Hey, the goal of thumbnails is to (1) inform what the video will be about, and (2) attract attention, so the reasoning here is that if the main topic of the video (seducing mates) is also likely attract attention, I will give it space in the thumbnail. Very open to feedback though!
Can't wait for more bird parts like air sacs, wattles, and stridulating feathers. Also saw another guy say that attractive parts should have an energy requirements, which was an awesome idea
That's a crazy big change in the look of the creatures! Multiple colours, Flashy Bodyparts, multiple bodyparts per section. Good job dude! Very excited about the update!
I can’t wait for the inevitable random mutation world we’re gonna see to show how all these awesome things come about naturally those are some of my favorite videos.
1:50 Don't procedurally create a texture, you're gonna unnecessary max out your VRam. Change the UVs of the mesh. This might also fix the flashing of the patter while resizing the horns.
Hey, thanks for thinking along on the tech stuff! You're definitely right about the second part. About the first part: perhaps my thinking is too narrow minded, but I feel doing it with just UVs is not possible, although I cannot explain why without pictures... perhaps in a future devlog!
Now I'm curious as to how difficult it would be to add a Toxicity feature, where animals that are poisonous or venomous would use aposematism - the use of bright colors to signal that an animal isn't worth attacking - to warn predators of the danger they pose. Of course, this would then beg the question of whether non-toxic animals can adopt the same coloring to receive the same benefits, as well as a toxin resistance system.
This could also be added under an "intimidation" factor, which speaks for itself. It would be fitting though, with this being the sexy AND scary update, it would be a shame to have attraction without intimitation
@@7HEMUFFINMAN True. This could also factor in other markings found in nature, like the false eyes found on butterflies and moths, false heads on certain species of insects and fish, or other physical features, like inflation sacs to make smaller animals seem bigger.
I haven't tested it, but aposematism should be possible with the diet system: an animal can learn to avoid animals with blue stripes for example, and then of course having blue stripes as a prey animal becomes an advantage ;)
The amount of really cool engine upgrades being snuck into these updates is impressive. Multiple parts on the same slot, and multiple colours on the same animal, both add SO much.
I've always enjoyed simulation games like Wolfquest, Spore, the Sims and Equilinox. I'm glad to see this game has an audience and a dedicated creator, who is clearly passionate about his project and keeping players updated on its progress - and as a dinosaur fan, I'm thrilled to see dinosaur parts included on the animals! I'm excited for the next update and will have to pick this game up in the near future. I'd love to support this game in any way I can.
SOOO excited for this update!! I've finally gotten the time again to boot up the Sapling and so seeing the new things to look forward to is amazing. I'm particularly excited for the upgrades to the facial slots, which really gives the animals a more natural look AND a much larger variation in facial structures to make individuals look unique.
I think this is the greatest sandbox game ever created. It not only allows you to make stuff but also watch as your creations populate the planet and interact with each other, I will definitely buy it once I get a better computer.
I think it's a bit limiting for creatures to require legs or fins for movement. What if we had a system where, if a creature doesn't have legs or fins, its speed is determined by the number of body segments? For example, its speed could be calculated to be five times slower per body segment than it would be per leg. This way, you could design creatures like snakes or slugs. Additionally, there could be a special type of body part that attaches to the bottom of the creature and secretes mucus, similar to how slugs move. This part wouldn't be affected by the creature's weight, but it would also make the creature very slow.
Good question! I'd hazard that just because they can go legless doesn't mean it's advantageous for every creature. A predator that evolves legs is going to be much faster than any slug or snake, and likewise an animal with legs might be able to outrun them. Certain niches simply aren't available to animals that slow
I like these changes and the idea increasing the complexities of animals in general. I would really really like to see increased realism in regards to central mass and ability to stand upright, the dependency of hunger and heat/cold tolerance on mass, the need for eyes and mouths to face forward etc. Love seeing any developments though
Everything you talked about got me hella excited. But if I needed to choose one in particular, it would be the sub-slots. I imagine how much work you had to put in to change everything. So I want you to be able to feel how much it means for us, the players. It is absolutely incredible and we are very thankful for this huge change. Awesome work as always :)
Awesome update! Really like the new shader/textures and the sub-slot system! One thought: It might be cool if you found a way to make "attractiveness" more subjective. I believe in nature, what one species considers "attractive" may have nothing to do with what another species considers "attractive". If I understand correctly, your setup has an objective/unchanging method of scoring attractiveness, but this won't evolve creatures that are attracted to each other while looking ugly to us humans, for example...
@@TheSapling I'm no biologist, so this may be wrong or overly simplified, but I think attractiveness in its simplest form could be considered one of two things: a) Things that seem to indicate that an individual is fit for reproduction (healthy look, for example) or b) over-expression of some otherwise useless feature, which to the potential male indicates "I'm healthy enough to be able to spend energy on growing this useless thing". a) May be difficult to convey to the player and is probably unnecessarily difficult. But b) sounds like it may be relatively easy to implement in your system. If you estimate a cost/benefit ratio of all body parts for a creature then you can set the attractiveness to be equal to the excessive expression of those body parts/features. This should automatically lead to those features being expressed more in future generations and should work directly with the current system (I imagine most features explained in this video would just have a high cost/benefit ratio which would automatically make them useful mainly in terms of attractiveness - but it would no longer be exclusively these features that contribute to attractiveness)
Something about his eyes, the tails... the colors... they make me feel... Something. What is it? "How to seduce a partner in an evolution simulation" ah.
