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***************************************************************************** ____________/\ /\ ________________________/\__________________ \ / \ / \ \ \ \ / \ \ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /___ / /___ / / / / / ____/ ____/ / / / \/ / \/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / ___/ \ /___/\________/\________/\ /\ /___/\ /_____/\______/ / \ / \ / \ / \/ \________/Ci \/ \/ \/ Could Bring you: Sim Earth User Manual. Call The ALLiANCE WHQ! Unknown Pleasures - (+44) (0)20429917 Sysop: Razor Blade 16.8DS blah blah blah ... SIMEARTH CONTENTS ================= INTRODUCTION .......................... 1 GETTING STARTED........................ 11 TUTORIAL............................ 15 INTRODUCTION...................... 16 FIRST LOOK ....................... 20 CREATING AND MODIFYING PLANETS ... 26 MODIFYING THE SIMULATION ......... 37 REFERENCE........................... 45 CONTROLLING THE SIMULATION ....... 46 MICE AND KEYBOARDS ............... 46 INPUT AND OUTPUT ................. 46 MENUS ............................ 48 WINDOWS .......................... 53 HELP WINDOW ..................... 53 NEW PLANET WINDOW................ 54 EDIT WINDOW ..................... 57 MAP WINDOW....................... 71 GAIA WINDOW ..................... 80 HISTORY WINDOW .................. 81 REPORT WINDOW.................... 83 TUTORIAL WINDOW ................. 90 GLOSSARY WINDOW ................. 90 GRAPHS.............................. 91 MODEL CONTROL PANELS................ 94 TIME SCALES ........................ 100 SCENARIOS........................... 109 DAISYWORLD......................... 118 INSIDE THE SIMULATION............... 122 EVENTS............................. 122 GEOSPHERE ......................... 127 ATMOSPHERE ........................ 129 CLIMATE............................ 131 LIFE AND EVOLUTION ................ 133 CIVILIZATION....................... 142 ENERGY ............................ 145 SIMULATICHART...................... 148 AN INTRODUCTION TO EARTH SCIENCE.... 149 INTRODUCTION ..................... 151 GEOLOGY .......................... 153 CLIMATE .......................... 167 LIFE ............................. 178 HUMAN CIVILIZATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY ...................... 190 THEORIES OF THE EARTH: THE GAIA HYPOTHESIS............... 196 APPENDICES......................... 201 PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS .......... 202 GLOSSARY ........................ 204 INDEX............................ 208 PLANET SPECIFICATION SHEETS ..... 212 -= END OF CONTENTS =- --------------------------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION ============ "is this a random world or did you planet ? " - THe most pondered question by Sim-Earthling philosophers. WHAT IS SIM-EARTH ? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SimEarth is a planet simulator--a model of a planet. It is a game, an educational toy, and an enjoyable tool. With SimEarth you can take over many included planets, or design and create your own. SimEarth is based on the Gaia theory by James Lovelock, which suggests that we look at our planet and the life on it as a whole, and not as separate areas of study. SimEarth treats the planet as a whole: life, climate, the atmosphere, and the planet itself--from dirt and rock to the molten core all affect each other. You will see your planet as a whole--from a satellite's point of view, at two levels of magnification. SimEarth can be played in two modes: game and experimental. In game mode, you will try to develop, manage, and preserve your planet within allotted energy budgets. In experimental mode, you are given unlimited energy to mold your planet. This allows you to set up any type of planet in any stage of development, and then introduce any new factors you want and see what happens. In this mode SimEarth is a "planetary spreadsheet." Your SimEarth planets will be populated by electronic life-forms called SimEarthlings--cousins of the Sims who populate SimCity (another fine product from Maxis). SimEarthlings range from single celled plants and animals to intelligent species. Intelligent SimEarthlings are not limited to Humans--or even Mammals. There can be intelligent Dinosaur SimEarthlings, intelligent Mollusk SimEarthlings, even intelligent Insect SimEarthlings--but only one intelligent life-form at a time. A single planet can be populated by billions and billions of SimEarthlings. Their welfare is in your hands. > 2 < WHAT IS GAIA? