Maybe not immediately, but over the course of time if you are able to build up strength, raid and free your former simulin, you'd unlock your heroic bonus and now you'd have a unique bonus which would not be available during a regular game session.-- anyways, this is a pretty good description of how I hope the game session could turn out, what do you think menyo?

Embassy, steal away buddy!  hahaha. Thanks everyone for your feedback.  I've been kinda pondering your responses and thinking about what direction I'm going to pursue.  Right now I think what I need to do is actually present something to try out and see what people think then.

Ahh anyways.... "I remember what the internet was like before it was being watched and there has never been anything in the history of man like it.  I mean you could have children in one part of the world having an equal discussion, where you know they were sort of granted the same respect for their ideas and conversation with experts in the field from another part of the world on any topic any where any time All the time.  And it was free and it was unrestrained and we've seen the chilling of that, the cooling of that, the changing of that model towards something where people self police their own views and they literally make jokes about ending up on the list if they donate to a political cause or say something in a discussion.  It's become an expectation that we're being watched.  Many people I've talked have mentioned that they are careful about what they type into a search engines because they know it's being recorded and that limits the boundaries of their intellectual exploration"  -Edward Snowden, Citizenfour ( 2014 )  What interesting times we live in.

quillbolth, well you're right about a lot of what you said.  What I'm trying to do is attempt to match player expectations with provided content.  No Man Sky case in point.  The trick for me is to marry my own motivation( that which I mentioned in my original post ), player expectation and finally the actual content of the game I able to create.  In order for me to reach this lofty vision I've had to trim a lot of what you'd see in games like Civilization, GoodGame Empire and Ages.  But on the other hand I've drafted up concepts for game-play I personally have never seen in a game before, or at least certain elements.

Prinz Eugn, What you did looks incredible!  Thank you so much.  I am literally going to incorporate most if not all of your suggestions.  I'd like to capture that colour pallet you've used.  Thank you so much for the feedback, it is very much appreciated. ninnghazad, yeah that is a good idea, I was thinking about clustering the trees at further zoomed out levels... not sure yet how to do it.  One tricky thing I have to work with is there is full zooming capabilities with this.  You can zoom all the way in on a person, or all the way out on the whole planet.  So the style needs to look decent enough at all zoom levels. This actually reminds me of a documentary I watched about Frank Lloyd Wright.  When he designs a building he designs it at multiple zooms.  He makes a small model and pretends to look at it as from an airplane or helicopter.  Then a medium model and pretends to be looking at it from within the city down the streets.  Then another yet large as though you're standing right in front of it. 

Oh boy, o.k  I'll try to figure those links out.  Thanks.

Hello.  So I'm making this game that is set on a planet.  The whole planet is rendered with about half a million faces.  I'm using a directional light; however, there is a specific rim of lighting effect that looks optimal and shows off the contuors of the planet nicely.  If I use an ambient light then the effects of face normals are disregarded.  Does anyone have proposed ideas on how to light a whole sphere uniformly.  Showing off contours and what not?

hahaha, that is awesome!  do you have this site up and running?

huh, this looks interesting.  Is this a game?  If so what's it all about?

It's a big idea, imagine a game that is like Civilization, but real time.  A real-time Civilization. It's a game where you play online with dozens, maybe even hundreds of other players. The Civilization building process is simulated, much like how Sim-city simulates City Building. It's a browser game and a game session could take weeks to months to complete.   The simulation continues while you are away, much like traditional browser games. My attempt at this idea is to simulate thousands of individual people who'd make up these Tribes, Communities and Civilizations. Each possessing their own needs and wants.  Participating together to simulate things like trade, wealth, war and conquest. If you're a fan of games like Civilization, Sim-City and 4X games, what do you think of this proposed game?  What are your thoughts, ideas?