OH MY GOSH I don't think I've EVER been more excited for a game update in my LIFE and I've been a wolfquest fan since I was a kid, there are concepts in this game I've NEVER, never seen explored but have always wanted to, the ability to customize asexual/sexual reproduction and the up to six different distinct ones, I know that's the previous video but half of this video has me happy screaming because it's exactly what I wanted to see from this game and then so much more! ^0^
I feel like this will one day need a taste trait. Being able to decide what works best for the female could lead to interesting outcomes. Cold temp ones wanting it to be simple to not waste calories vs a temperate female who wants well decorated makes because it shows they can afford these traits.
Maybe you should make it so that body parts cost energy, which means that the more parts a species has, the faster it gets hungry or sleepy. After all, more organs are more cells to feed. That'll also pressure evolution to reduce vestigial organs.
I'm a bit worried that this means every animal is going to evolve into a parade float because atractiveness is just how many decorations are on your body and every animal is going to want to be the most atractive. You need to implement an advantage to being unatractive too. Like maybe more atractive pray animals get eaten first by predators because they're easier to spot and atractive predators struggle to get any kills because they get seen by their prey. This won't outright stop atractive animals from existing but it will mean they'll only become purely decorative if it is safe to do so. In other areas they'll balance being noticably defended with being ignorably plain. This will help to make different parts of a world look like different ecosystems. Safe in the rainforrests you'll get lots of colourful birds but out in the savanah everyone will just be brown or gray.
I'm sure you already have this in mind, but I'm excited, so I will be redundant; Lots of these attractiveness based traits could have cool additional effects! For example, the feathers could keep the animal warm, or the antlers and hornlike traits could be used as defense against predators.
As fast as I have my PC I will install your game and I will be addicted like crazy. The truth is I consider this game a masterpiece and even more so considering that you are an indie creator.❤🎉
Dude, this is my favorite of all evolution games, (I play a ton because I’m deranged like that) and easily my top 5 of any game I’ve ever played. I really hope you work on this game for a long time, because it brings me joy every time I see a new post on the channel
I know one thing that a lot of people have requested is the ability to make limbless animals. I want to build on this, and say that the ability to locomote limblessly should be tied to certain skin types. As an example, one kind of skin could be slimy, with a built-in muscular “foot” like those found in gastropods. Another kind of skin could be smooth scales, inspired by snakes, which could handle hot environments better than the slimy skin, along with having better mobility, at the cost of higher energy consumption.
I think the only thing I will recommend is the ability to customize the gravity of your planet, which would change the weight system depending on the planets gravity
Glad to have stumbled upon this. This game looks like it might be my jam, and the way you talk through the development process is enlightening and entertaining. You talked a bit about sacrificing player control for the sake of better gameplay, and that's a part of game design that has always interested to me. It's a difficult balance to get right, especially in games with any kind of customisation; it can be frustrating for some players when they start creating something with a vision in mind, only to discover that it just isn't possible to use the game's tools in the way they thought they could. For stuff like the fins that can only be a certain shape when placed on specific body locations, have you considered a potential compromise in the form of some kind of cheat code or hidden option that lets the player put them wherever they want? That way, by default players must work within the game's systems and compromise in creative ways to get around restrictions, but more experienced players or those who just want to get really into the creature creation aspect have the option to use a little more freedom. Think about how the Sims games restrict where players can place objects in order to guarantee their buildings are actually functional, but Sims builders regularly enable the cheats that let them get around this for the sake of creating really unique builds that would not be possible ordinarily. Or how in Spore players use cheats to make creatures far more elaborate than what the game's complexity restrictions normally allow. Just something I thought could be neat.
Evolution be like: choose the guy with high speed, better camouflage, stronger ect? Nah. Choose a guy because he looks pretty(it gives 0 advantages other than looking good)? YES SIRRRRRR!!!!
Attractivness in nature & history is almost alway based on a factor that corelates to succes. (Mostly because the young of the females that didnt find succes attractive died off). Hence times in medivial history where obesity was considerd attractive.(obess=not starving witch was a pretty rare and great at times where starvation was a leading cause of death) Being pretty is a testament to 2 differant things; 1 you eat well(otherwise byebye pretty colour/texture). 2 you must be pretty skilled at surviving since you look like the jackpot of mugging target. I am worried for the games ballence tho since from a non evolving beauty standard point of view any thing below max out beauty would be unviable forcing species into taking harmfull atractive traits over benificial ones. Potentialy leading to repeated mass instincion.
Id still like the ability to customize the terrain,i know i suggested this like a year or two ago but it would be cool to be able sculpt the terrain as opposed to only being able to have it randomly generate
I keep forgetting that there's just one guy working on this. It's majorly impressive and I'm excited for the mini series of us seeing the new features in action.