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gaia is a theory about the evolution of the Earth. A theory that sees the evolution of the species of organisms by natural selection and the evolution of the rocks, air and oceans as a single tightly coupled process. In Gaia the organisms and their material environment together constitute a system which is able to self-regulate climate and atmospheric composition. The fact that the Earth's mean temperature has remained constant and favourable for life for 3.6 billion years in spite of a rise in output of heat from the Sun of 25%, and the fact that oxygen has remained close to 21% of our atmosphere for 200 million years, can be explained by Gaia theory but not by conventional science. Although it is a scientific theory, the name Gaia was proposed by the novelist William Golding. Gaia became visible through the new knowledge about the Earth gained from space and from the extensive investigations of the Earth's surface, oceans and atmosphere during the past few decades. This view has in it something of the poetic metaphor of a ship held by the sailors, but it is also a hard science theory of our planet that came from a top-down view from space. This theory is now up for trial, and the evidence gathered from the Earth itself will decide on whether or not it should be taken as scientific fact. Don't be misled by those who argue that Gaia is untestable or teleological and therefore in error; their criticism is mere opinion based on prejudice, not evidence. Even if in the end Gaia should turn out to be no more than a poetic metaphor, it would still have been worth thinking of the Earth as a living system. Such thoughts have already led to discoveries about the Earth that could not have come from conventional wisdom. Gaia is a top-down view of the Earth as a single system, and is essentially physiological. It is about the working of the whole system, not with the separated parts of a planet divided arbitrarily into the biosphere, the atmosphere, the lithosphere and the hydrosphere. These are not real divisions of the Earth; they are spheres of influence inhabited by academic scientists. All I ask is that you concede that there might be something in the Gaia theory, which sees the Earth as a living system, to acknowledge Gaia at least for the purpose of argument. I do not expect you to become converts to a new Earth religion. I do not ask you to suspend your common sense. All that I do ask is that you consider Gaia theory as an alternative to the conventional wisdom of a dead planet made of inanimate rocks, ocean and atmosphere merely inhabited by life. Consider it as a real system, comprising all of life and all of its environment tightly coupled so as to form a self-regulating entity. Maybe you already have it in mind when you use that vague, ill-defined word "Biosphere" that seems to have a different meaning for each occasion of its use. > 3 < I recognise that to view the Earth as if it were alive is just a convenient, but different, way of organising the facts of the Earth. I am of course prejudiced in favour of Gaia and have filled my life for the past 25 years with the thought that Earth may be alive: not as the ancients saw her--a sentient Goddess with a purpose and foresight--but alive like a tree. A tree that quietly exists, never moving except to sway in the wind, yet endlessly conversing with the sunlight and the soil. Using sunlight and water and nutrient minerals to grow and change. But all done so imperceptibly, that to me the old oak tree on the green is the same as it was when I was a child. ---------------------- SOFTWARE TOYS AND SYSTEM SIMULATIONS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Software Toys ------------- SimEarth isn't exactly a game...it's what we call a "Software Toy." Toys, by definition, are more flexible and open-ended than games. As an example, compare a game, tennis, with a toy, a ball. In every tennis game, there is one way to begin, one goal to pursue, and one way to end. There are infinite variations in the middle, but they all start the same way, chase the same goal, and end the same way. A ball is more flexible--there are more things you can do with it. With the ball, you can play tennis. You can play catch. You can throw it at someone. You can bounce it. You can make up a hundred different games using the ball. Our Software Toys are programmable. Using the comparison with a ball, this means that you can change the tennis ball into a football, baseball, soccer ball, Ping Pong ball, etc., and play any and all the games you play with those balls. Besides games, there are other things you can do with a ball. You can paint it, use it to plug a leaky roof, or just contemplate its roundness (Fukkin heavy shit this h0h0!). In SimEarth, the "toy" is a planet--a programmable planet that can become an infinite number of planets. So when you play with SimEarth, or any of our Software