StealthStyleL

Developer



Legally sane.





It was just a joke!

Posts: 1,384

Developer Discussion: BRAAAAAAINS Select Post

Select Post Deselect Post

Deselect Post Link to Post

Link to Post Member Give Gift

Member Back to Top Post by StealthStyleL on



For me, at the moment, I would probably do it in the following way:



Brains are the easier part to talk about. I think it's already the plan that organs will be able to be placed much like parts in Spore were. Therefore, it is simple to just have a "Brain" part. However, brains are very complex and it would be unrealistic for an animal to instantly evolve a fully functioning brain. It should only be placeable as a small group of ganglion at first, not that I know how this would be represented visually. I know it might be clunky, but the best way I can see is to have it be possible to click on the 'brain' each time you enter the Organ Editor, and select to upgrade. This would make the 'brain' increase in size.



This is where intelligence comes in. Whilst the brain is a physical object, intelligence is the product of that brain. I think the easiest way to quantify intelligence is just create stages or maybe a web, where each time you upgrade your brain, you move to the next stage and unlock that facet of intelligence. Simple enough, I think.



The stages of intelligence are quite difficult to work out, part of the reason for this thread. Intelligence is not easy to break down into stages, and I have no first hand of intelligence. Also, aliens brains would not necessarily work the same way. Intelligence must be thought of in terms of gameplay too, obviously, and some facets of intelligence don't work because, unfortunately, it doesn't change the intelligence of players. So it makes no difference to gameplay. Another thing to think about. If I can come up with a list of intelligence upgrades, I'll post it in the future.



Questions to think about: How would you plan this out? Can you think of stages of intelligence? What happens if you have multiple brains? Could aliens brains function differently? How can intelligence affect gameplay? Let me know your thoughts on anything related to the topic. One major aspect of Thrive is to take a species from microbe to civilisation, not that you have to, of course. Naturally, that requires the development of brains and intelligence. I want to start this thread to see what ideas you can come up with on how to handle this.For me, at the moment, I would probably do it in the following way:Brains are the easier part to talk about. I think it's already the plan that organs will be able to be placed much like parts in Spore were. Therefore, it is simple to just have a "Brain" part. However, brains are very complex and it would be unrealistic for an animal to instantly evolve a fully functioning brain. It should only be placeable as a small group of ganglion at first, not that I know how this would be represented visually. I know it might be clunky, but the best way I can see is to have it be possible to click on the 'brain' each time you enter the Organ Editor, and select to upgrade. This would make the 'brain' increase in size.This is where intelligence comes in. Whilst the brain is a physical object, intelligence is the product of that brain. I think the easiest way to quantify intelligence is just create stages or maybe a web, where each time you upgrade your brain, you move to the next stage and unlock that facet of intelligence. Simple enough, I think.The stages of intelligence are quite difficult to work out, part of the reason for this thread. Intelligence is not easy to break down into stages, and I have no first hand of intelligence. Also, aliens brains would not necessarily work the same way. Intelligence must be thought of in terms of gameplay too, obviously, and some facets of intelligence don't work because, unfortunately, it doesn't change the intelligence of players. So it makes no difference to gameplay. Another thing to think about. If I can come up with a list of intelligence upgrades, I'll post it in the future.Questions to think about: How would you plan this out? Can you think of stages of intelligence? What happens if you have multiple brains? Could aliens brains function differently? How can intelligence affect gameplay? Let me know your thoughts on anything related to the topic.

hamof

Microbial





Posts: 1

Microbial Discussion: BRAAAAAAINS Select Post

Select Post Deselect Post

Deselect Post Link to Post

Link to Post Member Give Gift

Member Back to Top Post by hamof on As I understand it, an animal with two brains is called a Human. As we do have two brains. It's just that they communicate so quickly they appear to be a single brain. If an animal had two brains that didn't communicate that quickly, then I don't know that it would be able to function. Not without the brains having some means of predicting each other.



One of the things the size of the brain could act as is a cap on how big the animal could be, larger animals require proportionally larger brains, which is part of why some women having smaller brains than men doesn't make them dumber. (The other thing is that capacity to learn is far more important than raw processing.)



And that's another thing, instinct vs learning. A more advanced brain might be equipped with an enormous capacity to learn but limited inbuilt instinct, this would primarily be represented by the animal taking longer to grow up and gain the ability to do several important things, like walk or meaningfully communicate.

NickTheNick

Administrator







Posts: 430

Administrator Discussion: BRAAAAAAINS February Steam of Foushoo likes this Select Post

Select Post Deselect Post

Deselect Post Link to Post

Link to Post Member Give Gift

Member Back to Top Post by NickTheNick on I had notes on this that I can't find at the moment, but basically yeah the current concept is that you start by placing ganglia and eventually you can evolve one of these into a brain which acts as the central hub of nervous activity to all other ganglia. The brain can develop several subsections (like a neocortex and a cerebellum, I need to find what my notes were on the topic) and evolving these subsections allows you to advance certain elements of your intelligence like memory or learning or socialization. Eventually, when you have made enough developments to your brain and evolved a complex behaviour, you gain sapience.