Small correction on your explanation for why males tend to have more display features: it's not the time females put in, but the resources. In species where reproduction is more costly for males (such as some insects or birds where the male raises the young) the males end up being the selective and drabber sex. Even though it obviously takes the female quite some time to produce offspring, the male uses more resources so has more to lose by dying prematurely without passing on his genes.
Hey these updates are really cool but I feel like the game hasnt been playable since the new map update and haven't been able to play the game 5 minutes without a game breaking bug on either of my gaming pcs, btw this game has the potential to be my favorite game of all time keep up the work! -Fan since the David Attenborough documentary video
Hey, thanks for your feedback! I was under the impression that the version that is currently live is reasonably stable as long as you cap your organisms... but feel free to reach out (thesaplinggame@gmail.com) if you encounter bugs!
Will attractiveness also attract the predictors too? I love the body part changing depending on what area you add it. I'm loving these dev logs, but I also fear there may be too much choice and not enough structure. Having the body part be specific to an area is structure I appreciate.
Have you added cold blooded animals and warm blooded animals. If no can you add them with like sun basking. Also maybe you can add some type of temperature system like when an animal overheats it can die if it doesn’t cool down in some water. Now I haven’t checked the way a map is made but is there a way to make the maps bigger kinda like change through different world sizes. Maybe like more natural landscape and a way to make rivers with riverbeds and stuff. Thanks for reading this sorry if I kind of have long sentences. Edit: Also add disease
I hope this guy continues to update this game for a long time, when it gets too conplicated i hope he finds a way to decomplicate it without removing too much, i love this game for the sheer number of possibilities it has
The new system where more legs help an animal support its own weight might fix the problem where every single animal has only two legs. Atleast I hope so, because its kinda boring and looks incredibly weird. This update is shaping up to be a banger
Since weight bearing correlates with legs at the cost of speed. We can have it that fins correlates with stability at the cost of speed as well. Which would offer a meaningful reason to evolve more or less fins.
Apologies in advance, I'm commenting before I watch your vid to make certain you have the opportunity to read some suggestions I think you might like. 1. Meat trees would be super creepy. Something like a coral that became amphibious would be super gross and interesting. And it's entirely possible you could use alternation of generations and have these things be the larval stage of some creature. 2. Anglerfish reproduction is metal. The male essentially becomes an organ of the female. How gross is that! :D 3. Some species of pacman frog can suspension feed like a rotifer. Their tadpoles got these funky 4 lobed mouths. I just think they're neat 4. I forget if vines like pumpkins and strangler figs are in your game yet, but if not that'd be a suitably creepy thing to add Hope you found these things useful or interesting, I'm going to go enjoy your content now! :)
Maybe make parts that can be displayed, that do other things than raising attractiveness. Like making an animal appear large and intimidating. Or for camouflage, like that one caterpillar that mimics a snake when it feels threatened.
10:11 i feel like 1 to 2 pairs of legs should be the ideal leg amount for speed, allowing for horse like builds and ostrich like builds. Different leg types should allow for more weight, like elephant stump like legs as opposed to skinny flamingo leggos.
I have been watching these devlogs and even purchased the game for myself, It is awesome to see the development of this game and there is so much you can do with it! Some things I've wanted to see for a while now is Parasites and Carnivores plants
805 / 5.000 I am amazed at how much effort you put into your project, really impressive. 😍 After the question at the beginning of the video, I would have thought that a female would choose the healthiest male. Not the one with the most HP, otherwise the simulation would only tend towards "who has the highest HP value" over time. But rather towards who has the largest percentage left. That mean 70%, 82%, 95% or 100% of their maximum HP. Of course I can see, why giving points to attractive body parts, but what if they are worn out, crooked or even broken off (so not 100% HP). Then the partner would have a smaller chance of being chosen. Bright colors "Super" if the partner is sick the color fades. (Not 100% HP) Sound: Loud means healty, quiet not healty. Many creatures show how healthy they are by courting the female. The potential partner could not run away fast enough, he lacks on aerodynamics and took damage. Great Video👍
I love these updates to an already very cool simulation! However, from an evolutionary perspective I don't think the simulation designer should be determining what is "good" or "attractive". These should be emergent from the simulation. E.g. a bigger feather should take more energy to grow, and therefore signal that an organism has more energy. Then potential partners should be able to find smaller or larger feathers more attractive, and they only evolve a propensity for large feathers if an energy excess is a beneficial trait in a given context. Similarly with the dots system where more dots is always "better". I understand that you have to make some considerations for user experience, but it seems to me that deciding that more of a feature is "better" (e.g. the lightweight example you gave) is a mistake. In some situations, it should be adaptive to be heavier. This UI design may be intuitive, but it's teaching the players an incorrect idea about evolution.
Thanks for this feedback, I actually agree with you! For completeness, the 'more dots is better' is never made explicit, it's just a general idea to help me make UI/UX decisions
I have a species of what were dromeosaur & now are toothed birds that have feathered throat sacs, crests, & tails that are used for elaborate mating displays. They are the people of my spec evo earth.