Toys, don't limit yourself to trying to "win." Play with it. Experiment. Try new things. Just have fun. > 4 < SYSTEM SIMULATIONS ------------------ There are many types of toys. SimEarth, like SimCity before it, is a SYSTEM SIMULATION toy. In a system simulation, we provide you with a set of RULES and TOOLS that describe, create and control a system. In the case of SimEarth, the system is a planet. Part of the challenge of playing with a SYSTEM SIMULATION toy is to figure out how the system works and take control of it. As master of the system you are free to use the TOOLS to create and control an unlimited number of systems (in this case, planets) within the framework provided by the RULES. In SimEarth, the RULES to learn are based on global systems and management, including: Chemical Factors : atmospheric composition, energy management Geological Factors: climate, extraterrestrial collisions, continental drift, earthquakes Biological Factors: formation of life, evolution, food supply, biome types and distribution Human Factors : wars, civilization, technology, waste control, pollution, food supply, energy supply. The TOOLS provide you with the ability to create, modify and manage a planet: Create a planet in any of four Time Scales. Physically modify the landscape of the planet. Set the altitude of any spot on the planet. Trigger events on the planet from hurricanes to volcanoes to meteor strikes. Plant various biomes and life-forms anywhere on the planet. Nurture a species to help it evolve intelligence. Manage your planet by making use of the available maps and graphs. But the most important TOOL of all is the simulator itself. Test your plans, theories and ideas as you watch your planet develop or decline. Customise the simulation by changing the rules that control the geosphere, the atmosphere, the biosphere, and civilization, to suit yourself or test life's adaptability to various conditions. > 5 < SIMULATION LIMITATIONS AND BIASES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SIMULATION LIMITATIONS ---------------------- Anything as complicated as the Earth or an animal or even a city cannot be completely defined by formulas and equations. Any model of something this complicated cannot be completely accurate--but if you are aware of the inaccuracies, the model can still be useful. A street map is a model of a city. It isn't a completely accurate representation of every detail of a city, but, within its limitations, it's very useful. Most of us would be lost without one. As a simulation of a real planetary system, SimEarth is a rough caricature--an extreme simplification. We simulate many different aspects of a planet, including climate, evolution, atmospheric composition, and civilization, all on a personal computer. A truly accurate simulation for a climate model alone has not yet been realised even on today's most powerful super-computers. We designed this simulation as accurately as we could while maintaining compatibility with personal computers and including a gaming aspect. A major limitation to this program is how evolution is treated. It closely follows Earth's evolution. With very few exceptions, all the life-forms represented here actually exist or existed on Earth. While allowing many differences in which species succeed or fail--and eventually gain sentience--the path from single-celled life to complex life is roughly the same as on Earth. Also, whatever species becomes intelligent--Mammal, Dinosaur, Fish, etc.-- will develop civilizations, cities and technologies that greatly resemble Human civilizations, cities and technologies. BIASES ------- SimEarth is based on the Gaia theory, as proposed by James Lovelock. Gaia theory is controversial, and not an accepted truth in all scientific circles. For this game, we are also making a few assumptions that are not necessarily true. One of these assumptions is that intelligence is an evolutionary advantage--we might just be flattering ourselves. > 6 < The simulator in SimEarth is a very complex piece of modelling software. It is constantly performing many checks, calculations and updates, as well as keeping watch on the mouse and keyboard to respond to your demands. When you load in a planet, give the simulator a minute or two to compile and update maps and graphs. When you make adjustments to the MODEL CONTROL PANELS, allow some time for the changes to take effect. Simulator reaction time is also greatly affected by your computer's clock speed and type of microprocessor. ---------------------- GOALS OF SIM EARTH =================== SCENARIOS ~~~~~~~~~ Each of the seven included scenario planets is actually a game in itself that can be played at three levels of difficulty or in experimental mode. Each scenario will