Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!njin!princeton!udel!brahms.udel.edu!udccvax1!moyer
From: moyer@vax1.acs.udel.EDU (Eric Moyer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: SimEarth things
Summary: Just read the darn letter!
Keywords: earth, simearth, skeletons, animals, spam
Message-ID: <7025@vax1.acs.udel.EDU>
Date: 19 Nov 90 21:16:41 GMT
Reply-To: moyer@vax1.udel.edu (Eric Moyer)
Followup-To: Nothing at all
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Delaware
Lines: 90


  Greetings all! After a gillion hours of SimEarth, I have a few observations
and questions to put forth...

  TIMESCALE MODELS :
     The Gelogic timescale phase of the game evaluates planet temperature
   much differently than the other phases. Try this... Turn off the core
   heat all the way, turn meteors & volcanos all the way up, turn off the
   solar input and greenhouse effect, turn up all albedos, and start 
   manually pummeling the planet with meteors.  You will find that despite
   a high dust content in the atmosphere & NO SUN, the surface temperature
   in some places doesn't even fall below zero, and life WILL form. If you
   look at the air temperature map, it will be obvious that the simulation
   is slapping down some fixed temperature bands without actually calculating
   the temperatures at each location. 
     As you enter the evolutionary timescale, the simulation begins to compute
   temperatures for real, and the oceans will freeze almost immediately,
   causing all life to die out, which subsequently kicks you back into the
   geological timescale. Surprise, surprise, the planet heats back up again
   when you enter the geological timescale.
        MUSINGS - Now I know that for most purposes the abscence of temp 
      calculations in the gelological time phase doesn't really affect much,
      but it amuses me that in a universe of cold dead planets, it's so 
      difficult to create a freezing dead ice planet in SimEarth. I don't
      really mean to pick on the game. If the difficulty of forming life was
      anywehere near the actual figure, nobody would EVER be able to do it.

  MARS TEMPERATURES & OXYGEN :
     Has anyone else found that the colors on the air temperature map don't
   correspond to the actual planet temperatures? When you use the magnifying
   glass tool in the edit window, the temerature at that location is displayed
   in the info window. This temperature is consistently lower than the air
   temp map says it is during the mars scenario. Is the color coding wrong
   on the map, or the temperature wrong on the planet, or is the air temp
   that much different from the surface temp? If the ground temp is correct,
   then why is it that (1) I can't heat it above zero anywhere (2) Things will
   live & thrive in the sub zero without difficulty (3) the planet report
   gives me a great big smily for viability? 
     Also, is there anything other than organisms & fire which consumes O2?
   I assume that organisms consume oxygen, though it isn't depicted on the
   flowchart. I often have problems during the MARS scenario with too much
   oxygen in the air. I have tried to limit my biome production, but I 
   don't quite have the hang of controlling the oxygen levels yet.

  UNFORTUNATE GERNERALIZATIONS:
     The habitat specifications are made my class, with no exceptions for
   specific species. As a programmer I can well understand the necessity of
   this generalization, but as the ruler of my SimEarth planets, I am sadly
   unable to fill my arctic regions with penguins.

  MOLLUSKS, EVOLUTION, and THE REAL WORLD (ohhh, what's that?)
     Last night I had squid for dinner and was amazed to see the "skeleton"
   they posess. If you want to get a neat look at the evolution from external
   skeletons to internal skeletons with backbones, go buy a squid from your
   local seafood market (shouldn't cost you more than 15 cents for a little
   6 or seven incher). Inside you'll find a single piece skeleton which slips
   out easily through the top of the head. It looks kind of like a transparent
   feather, except that there are no fibrous extentions, just two sheets of
   "plasticky" material extending down each side of a thick stalk. I would
   guess that this stalk eventually became the backbone in fish. Then again,
   I could be wrong. I haven't looked it up anywhere to check yet.

  TRICHORDS LIVE!
     I think they're real neet, and a planet of sentient ruling trichords just
   makes my day. I wonder how they walk upright while holding that spear, 
   anyway?

  HOW TO GET ROBOTS TO EVOLVE:
     I don't really know, I'm just playing with you. Now that I've started
   babling on the subject, however, someone said they show up on the report
   window. Where on the report window do they appear?

  THE TRUTH BEHIND THE LIFE CLASS GRAPH:
     What's the deal with this thing? Why doesn't it display my ruling
   sentient class at all? I can't find any good answer in the manual. The
   report screen may say that there's millions of trichords ruling, yet
   their mini-icon doesn't even show in the class graph. What gives?

  KUDOS: 
     SimEarth & Falcon are the two best mac games ever made. I only pick on
   SimEarth in an effort to understand its guts. If you don't own it, stop
   eating lunches & buy it with the money you save! 

  CETACEANS:
   They're darn cute! I love the whales.
   /-------------------------/----- You are a fluke of the universe. ---------/
  /  Eric P. Moyer   ;-o    /         You have no right to be here.          /
 / moyer@brahms.udel.edu   /        Whether you can hear it or not,         /
/-------------------------/--- The universe is laughing behind your back. -/