FreeOrion

Thinking about monster nests and some icon art I created, I just had an interesting idea.

Currently, the game creates monster nests on planets, and those nests do not change throughout the game, unless the planet is destroyed. (I am working on a PR for a building to let you remove a nest.) The nests simply sit there, pumping out more monsters forever.

If space monsters were real, I would not expect things to stop there. All life seeks to reproduce and spread as widely as possible. Is it not reasonable to suppose that a fully-mature monster, having entered a system containing the right kind of planet for its kind, might spawn a new nest on that planet before moving on?

For game reasons this should happen only rarely, of course. We can’t let the number of objects grow out of control, nor let the monsters overwhelm the players. (Nor, for that matter, provide dozens of nests for players to grow tame monsters.) There’d be, say, a 1% chance of it happening, each time a third-stage monster enters an eligible system for its species, that does not already contain any kind of nest. Enough to make things interesting and unpredictable.

Seems like it would be fairly simple to code; it’s not dissimilar to what space clouds and their ilk do, adding a special to a planet.

Thoughts?

Tualha wrote:There’d be, say, a 1% chance of it happening, each time a third-stage monster enters an eligible system for its species, that does not already contain any kind of nest.

What's wrong with having multiple nests per system? Requires the largest monster variant, then 1% chance... it's not like it may happen often.

Other than that, cool idea. For maximum mayhem, you could allow Black Krakens and Psionic Snowflakes to spawn nests, too...

Interesting idea. Why not?

Sounds good, could be part of a Monster setting when starting the game (monsters found new nests y/n)

Krikkitone wrote:Sounds good, could be part of a Monster setting when starting the game (monsters found new nests y/n)

Seems too micro-managey to me.

Tualha wrote:

Krikkitone wrote:Sounds good, could be part of a Monster setting when starting the game (monsters found new nests y/n)

Seems too micro-managey to me.

Well it would influence
-difficulty level (particularly how it plays out through the game... if you have a high monster level, then if they reproduce it could rapidly cause a problem)
-balance of monsters (can domesticated monsters do it? have some "breeders" circulating around your nestless systems, until you can maintain a flood of monster)

It should either be a separate check or a part of general "monster level setting" (low frequency starting monsters don't reproduce but if set at high frequency they do)

Making it part of the existing monster levels sounds like a better idea. Say, “low” means no nest seeding, “medium” has a low probability, “high” has a higher probability — but still pretty low. We need to be careful to avoid exponential growth of objects, lest the game crash or become hopelessly slow.

Krikkitone wrote:Sounds good, could be part of a Monster setting when starting the game (monsters found new nests y/n)

I like that.

Tualha wrote:Seems too micro-managey to me.

Wow, just one tick box at the start of a game? I'd say you are joking, but seems not

Krikkitone wrote:It should either be a separate check or a part of general "monster level setting" (low frequency starting monsters don't reproduce but if set at high frequency they do)

Separate check, please. Thus, I could choose to have low monsters that can nest or high monsters that can't.

Tualha wrote:Making it part of the existing monster levels sounds like a better idea. Say, “low” means no nest seeding, “medium” has a low probability, “high” has a higher probability — but still pretty low. We need to be careful to avoid exponential growth of objects, lest the game crash or become hopelessly slow.

Well to avoid that one could have a more complicated monster ecology

..If # ?wild? monsters in system>N, eliminate 1% of them this turn.. exceeding carrying capacity of the system)

Give adult monsters a chance to eliminate nests of a different monster type from a system (since it would block them from 'nesting' there)

Krikkitone wrote:Give adult monsters a chance to eliminate nests of a different monster type from a system (since it would block them from 'nesting' there)

If memory serves me correctly, and I may be wrong, but I believe that the Krakens were supposed to eat the Krill, and the Juggernauts were supposed to eat the Floaters & Dyson Forrests. I don't know about the others. Maybe Snowflakes eating clouds? Maybe Space Dragons as apex predators?