present you with different challenges in planet management. TESTING THE GAIA HYPOTHESIS--DAISYWORLD ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One of the main tenets of the Gaia hypothesis is that life itself regulates the conditions on Earth that support life, including temperature and atmospheric content. One of the scenarios, Daisyworld, is a simplified simulation with only eight life-forms: differently shaded daisies. This scenario is based on the original Daisy-world computer model James Lovelock designed to explain the Gaia hypothesis. Experimenting with the Daisyworld Scenario will give you a visual demonstration of the concept of Gaia and of life on Earth as a self-regulating whole. A complete description of how and why the Daisyworld model works is found later in this manual, in the "Scenarios" chapter. TAKING ON THE ROLE OF GAIA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you play any of the scenarios or random planets at the most difficult level, all Gaian self-regulation will be disabled. You will have to constantly monitor and adjust everything on the planet to keep life in existence. > 7 < YOUR OWN PLANETS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Besides the scenarios, you can create an unlimited number of different planets, at various levels of difficulty. FUN AND CHALLENGE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Running a planet is a real challenge for even an experienced gamer. OTHER GOALS ~~~~~~~~~~~ Design, modify, manage, and nurture a planet from creation through formation of the oceans, to the appearance of life, through the evolution of life, through the development of intelligence and technology, to the point where your SimEarthlings can reach for the stars. Set up a planetary situation and just watch what happens. Choose and help a particular species gain mastery of the planet. Influence the life to keep it from destroying itself and the planet. Perhaps the ultimate goal of SimEarth is for you to design, manage and maintain the planet of your dreams. Your ideal planet may be a high-tech society of intelligent humans (or intelligent dinosaurs) or a limited-technology planet where the biosphere is never endangered. YOUR OWN GOALS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It's your toy--you make the rules. You don't need a goal if you don't want one. Just play. ---------------------- ABOUT THIS MANUAL ================= This manual has two functions: to teach you how to use SimEarth and to introduce you to the basics of Earth Science. The majority of this manual describes the program SimEarth: how it works, how to use it, how it deals with life, climate, geology, atmospheric composition, civilization, etc. The Introduction to Earth Science section of this manual deals with many of the same things as they are in the real world, out of the context of SimEarth. This manual covers the SimEarth program for all computers. Any machine- specific information for installing, starting, or using SimEarth will be found on the included system card/addendum. > 8 < ABOUT ENERGY ============ In SimEarth there are two uses of energy. You, the player, use it to make, mold, modify and manipulate the planet, and civilized SimEarthlings make and use it to carry on their daily lives. A complete explanation of energy and its uses in SimEarth is found in the "Energy" chapter of this manual. SIMEARTHLING USE OF ENERGY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Intelligent SimEarthlings will produce and use energy. You can control their choice of energy sources and their use of the energy they produce, but you don't have direct access to their energy for your purposes. YOUR USE OF ENERGY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Depending on the difficulty level of the game, you will have different amounts of energy to affect the planet and the simulation. These amounts are both your starting supply and the maximum you can accumulate at any one time. If you are in experimental mode, you will have an unlimited supply of energy. Energy for a game comes from the stores of the planet itself in the form of geothermal, wind, and solar energy, as well as fossil fuels. As you deplete your energy supplies during a game, they will slowly build back up over time as the planet increases its energy from the above sources. This continual tapping of the planet's energies happens automatically. Once life on your planet becomes intelligent, you will automatically tap some of their energy. You can't just take the energy: a certain amount will be added to your supply along with the energy tapped from the planet itself. The higher the level of technology on your planet, the more energy you will receive. > 9 < GETTING STARTED =============== "All