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Outline design of research systems (#168)
* Summarize research options * Refine research goals with Sixfold * Initial notes for assimilation with Sixfold * Add initial notes on genetics research * Outline of hive mind system * Fix broken link * Proofreading <3 Co-authored-by: TimJentzsch <[email protected]> * Add intelligence as an implied theme (Sixfold) * Differentiate milestones and acheivemetns (Tim) * Add links to glossary for upgrade options Co-authored-by: TimJentzsch <[email protected]>
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| # Assimilation | ||
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| When the player **assimilates** a species, they domesticate it, learning how to care for and reproduce it, and bringing it into the broader multi-species hive. | ||
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| Assimilation serves several gameplay purposes: | ||
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| 1. Gate wildly different technology in a visually distinctive way. | ||
| 2. Tutorialize the process of caring for a new species. | ||
| 3. Give players a reason to care about and get excited by the flora and fauna they see around them. | ||
| 4. Encourage players to explore new areas. | ||
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| In order to assimilate a species you must: | ||
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| 1. Study the species in the wild for a time. | ||
| 1. You must observe key life cycle events, which unlocks that section of their encyclopedia entry. | ||
| 2. Capture a number of specimens of a species. | ||
| 3. Keep that population alive for several life cycles. | ||
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| Once you have assimilated a new species, you unlock control over [genetics](genetics.md) for that species, and can build reproductive structures for that species. | ||
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| ## Implied Constraints | ||
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| - players should be able to tame almost anything they meet | ||
| - players must be able to clearly differentiate between tamed and wild organisms of the same type | ||
| - species must be mechanically and visually distinct | ||
| - you cannot have 3 species of dragonflies! | ||
| - this is because players must be able to clearly tell when an encountered species is new to them | ||
| - there must be a moderate number of species in the game | ||
| - with too few species, players will get bored | ||
| - with too many species, finding and understanding each species will explode complexity and development costs | ||
| - exploration becomes an important game mechanic | ||
| - map cannot start fully visible | ||
| - different species must live in different regions | ||
| - each species must have an interesting life cycle that players must learn about and master | ||
| - survival, feeding and reproduction are the obvious choices | ||
| - unique / interesting / challenging behavior is also a good option | ||
| - progression must be robust: there must be many paths to the same resources and comparable tools | ||
| - each pathway should feel meaningfully distinct: this plays well with unique life cycles | ||
| - [_Against the Storm_](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1336490/Against_the_Storm/) and [_Oxygen Not Included_](https://store.steampowered.com/app/457140/Oxygen_Not_Included/) do a fantastic job of this |
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| # Genetics | ||
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| **Genetics** allows the player to modify species that are [part of their hive](assimilation.md). | ||
| In this menu, players can: | ||
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| 1. Unlock **mutations** for a species. | ||
| 1. These can add new options for the species. | ||
| 2. These can also dramatically improve the species in some axis to open up a new role for it. | ||
| 2. Create a new **strain** of a species. | ||
| 1. Strains are part of the same species, and share an unlocked upgrade pool. | ||
| 2. Each strain can select a different set of mutations. | ||
| 3. Assign mutations to a specific strain. | ||
| 1. Choices are not locked in, but changing them comes with a cost. | ||
| 4. Configure other strain-level settings, such as signal responses. | ||
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| The mechanics for assigning mutations are fairly simple: | ||
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| 1. There are some number of slots for each species, typically corresponding to some visible part of their body. | ||
| 2. Each strain may select up to 1 mutation for each slot. | ||
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| To unlock mutations, you must accquire resources, and perform research at a dedicated species-specific facility. | ||
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| Creating strains and changing strain-level settings (other than to select the first mutation for each slot) comes with some cost to avoid thoughtless twiddling. | ||
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| ## Realism | ||
