Procedurally generated alien life forms

scrufferpops

scrufferpops
Its great having a procedural generation technique for generating solar systems and planets, but once planetary landing is fully up and running (A year after release, I hear), what about a procedural generation technique for generating local flora and fauna on planets where there's local life?

As I believe it's (eventually) going to be possible to land on an alien planet and explore on foot, it then becomes almost required to have some sort of procedural generation for the local life forms

Am I going too far? This could be A BTL (Shadowrun term standing for 'Better Than Life) :p
 

NeilRoy

N
Would be quite cool to see procedurally generated images of aliens. That should technically be doable.
Think there should also be procedurally generated fashion too...
So in some cases - the same aliens -- spread throughout the galaxy with different fashions on different planets.
 

scrufferpops

scrufferpops
They wouldn't necessarily be intelligent species...They would, for the vast 99% majority be alien life that hasn't evolved intellectually yet...Beasts, if you will.
 

scrufferpops

scrufferpops
And they could, due to procedural generation, come in a wide varieties of colours, shapes and sizes...Imagine green flamingos 4 times the size of a giraffe, and with 2 heads....
 

scrufferpops

scrufferpops
Exploitation potential is endless...One system could require that flamingo's meat so you set off for planet 'x' 8 lightyears away, land, get out your ship and bag one of them and put it into your cargo hold and sell back at the system where maybe they're a delicacy.
 

scrufferpops

scrufferpops
And while your'e bagging a said flamingo, you could be assailed by their natural predator on the planet, a house sized crocodile with 16 legs...
 

Patrick_68000

Patrick_68000
I think Frontier has already planned to use procedural generation for the flora and fauna billions of star systems. I'm really excited for planetary landings and fly over the magnificent landscapes.
 

Bearhug67

B
Exploring planets

It would be lovely if we could have later when we can land on planets opportunities to bring with our ship all kind of devices to fly ot float around, travel on or beneath rivers, lakes and oceans.
To spice things up there might be contracts for players to explore planet X flora or fauna for particular reasons, finding food sources, 'more-then-usual' intelligent beasts for scientists and/or zoo's.
Imagine a Hatari like trip or like in Jurassic park, reaching from simple exploring to hunting, searching for pharmaceutical substances, food, rare treasures like jewels or rare metals, scouting out sites of interest for tourism or for real estate, building someone ot yoruself a home in case you might like to settle down....for a while ;)
 

Capt. Hook

Capt. Hook
Would procedural generation go so as to far as to include specific effects of player actions on worlds?

Let me explain. On earth back in the day, oxygen levels were much higher than today giving rise to gigantic insects - dragonflies with meter wingspans and whatnot. Of course, lightning strikes on such an oxygen rich environment would cause enormous wildfires as the fossil record/geology shows. Anyhoo, imagine flying to such a world to see such alien critters in this sort of environment. Surely, landing a spacecraft with retro thrusters and the like firing would set the local environment ablaze long before you stepped out of the ship?

So to access such environments, would players need some special sort of ship to land there or is this whole train of thought taking procedural generation etc a step too far?
 

Cosmo Bozo

Cosmo Bozo
scrufferpops said:
And they could, due to procedural generation, come in a wide varieties of colours, shapes and sizes...Imagine green flamingos 4 times the size of a giraffe, and with 2 heads....
Click to expand...
I'd like the aliens to at least be believable. So yes to procedurally generated life, but no thanks to surreal for the sake of it like that.
There should be a reason something has evolved how it has, and that reason shouldn't be someones overactive imagination.
 

Slawkenbergius

Slawkenbergius
Capt. Hook said:
Let me explain. On earth back in the day, oxygen levels were much higher than today giving rise to gigantic insects - dragonflies with meter wingspans and whatnot.
Click to expand...

I don't think that Frontier can really account for player actions to the extent you suggest. It would probably be madness, as everyone would go around committing arson just for hoots.

The bit of knowledge about oxygen levels and insect size is very cool though, and I'd love to see that taken into account when populating planets with alien life-forms.
 

Cosmo Bozo

Cosmo Bozo
The things that limit the size of earth creatures, gravity, oxygen content, etc.. would be different on other worlds, leading to the possibilty of massive life forms. Also there might be aquatic life... the largest creature ever known is the blue whale.... still swimming around today.
 

Bearhug67

B
Capt. Hook said:
On earth back in the day, oxygen levels were much higher than today giving rise to gigantic insects - dragonflies with meter wingspans and whatnot. Of course, lightning strikes on such an oxygen rich environment would cause enormous wildfires as the fossil record/geology shows. Anyhoo, imagine flying to such a world to see such alien critters in this sort of environment. Surely, landing a spacecraft with retro thrusters and the like firing would set the local environment ablaze long before you stepped out of the ship?

So to access such environments, would players need some special sort of ship to land there or is this whole train of thought taking procedural generation etc a step too far?
Click to expand...

I think that would be not THAT bad as such a highly volatile world would have already seen doom long before seeing any retro thrusters by a single lightning bolt ;)
Still, neat idea as such high oxygen level environments could be also aritical on some stations or ships and be a fire hazard ;)
 

Bearhug67

B
Patrick_68000 said:
I hope there will be as large creatures in the game
Click to expand...

I am sure such a large creature put a dent into your shore leave ;)

I am less worried about large creatures which you should be able to see miles away.
Imagine small creatures slipping in your ship and you cause later possible parasite issues on agricultural places because YOUR ship brought space herpe to their world...oops...wrong movie ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-me2inj1nNw
In space no one can hear your scritching...until you reach custom ;p
 

Elrawkum

E
Capt. Hook said:
So to access such environments, would players need some special sort of ship to land there or is this whole train of thought taking procedural generation etc a step too far?
Click to expand...

Ships could have modifications done to them which allow transit into hostile environments - e.g. chassis structural strengthening, which might allow transit to high pressure environments such as water worlds or deeper into gas giants. Specialised coatings which might protect your ship from corrosive atmospheres (like Venus), extra heat-shielding, anti-freeze, etc. These would cost money, take up space, might involve a little bit of searching for a world which supplies them and so on.

Heavy gravity worlds present a problem - with no anti-grav, just approaching them might be painful, and you'd only be able to crawl planet-side, without assistance, if it wasn't outright fatal. Your ship might not have a problem, but the fragile bag of water that pilots it...

Flooding your compartment with some kind of aerobic gel might get around this, allowing pilots willing to take the risk to approach potentially rich heavy gravity worlds otherwise inaccessible to life not used to such conditions. Or use robots.
 

loststargirl

loststargirl
I would LOVE to see this!!

With probability for intelligent life please. If some species develop space flight this game will never have a moment you'd seen it all!

Can this be programmed? seriously? It's just amazing how technology developed so far!
 

bitrogue

bitrogue
loststargirl said:
I would LOVE to see this!!

With probability for intelligent life please. If some species develop space flight this game will never have a moment you'd seen it all!

Can this be programmed? seriously? It's just amazing how technology developed so far!
Click to expand...

Well, they've expressed their desire to be able to populate worlds with abundant animal life and vegetation, go game hunting or walk around cities. Exactly how far they can go is anyones guess (and dream).

I've been wondering if its possible to fly up to a river source, drop my canoe on the water and paddle downstream and see what adventures you can have. I even imagine you might encounter forests, river canyons, deserts, wild animals or the relics of ancient civilizations, like imagine paddling between the Sentinels of Numenor in Lord of the Rings.
 
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