the world's a simulation and all the Sims and Simearthlings merely players" - William Simspeare. INSTALLING SIM EARTH ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please refer to the enclosed system card and machine-specific addendum for installation instructions (ALREADY RELEASED SO I AINT DONE IT!). GETTING HELP ~~~~~~~~~~~~ SimEarth is a fairly complex program, with lots of windows, icons, buttons, options, and control panels. To make your simulating experience easier, there is a lot of help information included in the program. THE HELP FUNCTION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Any time you want or need help, or aren't sure what something in the program does, ask for help. Whenever you hold down the SHIFT KEY, you are in help mode, and the cursor changes to /\HELP. Then click on anything anywhere in SimEarth, and you will get a help message. THE GLOSSARY ~~~~~~~~~~~~ There is an on-line glossary that defines many of the words in the SimEarth program. To access the glossary, open the WINDOWS MENU, and select GLOSSARY. There is also a Glossary in the Appendix section of this manual. THE TUTORIALS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There is a tutorial section in this manual. There is also an on-line abbreviated version of the tutorial. The on-line text-based tutorial is accessed by selecting TUTORIAL from the WINDOWS MENU. You can even keep the TUTOIAL WINDOW open on the screen while playing the game, and refer to it whenever you need. Depending on your computer, you may or may not be able to have the on-line tutorial open at the same time as other HELP WINDOWS. > 12 < STARTING THE PROGRAM ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please refer to the system card or machine-specific addendum for instructions in starting SimEarth. The first time you start the program, you will see three windows: the TITLE WINDOW, which goes away as soon as you click the mouse, the EDIT WINDOW, which is your main planetary work space, and a HELP WINDOW, which will tell you how to get started and how to get more help. Whenever you start SimEarth, there will be no active planet. You will have to select either NEW PLANET or LOAD PLANET from the FILE MENU before the simulation will really start. This is to give you a chance to look around, play with the various windows and controls, and prepare yourself before things start to happen. The following Tutorial section will guide you through the basics of planet creation and manipulation. > 13 < TUTORIAL ======== "Fools make a mock of Sim", simproverbs xiv.9 INTRODUCTION ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The purpose of this tutorial is to give you a quick tour of SimEarth's menus, windows, and planet manipulation tools. It won't give every detail of every item in the program. For in-depth explanations of everything in the program see the Reference section of this manual. ---------------------- BASIC CONCEPTS ============== Before beginning the tutorial, here are a few basic concepts and terms to get you started. GAIA THEORY ~~~~~~~~~~~ SimEarth is based on the Gaia theory. Everything in the program is interrelated: climate, animals, plants, and the planet itself all affect each other. A brief explanation of the Gaia theory is given in the Introduction in the chapter "What is Gaia?" A demonstration of how Gaia works is found in the Daisyworld section of the "Scenarios" chapter. PLANET ~~~~~~ The term "planet" refers to the present planet, world, or scenario that is loaded into memory and is being simulated. You will view your planet from a satellite's point of view at two different magnifications, and as either a flat robinson projection or a globe. SIMULATION/SIMULATOR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In SimEarth and this manual, we use the terms "simulation" and "simulator" to Represent the part of the program that is modelling the planet. When you change or modify the simulation, you are changing variables and parameters in the model, which in turn change the planet. The ability to modify the simulation is a powerful tool both for the gaming aspect and the experimental "planetary spreadsheet" aspect of SimEarth. > 16 < INPUT AND OUTPUT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SimEarth is a very complicated program. An important part of understanding it is knowing where you can INPUT (change the planet or simulation), and where you find OUTPUT (results of your INPUT). There are three places for INPUT: The FILE MENU for creating or loading planets; The EDIT WINDOW for making local changes to spots on the planet; and The MODEL CONTROL PANELS for modifying the simulation and changing the planet globally. The MODEL CONTROL PANELS are the only places in SimEarth that