Basically, think of an accurate Primal Carnage without humans. And a free-roam environment.
Now, here's the beginning idea of Saurian, a game that has joined with Crynosaur to create the most realistic dinosaur simulator out there;
Spoiler
There has been much talk about a dinosaur sim and how cool that would be and such and such. WELL, by gleaning idea's from all my good ol' chaps from the forums (Mainly from Jheuloh's creature sim topic) I've decided to make a post about what went down on page 5, man. Oh by the way, this is gonna have some SERIOUS reading so get out your cheaters.
So here it is! THE BEGGINING...
Most of us here think that Spore was overhyped. So this game is mainly going to be about what we all wished Spore could be, but isn't. Except whittled down to the creature stage and the dinosaur species for the sake of simplicity and enjoyment. Plus this forum is filled with dino fans so what the heck why not?
First off, there would be two main gameplay modes: Freeform and Scenario. We'll focus on Freeform for now. Freeform mode allows you to first of all build the planet your creature will soon be living on. The Planet Editor, as we'll call it, allows great diversity to your options. You can make your planet a massive wasteland, a lush jungle, or frigid landscape. Or maybe even mix biomes for a world that more or less represents Earth. The world editor would be very deep, with basic slider customization for those who want to just wing it and play, to deep and powerful customization for those who want that PERFECT planet.
Next would be creating your creature. Your creature has a Health, Hunger, Thirst, Stamina, and Temperature gauge (ideas by Jheuloh) which all effect your creature. First of all, you would need to choose the way your creature acts from the Behavior menu. There would be a few choices to choose from.
Activity: Nocturnal/Diurnal
Diet: Herbivore/Carnivore
Breeding: Pair/Harem
Reaction: Passive/Aggressive/Defensive
Social: Loner/Social
Locomotion: Terrestrial/Ariel/Aquatic
After choosing these, you'd be given the option to choose archetypes based on the diet and locomotion. Terrestrial Carnivores would have Small, Raptor, Medium, Suchian, and Large while Herbivores would have Small, Armored, Large, Ceratopsian, and Sauropod. Ariel archetypes would be Tiny, Small, Medium, and Large while Aquatic archetypes would be Small, Medium, Large, and Gigantic. Each of these basically describes the size, shape, and stats of your creature.
Customization would be like playing with clay. The body already comes with a head, claws, feet, tail, and limbs. When you select each of these, you could choose from a small menu parts or upgrades you'd like to put on there or even edit those parts to your liking. Each piece you put on can have a drastic effect on your creature, however. You can even edit the skeleton and skin. By using the "pinch" tool, you could grab parts of the skeleton, skin, limbs, etc and make them longer, smaller, thicker, or thinner.
EG: Making a sail would require you to pull up the spine so the bone peaks out of the skin. After multiple adaptations, you would have large, bony, spikes jutting from your back. You could then pull the skin up over the spines and VIOLA! You have a sail. Or maybe using the tool on the skull to elongate or shorten it.
Abilities, or Perks, would be things you unlock after surviving in the world for so long. Things like, Amphibious which allows you to swim and also unlocks things like webbed feet for the editor. While editing your creature after making it for the first time, limiters would be put in place to prevent you from making some whole new creature in one session.
NPC creatures and plants would be adapted to your world, and you'd have to adapt your creatures in order to keep up with the swing of things. Based on the kind of terrain, various disasters could happen. Things like Lightning Storms, Sandstorms, Hurricanes, Blizzards, Droughts, Floods, Heat Waves, Cold Snaps, Fires, and even Plagues that can ravish your ecosystem could come into play. Each of these things you'd have to put into consideration while creating your creature, in order to make sure it survives.
Scenarios would be little challenges you could play when you wanted a crazy challenge. Something like Land of Meat where more than 75% of the population are cunning carnivores and you are forced to play as a Small herbivore in the midst of all this. If you can keep your species alive for "x" amount of time, you win and maybe get a special part or something.