I think a fun idea would be adding a segmented body plan alongside fur and scales, there could even be one for "arthropod" and one for "lobopodian" (Velvet worms, hallucigenia, tartigrades) that may have different strengths and weaknesses, maybe those two body plans could give the animal more capacity for more legs or something similar. Every new update adds so much content here and Im super excited to get my hands on it.
This is an amazing improvement, great work :) Mechanics like this should drive much faster and more interesting diversification. Out of interest, does the attraction system interact with the colour range of eyes and the instinct commands? Would be interesting to see mutations in female instincts driving mutations in male body parts - though I imagine that dynamic would have to be triggered to kick in after some initial body part/attraction had already been established through a simpler system, otherwise the two sides would almost never align to start with.
Though now that I think about it that would probably just slow down the diversification, cause any change in either female instincts or male body parts would probably make them less likely to reproduce huh... Ok I take it back 😅
At the moment, the two systems (perhaps counterintuitively) do not react, similar to how camouflage does not interact with color seeing ranges. I might revisit this later, though.
I'd argue there's no need to have the brown dots to indicate the minumum stat for a body part. If the dots update as you resize the part, then the minimum can be inferred by simply scaling down the part until no more dots disappear
Great video! I like the new creature designs! By the way, an instinct system that makes certain body parts attractive or unattractive to that individual would be cool, but I don't know how feasable adding that is
Hey! not sure if you remember my suggestion of adding smaller animals such as insects and mites etc, but I think it would be interesting to have them along with carcasses of fallen animals? decomposition and having them be a good addition to ecosystems and maybe even mound views? different colonies and stuff like that..
This guy's thumbnails are gradually getting more unhinged
Yeah
It is kinda funny
Serving 'Science diagrams that look like shitposts'
Hey, the goal of thumbnails is to (1) inform what the video will be about, and (2) attract attention, so the reasoning here is that if the main topic of the video (seducing mates) is also likely attract attention, I will give it space in the thumbnail. Very open to feedback though!
@@TheSapling I think you should make them more unhinged!
I appreciate the genre of thumbnail that is just “silly guy looking at you”
Those Silly’s Guys Know The Viewers Have Cheddar, That’s Why They’re Looking at You
hes seducing you actually
he wants to mate with you
that silly guy could pull both your mom and your dad, have some respect
I feel seduced by the attractive face on the thumbnail 😂
I think I got lost in its beautiful purple eyes...
@@jaimeleschats5543 its the nose for me… it reminds me of my beloved…. Gonzo!
It looks like a muppit thing.
your "fantasy animal" at 5:45 actually matches pretty well with our earths real life secretary bird!
Can't wait for more bird parts like air sacs, wattles, and stridulating feathers. Also saw another guy say that attractive parts should have an energy requirements, which was an awesome idea
That's a crazy big change in the look of the creatures! Multiple colours, Flashy Bodyparts, multiple bodyparts per section. Good job dude! Very excited about the update!
The thumbnails feel like a fever dream in the best way possible
This guy has found a way to premiere all his videos at times that always conflict with my schedule 😂
I can relate.
Lol
12:11 MUSHROOM UPDATE YEEEES
*uses pointer to point mushroom*
Mushroom!
OH MY GOOOOOD
Finally, the fungi 👏
This game is quickly becoming insane, you can alredy do some really cool stuff in it's current state, can't wait for what further updates will bring
Same
I admire your vision and capacity to grow
wow
May your offspring have (even more) beneficial adaptations!
@@TheSapling I'm saying this whenever someone compliments me now ty
I think the evolution of the game really exhibits the multiple desires of Spore's devs and fans, that never bore fruit.
"The hero we need whom finally arrived"
"Seduce me"
-Spy tf2
"....You?"
*Seduce me.*
@@MUGENanaya"Seduce me."
I can’t wait for the inevitable random mutation world we’re gonna see to show how all these awesome things come about naturally those are some of my favorite videos.
1:50 Don't procedurally create a texture, you're gonna unnecessary max out your VRam. Change the UVs of the mesh. This might also fix the flashing of the patter while resizing the horns.
Hey, thanks for thinking along on the tech stuff! You're definitely right about the second part. About the first part: perhaps my thinking is too narrow minded, but I feel doing it with just UVs is not possible, although I cannot explain why without pictures... perhaps in a future devlog!
Now I'm curious as to how difficult it would be to add a Toxicity feature, where animals that are poisonous or venomous would use aposematism - the use of bright colors to signal that an animal isn't worth attacking - to warn predators of the danger they pose. Of course, this would then beg the question of whether non-toxic animals can adopt the same coloring to receive the same benefits, as well as a toxin resistance system.
This could also be added under an "intimidation" factor, which speaks for itself. It would be fitting though, with this being the sexy AND scary update, it would be a shame to have attraction without intimitation
@@7HEMUFFINMAN True. This could also factor in other markings found in nature, like the false eyes found on butterflies and moths, false heads on certain species of insects and fish, or other physical features, like inflation sacs to make smaller animals seem bigger.
I haven't tested it, but aposematism should be possible with the diet system: an animal can learn to avoid animals with blue stripes for example, and then of course having blue stripes as a prey animal becomes an advantage ;)
@@TheSapling bro pls add caves and a terrain tool were you yourself change the structure of the land PLEASE
The amount of really cool engine upgrades being snuck into these updates is impressive. Multiple parts on the same slot, and multiple colours on the same animal, both add SO much.
