Note: this is a WIP post, but you can post replies
Evolutiontest
The oddyssey of Minetestkind, from Africa to Alpha Centauri
A game about how far we've come and how far we've yet to go
Note: "Evolutiontest" might be a working title
Recently, many users have been calling for a better game, a game with a vision, originality, and a team of developers. I've thought of an idea of considerable grandeur, taking ideas from such media such as
2001: A Space Oddyssy,
Spore,
Civilization, and
Space Engineers.
I've posted this idea here so others can say what they think of it, make suggestions, and state whether they support, oppose, or couldn't care less about this idea. I've posted it outside of the Game Ideas topic, since I feel that this idea is too large for just one reply. If enough people like this idea and see it as feasible, then perhaps a team of programmers, artists, and testers managed by myself could make it. This is a very large idea, so perhaps it could be broken down into smaller ideas for smaller games.
I have made an attempt to show an idea that is not half-baked-- I have broken up my idea into detailed sections and spoilers. If you just want the premise/story, just look inside the spoiler just below. The game is divided up into stages based off of its story.
This game would be made from scratch. Minetest Game would only be a small inspiration. Modified versions of existing mods could be used.
Story
Note: I will be adding more detail to this section.
Spoiler
The game begins 4 millions years ago in an African savanna. The player is a mere ape, and survival is basic but very difficult. That all changes when the player makes contact with a strange object, completely alien to his world. The player is inspired to make his first tool-- a sharpened rock. This milestone sets the player on a course through the whole of human prehistory and history, developing new technology and discovering new things and places. At the end of the game, the player has colonized various locations in space and has invented an alcubierre drive, allowing him to reach interstellar locations. The player detects an anomaly about 10 lightyears from Earth, goes to investigate, and encounters the aliens again. The aliens make the player evolve again.
Note: I might change this story/premise so it is less similar to 2001.
Spoiler
In this stage, the player is an ape and must defend his family and try to survive in a harsh African savannah. The stage concludes with the first encounter described in the story/premise section above.
Main enemies: animals, other apes
Technology to be gained: sharpened stone
Conclusion: alien encounter
Spoiler
The player, now set on the course of history, must start developing more technology and migrate to / explore more parts of the map. Over the course of the stage, the player slowly evolves into a modern human. The player has to survive using hunter and gatherer methods
Main enemies: animals (including Ice Age animals and other awesome creatures), early human-like creatures such as Neanderthals
Technology to be gained: crude stone tools, fire, speech, tribal/clan structures, hunting techniques
Conclusion: completion of migration, completion of evolution
Spoiler
The player is now fully human and can make better technology. The mesolithic stage is a smaller stage and focuses on the player making better stone tools.
Spoiler
The player develops agriculture and domesticates animals in this period, makes better stone tools, and makes the first villages. The player is ready to form a civilization.
Spoiler
The player creates the first metal tools, made out of some copper and mostly string and wood. The player is prepared to make bronze tools.
Spoiler
The player makes bronze tools, and then forms the first civilization. The Ice Age ends and most of the cool animals die (I'm not so sure about this).
Spoiler
The player makes iron tools and further develops his civilization.
Spoiler
The player further develops technology and reaches a kind of golden age.
Spoiler
The player civilization suffers a set back, but the player goes to invent new technologies such as gun powder and guns.
Spoiler
The player further develops the art, culture, and mathematics of his civilization, while making innovations such as better guns.
Spoiler
The player makes an ocean going ship and rediscovers continents last seen in the Paleolithic Age. The player gets to conquer new civilizations and establish an empire where the sun never sets, while improving technology.
Spoiler
The player invents steam-powered technology, such as factories and trains, and discovers electricity / mesecons.
Spoiler
The player reaches a technological level comparable to that during the World Wars and the Cold War. A lot of new technology is discovered, such as nuclear power, cars, and airplanes.
Spoiler
The player invents modern appliances such as fridges and ATMs.
Spoiler
The player invents several futuristic inventions, such as flying cars and simulated reality. However, the player invents spaceships in the next stage.
Spoiler
The player invents spaceships and visits/colonizes several planents and moons. These include the Moon, Mars, Europa, Titan, Proxima Centauri B, and possibly more. In order to visit Proxima Centauri B, the player must invent an alcubierre drive.
Spoiler
Using his alcubierre drive, the player visits an anomaly in space 10 lightyears from Earth, and the end of the game happens (see story/premise above).
Spoiler
At the beginning of the game, the player has a dispute with a fellow ape who starts a separate dynasty and separate civilization from the player. Throughout the game, the player battles this other faction in various historical, prehistorical, and futuristic settings. Just before going to the anomaly in the epilogue, the player infiltrates the massive enemy mothership and defeats the leader and the faction in a boss battle, leaving the solar system in the player's hands. This is just a potential idea and it might not be used.
Celestial Bodies
Note: I will be adding more detail to this section.
