I'm at a "fork on the road" right now, trying to figure out where to go from here.
Still not sure if the whole Tetris thing is going to be too disruptive to the simulation aspect or not.
Right now, this is how my idea looks like for the game progression (totally subject to change):
The game is divided into Eras(levels), which will advance as time passes by.
Each Era has its own game speed (on the simulation level), and introduces more complexity to the game.
1st Era is like a terra-gen level. You can only place mountains, deserts and water tiles. Basically, laying out some parts of the map.
2nd Era life begins. You can now place grasslands, forests, and the simulation will also create marshes and swamps.
3rd Era life develops. Animals and pre-historic human beings?
4th Era. Modern human beings
5th Era ??
So the goal is? Dont know :lol: Perhaps it could be something like having the greatest biodiversity of species, or helping humanity to develop in a nice way and achieve some goal? or just a time based goal? (game ends when everything is destroyed and there is no life left)
Not sure how to pull this, but as humans develop they will have an impact in the tiles around them. For instance, in the modern era, too many cities in one place means water will become polluted and forests die out.
I'm also thinking about introducing tiles that are not placed on the map, but affect the map. For instance, a "fire" tile will begin a wildfire at that tile. A meteor will destroy tiles in a certain radius, etc. (inspiration from simcity 2k :D)
Not sure if the player would also "place" life in tiles, or it would develop by itself...
Any cool ideas to enrich this simulation? :D