I've always enjoyed simulation games like Wolfquest, Spore, the Sims and Equilinox. I'm glad to see this game has an audience and a dedicated creator, who is clearly passionate about his project and keeping players updated on its progress - and as a dinosaur fan, I'm thrilled to see dinosaur parts included on the animals! I'm excited for the next update and will have to pick this game up in the near future. I'd love to support this game in any way I can.
SOOO excited for this update!! I've finally gotten the time again to boot up the Sapling and so seeing the new things to look forward to is amazing. I'm particularly excited for the upgrades to the facial slots, which really gives the animals a more natural look AND a much larger variation in facial structures to make individuals look unique.
If I remember correctly, you were one of the players to suggest this :)
@@TheSapling I was yeah! And it looks amazing c:
Community: "How fire do you want your updates to be?"
Wessel: "Yes."
Every update seems more complex than the last, great work!
The subslot system is a godsend- having more space to put parts in a round the same area was #1 on my wishlist in terms of QOL improvements.
I think having parts have energy requirements might help keep animals from having too many parts
Thats a really good idea
This is the best thumbnail yet
I'd argue that the one that just says "SEX" is better but the face on this one is way to funny
@@inkcreeper918Seduction.
@@inkcreeper918yeah the giant text that says SEX full caps tickles my pickle
How the hell is ur comment 9 hours ago when this video was uploaded 5 hours ago
@@enricodaan201 patreon features, anyone who joins his channel on a subscription (For money) gets it
Since this update is themed partially around “spooky things” and the deep sea, I think octopus/squid tentacles would be reeaaalllly cool!
I think this is the greatest sandbox game ever created. It not only allows you to make stuff but also watch as your creations populate the planet and interact with each other, I will definitely buy it once I get a better computer.
I think it's a bit limiting for creatures to require legs or fins for movement. What if we had a system where, if a creature doesn't have legs or fins, its speed is determined by the number of body segments? For example, its speed could be calculated to be five times slower per body segment than it would be per leg. This way, you could design creatures like snakes or slugs.
Additionally, there could be a special type of body part that attaches to the bottom of the creature and secretes mucus, similar to how slugs move. This part wouldn't be affected by the creature's weight, but it would also make the creature very slow.
Thats what I'm talking about
The issue is that if you can just be legless, what is stoping animals from never evolving limbs at all
Good question! I'd hazard that just because they can go legless doesn't mean it's advantageous for every creature. A predator that evolves legs is going to be much faster than any slug or snake, and likewise an animal with legs might be able to outrun them. Certain niches simply aren't available to animals that slow
Being flatter in the water may also help with speed. Also, snakes?
What if you add a gravity stat to planets so players can choose how strict the weight limits should be?
That would be awesome !!
But I bet it would be challenging to conceive
Without making promises, it's an idea I like!
I like these changes and the idea increasing the complexities of animals in general. I would really really like to see increased realism in regards to central mass and ability to stand upright, the dependency of hunger and heat/cold tolerance on mass, the need for eyes and mouths to face forward etc. Love seeing any developments though
Everything you talked about got me hella excited. But if I needed to choose one in particular, it would be the sub-slots. I imagine how much work you had to put in to change everything. So I want you to be able to feel how much it means for us, the players. It is absolutely incredible and we are very thankful for this huge change.
Awesome work as always :)
He added sex and rizz into his game. This man is unstoppable 😭
I love how your doing the thumb nails. Can’t wait for the full release of this update, also more bug parts like wings or legs would be nice one day.
Awesome update! Really like the new shader/textures and the sub-slot system!
One thought: It might be cool if you found a way to make "attractiveness" more subjective. I believe in nature, what one species considers "attractive" may have nothing to do with what another species considers "attractive". If I understand correctly, your setup has an objective/unchanging method of scoring attractiveness, but this won't evolve creatures that are attracted to each other while looking ugly to us humans, for example...
Hey Germanunkol! Thanks, I agree! Not really sure how it would work though :)
@@TheSapling I'm no biologist, so this may be wrong or overly simplified, but I think attractiveness in its simplest form could be considered one of two things: a) Things that seem to indicate that an individual is fit for reproduction (healthy look, for example) or b) over-expression of some otherwise useless feature, which to the potential male indicates "I'm healthy enough to be able to spend energy on growing this useless thing".
a) May be difficult to convey to the player and is probably unnecessarily difficult. But b) sounds like it may be relatively easy to implement in your system. If you estimate a cost/benefit ratio of all body parts for a creature then you can set the attractiveness to be equal to the excessive expression of those body parts/features. This should automatically lead to those features being expressed more in future generations and should work directly with the current system (I imagine most features explained in this video would just have a high cost/benefit ratio which would automatically make them useful mainly in terms of attractiveness - but it would no longer be exclusively these features that contribute to attractiveness)
Wessel Stoop you mad genius.... you've done it again!
Something about his eyes, the tails... the colors... they make me feel... Something. What is it? "How to seduce a partner in an evolution simulation" ah.
