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Your dream Creatures features   
Jabber

Jabber
United States  


  1/30/2019  2

It's incredible how much can be done in the Creatures games as they are, but the imagination always runs a little wilder than what's possible (or just practical) in reality. What are some of your pie-in-the-sky wishlist items for your dream Creatures game?

I've always wanted the sprites a creature uses to be further subdivided past head-body-arms-legs-tail. To a degree that seems like it should be possible, given that the arms and legs are already made of separate sprites (upper arm/forearm + hand, thigh/calf/foot); they just all use images from the same breed slot. Past that, though, I'd also want hands to be separate from the forearms (+ articulated at the wrist, with a few poses like open/neutral, holding something, and fist/closed), the body to be split into "torso" and "abdomen" pieces (with a "waist" joint where they meet, adding another point of articulation), and, most complicated of all, the head to be made of individual parts. The best way I can think of to break it up would be "base head", "hair 1", "hair 2", "ears", "eyes", and "muzzle"; the muzzle would comprise both the mouth and the nose, and the hair sprites would be for any kind of head decoration, like female Aquanorns' spikes. The features would be attached to designated areas on the base head sprite, layered over each other accordingly, and animated together on the fly.

Overall this would make for MUCH more varied creatures, both ones that look good and ones that look like complete abominations, which is all part of the fun if you ask me [nlaugh]

 
Dragoler
Wrong Banshee

Dragoler


 visit Dragoler's website: TWB Development Thread
  1/30/2019  1

I wish all items had CA scents attached to them, I wish for Creatures to have better spacial awareness so they don't stare up at food they can't reach, or walk over ledges. I'd like all areas to have proper heat, light and sound emitters that depend on biome, season and time of day, and most importantly, I'd like for Creatures to be able to sense and react to these things. There was too much left unfinished in C3/DS.

Besides those things, I guess a more balanced ecosystem that can also evolve.


Creator of the TWB/TCB genome base.

 
Delcron

Delcron



  1/30/2019

I'd like a lot of things, but one of the main ones is a C3/DS ecosystem that doesn't completely implode on itself in five minutes.
 
DilonShuniikke

DilonShuniikke



  1/30/2019  2

I'm fascinated by the breeding elements in this game, so I definitely agree more potential for unique appearances would me wonderful!
I'd definitely enjoy the possibility for Norns to inherit more specific features, like ear shape, nose length, hair, size of body parts, presence or absence of horns/wings/etc instead of just "head of this breed OR head of that breed". It would require way more work to make breeds, I'll say, but speaking purely as someone fantasizing about a game that doesn't exist, that would be the ideal for me :)

Imagine being able to breed a line of "fancy Norns" similar to fancy pigeons or chickens!!


Flib dis
 
Neon_Sky

Neon_Sky



  1/30/2019

Access to genetic engineering in game with a nice, clean GUI. More genetic diversity. Actual genetics, in fact, that way I could breed for leucistic, erythristic, melanistic, and albino variations as well as different pattern morphs.

I would also like a god darn working ecosystem that doesn't die within fifteen minutes of starting a new world. I am sick of restocking those fish ponds. XD



 
Papriko
Peppery One

Papriko



  1/31/2019  1

Being able to read out the sprites a creature uses, other than the head. Maybe even 2 ways to read out, one that checks what the creature tries to access and one that checks which sprites are actually used (e.g. to check whether the game substituted a body part or not).

I bet we could have a lot of fun with this, for example some improved version of the tombstone creator that actually shows a statue of the deceased creature.


Lets play plants! Photosynthesis... Photosynthesis... Photosynthesis...
 
Jabber

Jabber



  2/3/2019

On the same note as a more robust ecosystem and creatures being able to interact with the world more, I wish injury and illness played a bigger role. The environments in Creatures are so safe and sterile, and the few hazards so trivial to avoid, that the biggest threat to any creatures' well-being is the limitations of their own brain. Having a thriving population of creatures would feel more meaningful if it wasn't just a matter of setting up the environment so they can't stupid themselves to death.

(And along with increased danger would come the ability for the player to protect against it, of course.)

 
Civvi

Civvi


 visit Civvi's website: Tumblr
  2/5/2019

I'm gonna put my vote in for a stable ecosystem as well, haha.
I also second more inherited traits, such as ear type, hair, coat pattern, tail type, etc.

As for what I want the most... Honestly I would love if the different life stages FELT more different. Maybe infant norns would have fluffier fur an couln't open their eyes, and adolescent norns would have the highest penchant for exploring among the stages, I don't know. I don't know how possible it is either all I know is that it sounds really interesting to see in the game.

Also how cool would it be if norns could hunt. Like wait for birds to land then pounce. Right now they don't feel very omnivore and it would be cool to see that explored.