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| This, unsurprisingly, is a wildly "unrealistic" model of genetics and crop / livestock breeding. | ||
| It is, however [plausible](../glossary.md#plausibility-and-realism), as it *feels* like genetics and synergizes with the game's aesthetics. | ||
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| Very briefly, there are some key facts about real genetics, and why they make bad game mechanics: | ||
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| - genetics involves random mutation | ||
| - yes, and [output randomness](../glossary.md#randomness) is generally frustrating | ||
| - most mutations have no effect | ||
| - wow, so exciting | ||
| - strains aren't genetically homogenous | ||
| - this is extremely hard to convey to players | ||
| - this is very frustrating at a scale of hundreds to thousands of organisms | ||
| - this is likely to have a significant performance cost | ||
| - not all functional mutations are visible | ||
| - yes, but players need to be able to tell what's going on | ||
| - cross-breeding is complicated and involves carefully selecting lines and genetic analysis | ||
| - yes, and that's not what this game is about | ||
| - traits typically show complex genetic patterns of dominance and recession and polygenetic origins | ||
| - yes, and that's not what this game is about | ||
| - eusocial insects have really complicated chromosomes! | ||
| - yes, I know: if it adds gameplay value we can make a nod to that | ||
| - eugenics is Very Bad | ||
| - yes! | ||
| - plant and animal breeding is generally accepted as ethical however | ||
| - don't capture people and subjugate them to the hivemind and force them to breed, okay? | ||
| - ~~unless they're into that~~ | ||
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| Again, this game is [*inspired* by biology, not a model of it](../high-level/game-thesis.md). | ||
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| ## Implied Constraints | ||
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| - each upgrade must be visually distinguishable | ||
| - this follows from the [key design constraints](../high-level/game-thesis.md#key-design-constraints) | ||
| - strains must be visually distinguishable | ||
| - this should be done via player-driven color selection | ||
| - all combinations of mutations across different slots should be compatible | ||
| - incompatible mutations must belong to the same slot | ||
| - mutations should typically represent an increase in power over their base version | ||
| - unlocking new mutations should be exciting and worth the resource investment | ||
| - every upgrade slot should have at least one "generally good" upgrade | ||
| - mutations within the same slot should have clear tradeoffs between them | ||
| - [double-edged](../glossary.md#double-edged) upgrades are particularly good for this |
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| # Hive Mind Upgrades | ||
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| High-level play of factory builders involves understanding a *tremendous* amount of information and using an enormous number of [quality of life](../glossary.md#quality-of-life) tools. | ||
| This can be overwhelming, and detracts from the new player experience. | ||
| However, simply excluding these tools makes managing late-game factories effectively very hard, and will frustrate genre veterans. | ||
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| To deal with this tension, many of these tools are traditionally buried in menu settings, hidden behind keybinds or relegated to mods. | ||
| However, there's a better approach: enable them slowly over time in a [diagetic](../glossary.md#diagetic) way. | ||
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| In *Emergence*, the player controls the hive as a whole. | ||
| We can play into this theme by framing quality of life and information upgrades as the hive mind getting smarter. | ||
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| To differentiate these further from [genetics](genetics.md) research, these upgrades don't cost resources. | ||
| Instead, they unlock as various milestones are completed for each playthrough. | ||
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| These upgrades are arranged in a tree structure: both for complexity management and because many of these upgrades are logically locked behind earlier ones. | ||
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| Each upgrade can be toggled on-and-off freely in the same menu, so players can control the information they're viewing. | ||
| When unlocked, these begin in the off state, but an alert notifies the player that they've unlocked a new hive mind upgrade. | ||
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| ## Upgrade options | ||
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| Several categories of [upgrade](../glossary.md#upgrade) belong here: | ||
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| - basic upgrades | ||
| - these are too important to [early game](../glossary.md#early-game-mid-game-and-late-game) [quality of life](../glossary.md#quality-of-life) and [tutorialization](../glossary.md#tutorialization) to be gated behind all but the most basic achievements | ||
