No Fragments Archive 10: Diskmags/nf_archive_10.iso/MAGS/CPU_MAG/CPUMAG_7.MSA/SIMEARTH.CPU

Text File | 1985-11-20 | 7.8 KB | 123 lines

IF YOU PLAN FOR A YEAR, PLANT RICE.  IF YOU PLAN FOR TEN YEARS, PLANT TREES.
             IF YOU PLAN FOR 100 YEARS, EDUCATE YOUR CHILDREN.



                                 SIM EARTH

Ambitious  is the first word that springs to mind.   Modestly Maxis  describes
Sim  Earth  as  a  'rough  caricature' as  far  as  simulating  an  Earth-like
environment.   True  enough,  considering that even using the largest  million
pound super computers, a fully accurate model of the Earth's  atmosphere alone
has yet to be developed.   What Sim Earth will let you do on your  'primitive'
system costing only a few hundred dollars,  is take this planet from the  very
moment that a crust forms on the molten lava of it's surface billions of years
ago,  and play around with just about every major environmental variable right
through t past the present day.   Even the most impartial observer would  have
to admit, it's an impressive achievement.

In actual fact,  there are several different scenarios you can start off  with
at  the beginning of Sim Earth.   Taking on the role of  Planetary  Regulatory
Manager,  you  can start fooling around with a planet at three points in  it's
history,  at the Archean Era just when the crust is forming (4.5 billion years
ago), the Cambrian  Era when multi-cellular life had just started forming (550
million years ago) or take on the Technological Era (starting around 40  years
ago).   Selecting  a  starting Era,  you can play Earth as it is,  or  take  a
randomly generated  planet in hand.  The point of having these three stages is
to have manageable time-scales appropriate for the major planet forming events
that were taking place during these times.

From  the  Archean Era on to the Cambrian is the period  of  Geological  time.
Here the major factors effecting the development of the planet are Continental
Drift, atmospheric composition, extra terrestrial collisions and the evolution
and  action of single cellular life forms.   Hence,  the planet  changes  very
slowly,  therefore the time allowed for each simulation 'cycle' is 10  million
years.

On to the Cambrian and 'Evolutionary' time.  Here you major goal is to nurture
life  and  intelligence up to the development of civilisation,  be  it  human,
mammalian or sentient moles.  The major factors you have to watch are Climate,
Life  Forms  (Biomes) and their Evolution.   The cycle time speeds up  to  500
million years per turn.   Moving on,  you get to Civilisation time from 10,000
years ago to 100 years ago,  where the problem of sentient expansion has to be
delt with in addition to other factors.   So the cycle time is now slowed down
even  further  to  10  years a turn.   Finally when  you  start  dealing  with
Technological Time, it's one year per turn.  Things happen fast in this mode.


                               RULES AND TOOLS.

You  can think of the simulation consisting of Rules the logic of  th  program
itself that determines cause and effect and Tools,  variable factors that  you
can  alter to attempt to create the kind of world you  want.   And  naturally,
being the kind of simulation it is,  if you really want,  you can even  change
the most basic of rules, when in Experimental Mode.  Like turning the Sun off.
Not terribly good for the planet, but spectacular in result!

After selecting the style of game you want to play,  and as well as Earth-like
planet management, there are the Mars and Venus terraforming challenges, a new
world  is generated and displayed in a box across the screen in  Mercator  map
style format.   This is the World Display Area (WDA).  Along the bottom of teh
WDA is a series of boxes that,  if selected, will overlay specific information
on  top  of  the map.   This display gives you a whole  overview  of  what  is
happening down there, and you need to make frequent use of it as your eyes and
ears.   The information you can call falls into four categories,  Lithosphere,
Hydrosphere,  Atmosphere and Biosphere.  Respectively, the boxes will show you
Altitude,  Current Major Events, Continental Drift Vectors, Raise or Lower the
Oceans (to inspect the sea bottom),  Ocean Temperature,  Ocean  Currents,  Air
Temperature,   Rainfall,   Air  Currents,   Human  Population  Density,  Biome
Distribution and Animal Diversity.   All this is overlaid in easily digestible
form,  while  accompanying  information is displayed on a small graph  to  the
right of the boxes.

The  world  may  also  be displayed as a globe,  but  although  this  is  very
appealing  aesthetically,  most Planetary Managers prefer to see the whole  of
the planet at once.   You now have an idea of what is going on,  down on  your
planet, for a close up, you select the View Window, which will display a close
up  of  part  of  the  planet,   It's from here that  you  do  all  the  major
interference.   On the bottom right of this Window is a strip of buttons  that
regulate  what is displayed within the window (Oceans,  Life forms,  etc)  and
what information, if any you want overlaid on top, such as temperature.

At the top right are the six controls that you'll use most within the game  to
make  you  mark  on the planet.   Starting with the bottom left  of  the  six,
clicking  on this brings up s sub-menu that lets you select and place a  Niche
onto the surface of the planet,  a habitat for an organism or  species.   Many
will  evolve naturally,  but maybe not to your liking.   Once you've set up  a
niche,  you'll want to pop in some life,  maybe.  Clicking on the top left box
gives  the  sub-menu for selecting various forms of Sea  life,  Land  life  or
Civilisations.   If  conditions are right on the planet,  many of  these  will
evolve naturally as well, but perhaps not to your grand design.

Finally on the left is an event generator.   Available to you are  Hurricanes,
Meteors,  Tidal waves,  Volcanoes,  Atomic tests, Fire, Earthquake and Plague.
Four  sorts  of  fantasies  can be lived  out  using  these,  especially  when
selecting Modern Day Earth.   Nuke Argentina?  no worries,  sure this can be a
bit sick, but you do get to realise that it only takes a few nukes to generate
a serious nuclear winter.   Not exactly the best way to promote life on earth!
Ever  wanted to know what happens when you fill in the Alantic?   Try it  with
the raise/lower option on the upper right.   Going down that column,  the Hand
icon lets you move life forms about (good for separating warring tribes),  and
the  Question  Mark lets you click on any area for a detailed report  on  it's
contents.   Fiddling about with the planet does cost,  however.   You have  an
overall  Planetary Interference Limit that varies according to the  difficulty
level you choose,  but it works like the budget did in Sim City.   Big  things
like trying to plant a technological life form in the Precambrian Era,  cost a
lot  and  won't last long in any case.   Smoothing out the rough edges  of  an
ecosystem is more sensible and more likely to produce a result.

That's the simple overview of the controls, then, but like as in Sim City, the
real  joy of Sim Earth,  is getting down,  booting it up and getting to  grips
with  exploring  the  complexity of the model.   Just taking  the  Earth  from
Geological age to the present day,  watching the continents form and evolution
taking  place  before you very eyes,  is quite  remarkable.   Then  you  start
thinking,   what  if.   The  confessed  aim  of  the  game  is  to  nurture  a
technological species to the stage where they can get the hell off the  planet
and 'seed' another, in fact you find your own pleasure and goals in the things
as soon as you've got to grips with the controls.
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