Concept
The project is a simulation of an ecosystem featuring three types of entities: boids, predators, and apex predators. The goal is to maintain balance in the ecosystem by adjusting the attributes of these entities. The simulation allows the user to influence the survival and evolution of the creatures.
Sketch
Mechanics
Each entity type has its own behaviors and attributes:
– Boids: These are the prey in the ecosystem. They flock together and reproduce.
– Predators: These entities seek out and consume boids. They also reproduce.
– Apex Predators: The top of the food chain. They seek out and consume predators and also reproduce.
Stats
The entities inhabit a 2D space. The user can interact with the simulation by adjusting the attributes of the entities using sliders. These attributes include speed, maximum force, and reproduction rate. Each entity type has a reproduction method. When an entity reproduces, a new entity of the same type is added to the ecosystem.
Expected Challenges
– Balancing: The main challenge is to maintain balance in the ecosystem. If the predators are too strong, the boids might die out. If the boids reproduce too quickly, they might overpopulate the ecosystem. This is the users objective to find the right balance between the stats, however, the sliders need to have the appropriate ranges of values to make sense in the context of the enviornment. This requires further experimentation to find the ranges.
Next Steps
– Improve User Interaction: Allow the user to adjust more attributes of the entities. This could include things like the lifespan of the entities, the rate at which they get hungry.
– Visual Improvements: Make the UI more finalized and polished as will as the creatures.