| - [alerts](../glossary.md#alert) | ||
| - [undo/redo](../glossary.md#undo) | ||
| - [pipette](../glossary.md#pipette) | ||
| - [clipboard](../glossary.md#clipboard) | ||
| - basic [encyclopedia](../glossary.md#encyclopedia) | ||
| - zoning strength | ||
| - pheromones | ||
| - terraforming | ||
| - [map](../glossary.md#map) | ||
| - informational upgrades | ||
| - local, regional and global [production statistics](../glossary.md#production-statistics) | ||
| - [recipe](../glossary.md#recipe) lookups | ||
| - organism statistics | ||
| - soil and water statistics | ||
| - signal [overlays](../glossary.md#overlay) | ||
| - geographical status [overlays](../glossary.md#overlay) | ||
| - organism intent and actions | ||
| - expanded [encyclopedia](../glossary.md#encyclopedia) entries | ||
| - simulation [sandbox](../glossary.md#sandbox) upgrades | ||
| - this is a special creative mode, used to test designs quickly and at no cost | ||
| - time is paused while in this mode | ||
| - further upgrades unlock the ability to further modify environmental conditions, speed up time, get more space and so on | ||
| - production planner capabilties belong in this tree | ||
| - [quality-of-life](../glossary.md#quality-of-life) upgrades | ||
| - [blueprints](../glossary.md#blueprint) | ||
| - customizable [alerts](../glossary.md#alert) | ||
| - map [notes](../glossary.md#notes) | ||
| - [complexity](../glossary.md#depth-and-complexity) upgrades | ||
| - [assimilation](assimilation.md) | ||
| - [genetics](genetics.md) research | ||
| - maximum number of strains of each species | ||
| - tame and perform genetics research on multiple species at once | ||
| - complex game mechanics unlocked via genetics research | ||
| - [research](../glossary.md#research) queues | ||
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| Players can choose to opt out of this system during [world generation](../glossary.md#world-generation), allowing them to access all of the complexity at the very beginning. | ||
| This is mostly useful for genre veterans and experienced players. | ||
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| ## Implied constraints | ||
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| - *Emergence* must have an achievement system | ||
| - unlocking milestones for the first time should grant an achievement | ||
| - achievements must be tracked on a per-playthrough basis | ||
| - achievements used in this system should be achievable in every playthrough by every player | ||
| - achievements should show progress towards the goal | ||
| - achievements should be conceptually tied to the type of tool they unlock | ||
| - informational upgrades should come when you need that new information for example | ||
| - we must have a handful of very basic achievements to unlock the key early-game tools and introduce these systems to players ASAP | ||
| - this system of upgrades is one of the main forms of [tutorialization](../glossary.md#tutorialization) | ||
| - achievements must be shared between players in a multiplayer game | ||
| - each achievement should have a run-specific in-game reward | ||
| - intelligence, and the development of intelligence, becomes a theme of the game |
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| # Research | ||
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| [Research](../glossary.md#research) is the primary mechanism of progression in the [factory builder genre](../high-level/genre-analysis.md). | ||
| Raw resources are transformed and then consumed to unlock new options and receive permanent boosts to effectiveness. | ||
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| Research serves many goals: | ||
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| 1. Provide a meaningful, nearly limitless sink for raw resources. | ||
| 1. Most other resource sinks ultimately *improve* the rate of resource extraction and refinement! | ||
| 2. Gate [complexity](../glossary.md#depth-and-complexity), by slowly unfolding options throughout the game. | ||
| 1. This feels more meaningful and is less patronizing as players can choose the order, and control the rate of unlocks. | ||
| 3. Provides a sense of [progression](../glossary.md#progression) and rewards players for their successes. | ||
| 4. Provide players with an outlet for mechanical [creativity](../high-level/creative-automation.md), by allowing players to choose how their playthrough unfolds. | ||
| 1. In most games, this effect is quite limited, as you are steadily unlocking a fixed tree with limited actual freedom. | ||
| 5. Showcases late-game mechanics to let players plan and get them excited about how cool it's going to be. | ||
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| In *Emergence*, there are three distinct forms of research: [assimilation](assimilation.md) (capturing new species), [genetics](genetics.md) (refining and branching existing species) and [hive mind upgrades](hive-mind-upgrades.md) (increasing information and direct player upgrades). | ||
| These are primarily split for thematic cohesion, but that choice also serves to increase system richness and add more interesting and distinct end goals. |