COMMUNITY IDEAS: There are ideas from people (and me) that I shall incorporate into the main idea.
Cinematic Kills - These make your game look cooler. Maybe they could be toggled on and off for those who wouldn't like them but here's the idea.
You're playing as a Large Carnivore and stalking your prey; a Huge Herbivore (Apatosaurus). After waiting for it to get in range, you charge off and attack. If the Herbivore doesn't notice you, you can do an instant kill animation where, say, you run up, bite the beast's neck, and force it to the ground, killing it instantly.
For Herbivores, it would be Counter. Say you chose the Armored archetype. You're out exploring and such when BAM! Mr. Raptor invites you for lunch, and you're the main course. Lets say when the raptor leaps, if you could use a counter which, lets say, makes your Herbivore take his tail (spiked, clubbed, both, etc) and smash the Carnivore right in the kisser, killing it instantly.
However, depending on the difficulty you play on, these things have a less % chance of working. On Casual, they would work 100% of the time, on Easy its more like 80%, on Medium its 60%, on Hard its 45%, and on Realistic it's more like 25%. While you do these animations, the camera would shift to a more cinematic view though.
Skeletal fractures - Breaking bones would be an interesting game mechanic. Say you tango'd with a Large Herbivore and came back with a broken leg. This would drastically reduce your movement speed and would require a full 24-hours of sleep to heal to the point of being able to use it again. Yes it's unrealistic, but for the sake of gameplay not being tedious, it must be done.
Dynamic Breeding - Breeding is an important part of the game, as it allows you to alter your dinosaur in between sessions. Breeding has two different extremes it can follow. 1) Your species breeds willy-nilly, increasing your population, but decreasing the amount of strong, intelligent, or fast individuals. 2) Your species reproduces through a selective breeding. Dances, fights, and showing off are to behaviors to choose from, and each has its bonuses. This method allows your dinosaur to birth more "perfect" young, but can take a toll on your population if you're too low on the food chain. You could set in between the two at some sort of balance also.
Rivals - Rivals, in the game's terms, are other dinosaur species that have a 45-55% chance of either winning or losing in a fight with your species. They can be Predator-Prey rivalries (T-Rex vs. Trike) or even rivalries between predators (Lions vs Hyenas). Not too many Herbivore-Herbivore rivalries, as most aren't really too aggressive to each other (that I know of). But that's my idea!
"Well, how exactly do they contribute to this game?" you may be thinking.
Basically, it sort of gives the player a familiar face to fight against. While the player may be going through his world, seeing all sorts of different species and then basically forgetting about them since they have no direct impact on his game, Rival species will make the player think "You again!" whenever he or she sees them. They'll be able to recognize the species at sight and want to take action. The other species, on becoming a Rival, may suddenly show a spike in difficulty! They might, after a while, know all your tricks, how you act, your various defenses; they may even take cheap shots against you, such as killing your species' young, or driving you out of your territory.
Dismemberment of Prey - Yes, that's right. As a carnivore and with the appropriate bite force, you can sever limbs off of your fresh (or old!) kills. Need to get in a quick bite on the run before the Tyrannosaur sees you? Just snap a forearm off and take off into the jungle! That easy! Also, by clicking on your prey and moving, you can drag your meal off to a more suitable place to eat. Pesky scavengers eating away at your hard-earned kill? Drag your prey off to your nest to keep only the most insane or starving of creatures away!
Each dinosaur is going to have an in-game skeleton, with various joints, bones, etc. Things that connect to a joint can be removed, so a full leg might have 2 or 3 parts to dismember and eat, depending on the shape of the leg. This will add a little extra touch of realism and convenience, and also have the additional benefits listed above.