 
Lurhstaap

Lurhstaap


 visit Lurhstaap's website: Addicted To CAOS
  2/5/2019  1

The best I've got for hunting behavior is getting my dragons to do a lot of "get critter" and then "hit critter" *before* doing "eat critter", instead of just always flying/walking/swimming up and going eat critter right away, like picking a berry. Not exactly hunting, still, but better than nothing. :p

Some amount of life stage stuff is actually easy to do. The fluffier babies is only a sprite difference. Just make their sprites have always closed eyes, and look fluffier. You can make genes activate at different life stages, so you could do the roaming Adolescent thing, too.

In fact, my dragons work like that, only the other way around. Babies tend to stick close to adults, but by the time they hit Child they lose that instinct and begin to roam. They spend their long Child stage exploring. When they hit Adolescence, the "Seek Other Norns When Homesick" gene kicks on. They continue to explore for a while because it takes them time to get homesick enough to want to return to a group (they like to roam in pairs or sometimes trios, which keeps them from getting too homesick or lonely during the roaming stage).

But eventually they start seeking each other out and forming colonies. The colonies tend to relocate, break up and reform, and so on. The adults stay more or less settled, but still explore or move between colonies. And their offspring do the whole cycle again.

As for more danger, this can be done by adding weeds and beasts. They can learn not to eat weeds or play with beasts if the consequences suck but aren't insta-fatal.

Those comments aside, I have much the same wishlist of hunting and more of a danger scale between the current extremes of "Pure Eden" and "Crapsack World".

Also. Smarter brains that can learn in sequence: I'm hungry + I smell food above me + there is an elevator nearby = push elevator to get to the food. Right now, Norns can be made to act like that, kind of, but they don't *know* that's what they're doing. They just happen to be hungry, and to have an instinct to approach food smells when hungry, and they also happen to like playing with elevators, so they often end up playing with the elevator at the right time and getting onto the same floor with the food. And then they can just smell the food and walk to it. But they can't consciously think, "I'm hungry, I smell food above me, and there's an elevator - I will push elevator now so I can approach food next."



Conclude with killer catchphrase.
(Lurhstaap)
"This is not knowledge -
this is information!"
New Model Army, "Courage"

 
Dragoler
Wrong Banshee

Dragoler


 visit Dragoler's website: TWB Development Thread
  2/5/2019

Lurhstaap wrote:
They just happen to be hungry, and to have an instinct to approach food smells when hungry, and they also happen to like playing with elevators, so they often end up playing with the elevator at the right time and getting onto the same floor with the food. And then they can just smell the food and walk to it. But they can't consciously think, "I'm hungry, I smell food above me, and there's an elevator - I will push elevator now so I can approach food next."



This isn't actually how it works, navigation is controlled by a script. Creatures will follow a scent to a CA link, then a script kicks in and gives them a navigation drive and THAT is what causes them to use the elevator, not just boredom and a penchant for playing with buttons. I do however agree that not requiring a script for this behavior would be ideal.


Creator of the TWB/TCB genome base.

 
Lurhstaap

Lurhstaap


 visit Lurhstaap's website: Addicted To CAOS
  2/6/2019

Fair enough. Point stands though - they're not able to think in sequences and I wish they could. :(

Conclude with killer catchphrase.
(Lurhstaap)
"This is not knowledge -
this is information!"
New Model Army, "Courage"

 
Jabber

Jabber



  3/11/2019

If there was some kind of community-produced Creatures installment, there are so many breeds I would love to see reworked and promoted to "official" status. My top 5 nominations would probably be:

#1: An aquatic breed for all 4 species. It's what the people want.
#2: Gargoyle and Draconian Norns, listed together because I would merge them into one breed. Flighted, carnivorous, cold-blooded, and with a unique reptilian face. There should also be flying breeds of the other species, but not with the same reptilian theme. The aquatic breeds in #1 would also have different themes.
#3: Plant Norns, or a "plant" version of any species, maybe Geat. There's a unique concept there that can be greatly expanded upon.
#4: Tiger Grendels. They're beautiful and distinctly mammalian compared to other Grendel breeds, and could be made into desert-dwellers to contrast with the "typical" Grendels' swamp/jungle habitat.
#5: Cupid Heart/Poodle Ettins. I imagine them as sort of aloof of other creatures, but friendly, domestic, and dependent on the hand for care, like a spoiled housecat who thinks they're hot stuff instead of a wild animal. I feel like that's a fun direction to take the usually earth-toned, flat-affected, self-sufficient Ettin.

Plus, of course, a return of all the official breeds from the Cyberlife games. If it wasn't done in the base game, it'd be one of the first things people would add. [nlaugh]

 
Rosiria

Rosiria



  5/3/2019

I would like to see a more advanced family system. The game would automatically know who the selected creature's mom/sister/cousin etc. are, and prevent inbreeding.

Also hair genes.

 


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