OH MY GOSH I don't think I've EVER been more excited for a game update in my LIFE and I've been a wolfquest fan since I was a kid, there are concepts in this game I've NEVER, never seen explored but have always wanted to, the ability to customize asexual/sexual reproduction and the up to six different distinct ones, I know that's the previous video but half of this video has me happy screaming because it's exactly what I wanted to see from this game and then so much more! ^0^
OH MY GODDDDDDDD IS THAT A MUSHROOM!?!?!?!? ARE WE GETTING FUNGUS!? I COMMENTED TOO SOON :D
@@leonnekirkland7719ITS TOO MUCH LSHDKDBEKEJIDJ
I feel like this will one day need a taste trait. Being able to decide what works best for the female could lead to interesting outcomes. Cold temp ones wanting it to be simple to not waste calories vs a temperate female who wants well decorated makes because it shows they can afford these traits.
Maybe you should make it so that body parts cost energy, which means that the more parts a species has, the faster it gets hungry or sleepy. After all, more organs are more cells to feed. That'll also pressure evolution to reduce vestigial organs.
I'm a bit worried that this means every animal is going to evolve into a parade float because atractiveness is just how many decorations are on your body and every animal is going to want to be the most atractive. You need to implement an advantage to being unatractive too. Like maybe more atractive pray animals get eaten first by predators because they're easier to spot and atractive predators struggle to get any kills because they get seen by their prey. This won't outright stop atractive animals from existing but it will mean they'll only become purely decorative if it is safe to do so. In other areas they'll balance being noticably defended with being ignorably plain. This will help to make different parts of a world look like different ecosystems. Safe in the rainforrests you'll get lots of colourful birds but out in the savanah everyone will just be brown or gray.
My biggest concern was when he said females will only mate with those that are more attractive, not as attractive as the previous.
@@connorhaley3190 yeah once again forcing every species to keep getting prettier and prettier
this update already includes a camouflage system, so I'd imagine that should offset this problem somewhat
@@Chorsanoidka yes, but how do we know which system is superior in which contexts?
@@connorhaley3190 i suppose the only way to know for sure is testing, and we have to wait for the update to come out first
I'm sure you already have this in mind, but I'm excited, so I will be redundant; Lots of these attractiveness based traits could have cool additional effects! For example, the feathers could keep the animal warm, or the antlers and hornlike traits could be used as defense against predators.
They already did that
He should add plants that spread using roots, allowing the plant to protect its seeds
As fast as I have my PC I will install your game and I will be addicted like crazy. The truth is I consider this game a masterpiece and even more so considering that you are an indie creator.❤🎉
Dude, this is my favorite of all evolution games, (I play a ton because I’m deranged like that) and easily my top 5 of any game I’ve ever played. I really hope you work on this game for a long time, because it brings me joy every time I see a new post on the channel
Can the lessons taught here be applied in real life?
Hopefully!
"(In an evolution simulation game)" It's so joever bros...
If you're brave enough
@@Didomate yes!
I never pulled so many chicks before I evolved stripes and horns.
I know one thing that a lot of people have requested is the ability to make limbless animals. I want to build on this, and say that the ability to locomote limblessly should be tied to certain skin types. As an example, one kind of skin could be slimy, with a built-in muscular “foot” like those found in gastropods. Another kind of skin could be smooth scales, inspired by snakes, which could handle hot environments better than the slimy skin, along with having better mobility, at the cost of higher energy consumption.
Soooooooooo u want a snek
I think the only thing I will recommend is the ability to customize the gravity of your planet, which would change the weight system depending on the planets gravity
Glad to have stumbled upon this. This game looks like it might be my jam, and the way you talk through the development process is enlightening and entertaining.
You talked a bit about sacrificing player control for the sake of better gameplay, and that's a part of game design that has always interested to me. It's a difficult balance to get right, especially in games with any kind of customisation; it can be frustrating for some players when they start creating something with a vision in mind, only to discover that it just isn't possible to use the game's tools in the way they thought they could.
For stuff like the fins that can only be a certain shape when placed on specific body locations, have you considered a potential compromise in the form of some kind of cheat code or hidden option that lets the player put them wherever they want? That way, by default players must work within the game's systems and compromise in creative ways to get around restrictions, but more experienced players or those who just want to get really into the creature creation aspect have the option to use a little more freedom. Think about how the Sims games restrict where players can place objects in order to guarantee their buildings are actually functional, but Sims builders regularly enable the cheats that let them get around this for the sake of creating really unique builds that would not be possible ordinarily. Or how in Spore players use cheats to make creatures far more elaborate than what the game's complexity restrictions normally allow.
Just something I thought could be neat.
Thank you for this insight
Mushrooms!
We're Rich!
ROCK AND STONE
Evolution be like: choose the guy with high speed, better camouflage, stronger ect? Nah.
Choose a guy because he looks pretty(it gives 0 advantages other than looking good)? YES SIRRRRRR!!!!
It actually is an advantage since it is styling on other males - "I made it here in spite of how obvious I am!".