Unique Abilities - These are different abilities taken from various animals (as in non-dinosaurs(and some are just made up!)) that I currently know about. This list will most likely be updated when the game is released/made/whatever. The unique abilities are obtained through countless upgrades on one skill tree. Once you "master" that skill tree, a Unique Ability becomes available to you! However! Make note that you can only have ONE Unique Ability at a time and some are PERMANENT! You will not be able to de-research them. They will be stuck with you whether you like it or not. So here are the UAs:
Adaptive Camouflage: Like an octopus, your dinosaur has control over it's mass and relative shape, allow it to essentially become that "log" sitting on the ground. By staying still for a while, your dinosaur will slowly start becoming less and less visible as it begins to copy the colors of the world around it. For example, when your dinosaur needs to hide in a forest, he can drop to the ground, change his skin color and texture, and look (and feel!) like a log. While you're using this, you're virtually undetectable. Only sheer luck or a persistent predator would find you.
Tongue Attack: Like a chameleon, you flick out your long tongue to catch prey. There are two features for this: either a sticky tongue, or a sharp tongue. Sticky tongues allow you to grab, hold, and reel in your prey, while sharp, harpoon-like tongue will pierce and stab prey, allowing you to reel smaller prey in or wait for larger prey to bleed out. Herbivores can use this as well for grabbing leaves or fruit from hard to reach places.
Parthenogenesis: You species can reproduce without males. This helps greatly with the population as a whole. Migratory females can reproduce without males, allowing your species to move to various islands or continents with little to no repercussions. It also helps in case there is a low male to female ratio or all the males are extinct. It greatly increases your species survivability (?).
Thanatosis: Your dinosaur basically plays dead. Leveling up this skill makes it more believable. This can actually function two ways. 1. Your dinosaur acts dead, confusing the predator and making it leave due to the possibility of disease or 2. Your dinosaur plays dead, attracting unwary scavengers. As they approach your "dead" body, WHAM! You leap up and snack on the unfortunate creatures.
Bioluminescence: Your dinosaur employs beautiful glowing lights that are all over its body. This is actually one of the most diverse UAs, as it covers a multitude of things. You can employ 1. Lures. Bright lights used for drawing unsuspecting prey near and then ambushing them; 2. Confusion. You blink your lights in a way that confuses predators or blinds them; and 3. Mating. You show your lights to your lovely lady as a way of saying "Hey check me out!" This is the most versatile Abilities you can employ.
Hive Mind: A PERMANENT Ability that is focused towards those who are social. It boosts your maximum pack/herd count to 100, removes all self-preservation from your underlings, and reduces the chance of revolt to 5%. It comes with a drawback, however, that you must order your dinosaurs to act. They will not act on their own. Again, this is PERMANENT so going back isn't an option.
Regeneration: Your dinosaur can regenerate limbs, albeit extremely slowly. More crucial pieces can be regenerated as this UA is leveled up. This can be very useful with the more aggressive species, as due to sparring, hunting, or competition, injuries can and will happen. Everything from tails, to arms and legs, to even jaws and eyes can eventually be regenerated with enough skill and time. This also is a PERMANENT ability.
Stinger: A poisonous stinger at the end of your dinosaur's tail. This can be very effective for ambush predators, as it allows you to dash in, knock over or disorient your prey, deliver a few stings, then wait until your prey is weak enough/dead so you can feast. It follows the same principle as the rest of the Poison tree, so whatever type of poison you have researched will be present in your stinger.
Flight: YOUR DINOSAUR CAN FLY!!! Err... Glide! This is a UA only available to Small Herbivores and Carnivores and the Raptor archetype. Once you research this, you dinosaur can drift on the wind currents, floating around the air with careless ease! It also allows you to set up almost undetectable ambushes from above and lets you reach places other dinosaurs simply cannot.
Well that's all I can think of at any rate... Tell me what you think. Thanks for reading too.
Now, a lot of those ideas have changed, or removed based on how fantasy they were, but the basics of living out the entire animal's life is still there.
You start as a hatching, and live out it's life.
Now, a lot of those pictures show off the old "Jurassic Park" modification, but those have been done away with or are being reused for other purposes.