Spoiler
I am not sure what planets, moons, and dwarf planets the player should visit. Obviously the player begins on Earth. Not every place in the solar system or the rest of the Milky Way galaxy is particularly worth visiting, so this game would cover the more notable or useful locations.
So far, I want to include the following worlds:
- Earth
- The Moon
- Mars
- Europa
- Titan
- Proxima Centauri B
The asteriod belt could also be visited.
I'm not so sure about including these worlds, but they could be included as well:
- Mercury
- Venus
- Enceladus
- Io
- Pluto
- Sedna
- Barnard's Star B and other exoplanets
Spoiler
Earth in this game would be different from the Earth in Minetest Game. It would be broken up into different continents with different biomes, flora, and fauna. Beneath the surface, Earth would be broken up into different layers such as the crust and the mantle.
Spoiler
It's just a floating rock near the Earth that steals light from the Sun, but we all look up to it.
Spoiler
A reddish, freezing desert planet. Gravity would be lower than that of Earth. This version of Mars would be more similar to marssurvive than planet_mars, but would also have polar ice caps.
Spoiler
An icy moon of Jupiter with more to it than it appears. Europa in this mod would be modeled after my europa_moon mod, but it would take up signifcantly less y-levels. On the surface, there would be an icy landscape with ice spike clusters here and there and red streaks everywhere. Inside the ice crust, there would be small lakes. Beneath the ice crust, there would be a whole, global ocean with a volcanic sea floor. There would be living ocean creatures/monsters in the ocean, as well as waterborne diseases.
Spoiler
A moon of Saturn that is strangely analogous to Earth-- it has an atmosphere, rivers, lakes, and dunes. However, water is practically a stone, the sand dunes are made of hydrocarbon, and the surface liquid is liquid methane/ethane/hydrocarbon. It is possible to use the hydrocarbon as a fuel source like coal and oil. It is possible to fly air planes in Titan's atmosphere and sail boats in the great lakes and rivers.
Spoiler
You've probably never heard of this place before, but it is cool enough to be in this game. It orbits Proxima Centauri, a star in the Alpha Centauri system. It is the closest exoplanet to Earth (only 4 lightyears away), and could be habitable. In this game, there would be alien creatures, water oceans, and biomes on the planet and possibly an alien civilization. Reaching this planet would require an alcubierre drive.
Game Mechanics
Note: I will be adding more detail to this section.
Spoiler
Similarly to Spore, the game play mechanics can change between stages. However, there are some key features and mechanics of this game that would exist all the way from Africa to Alpha Centauri.
Spoiler
Over the course of the game, the player creates new technology, which allows new technology to be crafted. The player can keep track of his progress by looking at a Formspec tech tree, detailing his accomplishments, technology, and available technology to discover.
Spoiler
Throughout the game, the player is a leader looking out for other people. At the beginning of the game it is an ape family, but the player eventually gains more power and controls more people, land, and a civilization that changes over time. The player has to build streets, houses, cities, etc. for his people. Eventually he has to build colonies in space for them.
Spoiler
Space travel would work somewhat differently than in the pandorabox server or Minecraft's galacticraft mod. The player has to construct a rocket to leave Earth's atmosphere and enter space, where he can build a space station. He can construct a lander to return to the planet's surface. When in space, the player can use blocks similar to the jumpdrive in the jumpdrive mod to power interplanetary vehicles (called motherships) and go to different planets and moons. Each planet and moon would have a "local space" region surrounding it (including Earth) that the player can use jumpdrives in. However, the player has to use landers and rockets to go the world's surface and return to the mothership.
Spoiler
The player slowly grows old, but the player can return to their youth by right clicking a reproduction block with enough food. Doing so starts a new generation and the player becomes his descendent. A Formspec would keep track of all the generations.
Spoiler
This game would have a different progression system than Minetest Game. Minetest Game's progression system goes like this:
- Wood
- Stone
- Bronze
- Steel
- Mese
- Diamond
But in this game it would go like this:
- Crude stone
- Refined stone
- Copper+string+wood
- Bronze
- Iron
- Steel
- Damascus steel
- Carbon fiber
Ranged weapons become more important over time. Melee weapons slowly decrease in importance. Diamond and obsidian could be put on the edge of tools to make them sharper, but there would be no tools made entirely out of diamond nor obsidian.
Spoiler
The Alcubierre drive would be a special jumpdrive allowing the player to visit exoplanets. The player would have to go through the following steps to make it:
- Develop advanced boring/drilling technology
- Develop technology to withstand extreme heat and pressure
- Use this technology to drill through the layers of the Earth into the core
- When in the core, mine coremetal. Coremetal can exert a high gravitational pull if powered by large amounts of electricity
- Use the coremetal to craft an artificial gravity device, a negative matter creator, and an alcubierre drive
- The negative matter created would power the alcubierre drive
Currently working on new mods.