Attractivness in nature & history is almost alway based on a factor that corelates to succes. (Mostly because the young of the females that didnt find succes attractive died off). Hence times in medivial history where obesity was considerd attractive.(obess=not starving witch was a pretty rare and great at times where starvation was a leading cause of death)
Being pretty is a testament to 2 differant things; 1 you eat well(otherwise byebye pretty colour/texture). 2 you must be pretty skilled at surviving since you look like the jackpot of mugging target.
I am worried for the games ballence tho since from a non evolving beauty standard point of view any thing below max out beauty would be unviable forcing species into taking harmfull atractive traits over benificial ones. Potentialy leading to repeated mass instincion.
3:17 when you mentioned countershading, I got CHILLS.
Id still like the ability to customize the terrain,i know i suggested this like a year or two ago but it would be cool to be able sculpt the terrain as opposed to only being able to have it randomly generate
Our stimulation animals are getting rizzed up with this one 🗣️🔥🔥
Every single update is when the game gets. Is amazing like everything you add is something so cool and good, I can't imagine playing without it. ❤
i am flabbergasted how fast you're doing this
Nah this just a summary of months of work ;)
Nah this just a summary of months of work ;)
I must say, the improved coloring makes everything look SO much better
WOAH THIS MAKES THE GAME SO PRETTY
I keep forgetting that there's just one guy working on this. It's majorly impressive and I'm excited for the mini series of us seeing the new features in action.
Small correction on your explanation for why males tend to have more display features: it's not the time females put in, but the resources. In species where reproduction is more costly for males (such as some insects or birds where the male raises the young) the males end up being the selective and drabber sex. Even though it obviously takes the female quite some time to produce offspring, the male uses more resources so has more to lose by dying prematurely without passing on his genes.
Thank you
I can't wait to see the evolution Sim and these all happening naturally
Hey these updates are really cool but I feel like the game hasnt been playable since the new map update and haven't been able to play the game 5 minutes without a game breaking bug on either of my gaming pcs, btw this game has the potential to be my favorite game of all time keep up the work!
-Fan since the David Attenborough documentary video
Hey, thanks for your feedback! I was under the impression that the version that is currently live is reasonably stable as long as you cap your organisms... but feel free to reach out (thesaplinggame@gmail.com) if you encounter bugs!
Will attractiveness also attract the predictors too?
I love the body part changing depending on what area you add it.
I'm loving these dev logs, but I also fear there may be too much choice and not enough structure. Having the body part be specific to an area is structure I appreciate.
I share your fears ;)
Amazing game man, and good updates to. Really looking foward to how this game will keep evolving.
Glad I bought this randomly a couple months ago because the potential is insane.
I agree.
I fear buying more Early Access-Games but I really want to support this game..
Have you added cold blooded animals and warm blooded animals. If no can you add them with like sun basking. Also maybe you can add some type of temperature system like when an animal overheats it can die if it doesn’t cool down in some water. Now I haven’t checked the way a map is made but is there a way to make the maps bigger kinda like change through different world sizes. Maybe like more natural landscape and a way to make rivers with riverbeds and stuff. Thanks for reading this sorry if I kind of have long sentences.
Edit: Also add disease
And thank you for writing all of this down, much appreciated
Devlog 4 is getting here soon
4:13 OPABINIA MOUTH LETS FUKIN GOOOOOOOOOOO
we love the Thagomizer here
I can't wait for the new "season" of simulating evolution, it's going to be crazy
I hope this guy continues to update this game for a long time, when it gets too conplicated i hope he finds a way to decomplicate it without removing too much, i love this game for the sheer number of possibilities it has
I'm getting more and more excited about this update with each new video!
The new system where more legs help an animal support its own weight might fix the problem where every single animal has only two legs. Atleast I hope so, because its kinda boring and looks incredibly weird. This update is shaping up to be a banger
Great work !!
So excited for all the new features ! So much I've wanted and more, especially the coloring and body part sizes.
That cicada tail makes me wonder how this game is going to sound. A good variety of noises would really add to the virtual ecosystem.
Since weight bearing correlates with legs at the cost of speed. We can have it that fins correlates with stability at the cost of speed as well. Which would offer a meaningful reason to evolve more or less fins.
Thanks, interesting thought!
You should have called the update 'Fear and Flamboyance'
doesnt have the same punch as scary and sexy
So much added in the last while. Well done 😊
You are a mad genius... I simply can't wait for this update!!!!
Apologies in advance, I'm commenting before I watch your vid to make certain you have the opportunity to read some suggestions I think you might like.
1. Meat trees would be super creepy. Something like a coral that became amphibious would be super gross and interesting. And it's entirely possible you could use alternation of generations and have these things be the larval stage of some creature.
2. Anglerfish reproduction is metal. The male essentially becomes an organ of the female. How gross is that! :D
3. Some species of pacman frog can suspension feed like a rotifer. Their tadpoles got these funky 4 lobed mouths. I just think they're neat
4. I forget if vines like pumpkins and strangler figs are in your game yet, but if not that'd be a suitably creepy thing to add
Hope you found these things useful or interesting, I'm going to go enjoy your content now! :)
Took my 7 days, but I've read your suggestions, thank you so much :)
Yeah, vines are a must have for this
Maybe make parts that can be displayed, that do other things than raising attractiveness. Like making an animal appear large and intimidating. Or for camouflage, like that one caterpillar that mimics a snake when it feels threatened.
