Adding a Cycle of Life?
TheIdeaCreator
United Kingdom Join Date: 2015-05-25 Member: 204865Members
United Kingdom Join Date: 2015-05-25 Member: 204865Members
Hello again, recently i have been seeing threads about offspring, size variation and even unique qualities to the animals. I personally love the idea and have a small idea i would like to contribute; aging/lifespan. How it works is quite self-explanatory to say the least, each species of animals has a set amount of time they will stay alive, a set time before the species mate and a set time before the child is born and finally, a set time for the child to grow. (That is a lot of time sets, isn't it?) I wont cover every creature but i will try to cover A FEW of the more common ones (Things like Oculus i will skip since they are kind of just a variation of peeper?). Note that the time before mating starts when they reach adulthood/spawn as an adult, also to note is that two adults cannot mate more than once in their lifespan(?). The countdown before a creature dies does not take action until it reaches adulthood(?). Child creatures would stay close to their parents but would slowly move away from them (physical distance) as they grow older until they reach maturity and leave the parents. Child creatures (the edible ones) only provide 1/2 of what the parent creature gives in terms of food and water.
Peeper(And most other passive fish)-
Adult Lifespan: 5-15 Days
Time before mating: 6-8 Days
Time before birth: 2-3 Days
Time before maturity: 3-4 Days
Gasopod-
Adult Lifespan: 12-30 Days
Time before mating: 8-16 Days
Time before birth: 4-6 Days
Time before maturity: 6-10 Days
Stalker-
Adult Lifespan: 9-20 Days
Time before mating: 7-15 Days
Time before birth: 5-7 Days
Time before maturity: 5-9 Days
Reaper-
Adult Lifespan: 35-75 Days
Time before mating: 10-25 Days
Time before birth: 5-9 Days
Time before maturity: 6-10 Days.
(LS) The lifespan of the creature should roughly depend on size; meaning the bigger it is the more likely it is to live longer.
(TbM) The time before mating depends on the lifespan; meaning the longer it lives the longer it will take until it mates.
(TbB) The time before birth is combined with the TbM to form a rough outline; if the time before birth and TbM goes over the limit of their lifespan it cannot be so.
(TbM2) Likewise to TbB the Time before maturity will take around halve or a third of what the TbM takes.
This whole thread was to try and suggest the aging process that could be implimented into subnautica, if you disagree or think changes should be made to this idea then post it in the comments.
Peeper(And most other passive fish)-
Adult Lifespan: 5-15 Days
Time before mating: 6-8 Days
Time before birth: 2-3 Days
Time before maturity: 3-4 Days
Gasopod-
Adult Lifespan: 12-30 Days
Time before mating: 8-16 Days
Time before birth: 4-6 Days
Time before maturity: 6-10 Days
Stalker-
Adult Lifespan: 9-20 Days
Time before mating: 7-15 Days
Time before birth: 5-7 Days
Time before maturity: 5-9 Days
Reaper-
Adult Lifespan: 35-75 Days
Time before mating: 10-25 Days
Time before birth: 5-9 Days
Time before maturity: 6-10 Days.
(LS) The lifespan of the creature should roughly depend on size; meaning the bigger it is the more likely it is to live longer.
(TbM) The time before mating depends on the lifespan; meaning the longer it lives the longer it will take until it mates.
(TbB) The time before birth is combined with the TbM to form a rough outline; if the time before birth and TbM goes over the limit of their lifespan it cannot be so.
(TbM2) Likewise to TbB the Time before maturity will take around halve or a third of what the TbM takes.
This whole thread was to try and suggest the aging process that could be implimented into subnautica, if you disagree or think changes should be made to this idea then post it in the comments.
Comments
It fits right in several proposals I made regarding the ecology. I hope the devs will see it! I'll add your idea to my megathread. Thanks!
Also I'd like the lifespans to be little bit longer.
It would be impressive, if we really see this kind of mechanics in the game, but I think there are easier ways of doing things. Just size variation and stuff is enough. But there's one place where growing should be visible: aquariums.
This of course was just an example, however the reason the lifespans are so short is for one defining reason; are you going to be playing for so long in a one-off gaming session that you will actually see a Reaper or Gasopod die? Most players spend anywhere from 1 day to 10 days in a single session before exiting the game to do other things, when you exit the game all creatures despawn until you log back in so technically their lifespans would reset.
From my old days in programming I'd say this is probably very easy to implement.
The small part of the map that subnautica shows you is the active part, it is "alive" as in rendering graphically for you.
That doesn't mean the rest is set in stone. It's recorded in a database and/or as various flags in memory. Nothing prevents you from changing a flag or a recorded data somewhere inactive. Next time the player goes there, the game will render the area according to the updated data.
Example:
Reaper dies in (say) 5 days.
When born (spawned), the spawned in-game date-time is stored as a property of the object "Repear"
When it despawns because you left the area, the area records the state of the repear to "remember" that it was in that area in case you come back.
When you come back to this area, the game could check the spawned date and compare it with the actual in-game time and notice that it's been 4 day, so now instead of rendering a young reaper, it can render an old repear.
If you come back in 2 additional game-time days, you may find a repear carcass being eaten by other sharks.
If you come back in 5 additional game-time days, you may find the game to be rendering a reaper's skeleton instead.
And if you come back in another 5 days, the reaper might be totally gone.
In the mean time of course, other reapers might be born. etc etc.
It would make the world more immersive, believable and alive. Also the fact that they would breed could change the whole ecosystem topic, because you could bring neophytes to biomes what would play a huge role in an ecosystem simulation.
But i have my doubts about shifting things too much towards a simulation. One thing i learned about game design is, complexity that brings little to no depth to the gameplay, usually confuses or plays no role at all. It doesn't offer much for me as a player given the additional work for the devs.