10:11 i feel like 1 to 2 pairs of legs should be the ideal leg amount for speed, allowing for horse like builds and ostrich like builds.
Different leg types should allow for more weight, like elephant stump like legs as opposed to skinny flamingo leggos.
I have been watching these devlogs and even purchased the game for myself, It is awesome to see the development of this game and there is so much you can do with it! Some things I've wanted to see for a while now is Parasites and Carnivores plants
Cool concept for a game, dude. Keep good work! 💜
805 / 5.000
I am amazed at how much effort you put into your project, really impressive. 😍
After the question at the beginning of the video, I would have thought that a female would choose the healthiest male.
Not the one with the most HP, otherwise the simulation would only tend towards "who has the highest HP value" over time.
But rather towards who has the largest percentage left. That mean 70%, 82%, 95% or 100% of their maximum HP.
Of course I can see, why giving points to attractive body parts, but what if they are worn out, crooked or even broken off (so not 100% HP).
Then the partner would have a smaller chance of being chosen.
Bright colors "Super" if the partner is sick the color fades. (Not 100% HP)
Sound: Loud means healty, quiet not healty.
Many creatures show how healthy they are by courting the female.
The potential partner could not run away fast enough, he lacks on aerodynamics and took damage.
Great Video👍
Without making promises, I think this is an excellent idea.
I always want to create a evolution game, but I'm very lazy and stupid to code. Thanks for your work, it's look like a my dream game come to reality ❤
In stead of dotts for the stats, maybe try a spider/radar graph. Like the effort values in the pokemon games
I love these updates to an already very cool simulation!
However, from an evolutionary perspective I don't think the simulation designer should be determining what is "good" or "attractive". These should be emergent from the simulation. E.g. a bigger feather should take more energy to grow, and therefore signal that an organism has more energy.
Then potential partners should be able to find smaller or larger feathers more attractive, and they only evolve a propensity for large feathers if an energy excess is a beneficial trait in a given context.
Similarly with the dots system where more dots is always "better". I understand that you have to make some considerations for user experience, but it seems to me that deciding that more of a feature is "better" (e.g. the lightweight example you gave) is a mistake. In some situations, it should be adaptive to be heavier. This UI design may be intuitive, but it's teaching the players an incorrect idea about evolution.
Thanks for this feedback, I actually agree with you! For completeness, the 'more dots is better' is never made explicit, it's just a general idea to help me make UI/UX decisions
You need to add insect wings! I have so many things that would be better with them
"Seduce me"- spy
Scout:spy I'm not going to
Spy: SEDUCE ME!
I have a species of what were dromeosaur & now are toothed birds that have feathered throat sacs, crests, & tails that are used for elaborate mating displays.
They are the people of my spec evo earth.
Another thing you might want to add is a sort of duel mechanic, where 2 animals of gender b fight eachother for gender a or something similar.
I think a fun idea would be adding a segmented body plan alongside fur and scales, there could even be one for "arthropod" and one for "lobopodian" (Velvet worms, hallucigenia, tartigrades) that may have different strengths and weaknesses, maybe those two body plans could give the animal more capacity for more legs or something similar. Every new update adds so much content here and Im super excited to get my hands on it.
What if you add size mutations that will affect body parts size, which would be more frequent than normal mutations?
Awesome! I wonder how much this will affect the evolution of the critters. I wish you the very best, The Sapling!!!
This is an amazing improvement, great work :) Mechanics like this should drive much faster and more interesting diversification. Out of interest, does the attraction system interact with the colour range of eyes and the instinct commands? Would be interesting to see mutations in female instincts driving mutations in male body parts - though I imagine that dynamic would have to be triggered to kick in after some initial body part/attraction had already been established through a simpler system, otherwise the two sides would almost never align to start with.
Though now that I think about it that would probably just slow down the diversification, cause any change in either female instincts or male body parts would probably make them less likely to reproduce huh... Ok I take it back 😅
At the moment, the two systems (perhaps counterintuitively) do not react, similar to how camouflage does not interact with color seeing ranges. I might revisit this later, though.
6:00 DINOSAURS PARTS 🤩
I'd argue there's no need to have the brown dots to indicate the minumum stat for a body part.
If the dots update as you resize the part, then the minimum can be inferred by simply scaling down the part until no more dots disappear
Have you considered making overly large displays also attract predators
I have, but right now there isn't really a game mechanic that uses this idea :/
THE RIZZ UPDATE
THE RIZZ UPDATE IS REAL!!!
Great video! I like the new creature designs! By the way, an instinct system that makes certain body parts attractive or unattractive to that individual would be cool, but I don't know how feasable adding that is
Hey! not sure if you remember my suggestion of adding smaller animals such as insects and mites etc, but I think it would be interesting to have them along with carcasses of fallen animals? decomposition and having them be a good addition to ecosystems and maybe even mound views? different colonies and stuff like that..
It's still an idea I like, but I haven't really figured out how that would work, so no promises :)