are INPUT only. Everything else all the maps and graphs, even the EDIT WINDOW--supplies OUTPUT. TIME LIMIT ~~~~~~~~~~ In SimEarth, as on the real Earth, the level of solar radiation is continually increasing. You only have 10 billion years before the planet gets so hot that all life on it will die. Technically, the Sun cools off as it expands into a red giant. As it expands, it gets closer to the planet. From the planet's position, the solar radiation is increasing even though the Sun is cooling. TIME SCALES ~~~~~~~~~~~ There are four Time Scales in SimEarth: Ceologic, Evolution, Civilised, and Technology. Each Time Scale simulates different periods of a planet's development at different rates of speed. You can begin a planet in any Time Scale, or start at the first (Ceologic) and guide your planet through them all. A certain amount of development must occur before advancing to the next one. BIOMES ~~~~~~ Biomes are ecological systems of plants and animals, such as Forest, Desert and Jungle. Where a particular biome can survive depends on temperature, rainfall and altitude. For the most part, biomes are used in SimEarth to represent the plant life of a planet. > 17 < LIFE ~~~~ Life-forms in SimEarth (SimEarthlings) range from single-celled microbes in the ocean to complex, intelligent animals. Any multicellular life-form in SimEarth can become intelligent. Life will begin and evolve automatically in SimEarth. To a great extent, you can affect the evolutionary path that life follows on your planet. There are 15 classes of life represented in SimEarth. Each class of life has 16 species. There are 240 possible forms of life, but not all of them will develop or survive on any given planet. The symbols that represent life in the EDIT WINDOW stand for a large population of that life-form--not just one animal. Each form of life has favourite biomes where it flourishes, and others where it cannot survive at all. The level of development of life controls the advancement of Time Scales. CIVILIZATION ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Eventually, one type of SimEarthling will attain sentience. When this happens, civilization begins. With civilization comes many new issues and problems to deal with. SimEarth simulates civilization with cities at seven levels of technology ranging from the Stone Age of the distant past to the Nanotech Age of the future. ENERGY ~~~~~~~ There are two uses of energy in SimEarth: yours and the SimEarthlings. You use energy each time you change the planet in the EDIT WINDOW or the MODEL CONTROL PANELS. Creating and nurturing your planet within your energy budget is one of the challenges of SimEarth. Intelligent SimEarthlings produce and use energy. You can control their energy production and use, but it's theirs--you can't use their energy for planet manipulation. > 18 < HELP AND THE GLOSSARY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On-line help is available anywhere at any time in SimEarth. To access help, hold down the SHIFT KEY and click somewhere on the screen. A text window will appear with the information you need. One special use of the HELP WINDOW is the GLOSSARY. There may be some words that you don't know in this program. If you choose GLOSSARY from the WINDOWS MENU, a glossary of the words and terms used in this program will appear in the HELP WINDOW. ---------------------- ABOUT THIS TUTORIAL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This tutorial will be presented in three sections: FIRST LOOK will introduce you to the various menus, windows, graphs, and control panels. CREATING AND MODIFYING PLANETS will teach you how to create and save planets; change the landform of a planet; place and move biomes, life and cities on a planet; and trigger events such as volcanoes and earthquakes. MODIFYING THE SIMULATION shows how you can use the MODEL CONTROL PANELS to change global conditions on your planet. > 19 < FIRST LOOK: ~~~~~~~~~~~ See the system card and addendum for your machine for installation and startup instructions, and fire it up. You Will see a MENU BAR across the top of the screen plus three separate windows: a TITLE SCREEN, a HELP WINDOW, and the MAP WINDOW. The TITLE SCREEN introduces the program and gives credits. Click on it to make it go away. The HELP WINDOW holds text that will help you use and understand SimEarth. You can request help on any icon, any button, any window, any function, any anything in SimEarth. The first time you start the program, the HELP WINDOW will display text to help you get started. You can change the size of the HELP WINDOW by clicking and dragging the SIZE GADGET. You can move it around the screen by clicking and dragging the TITLE BAR. To scroll through all the text in a HELP WINDOW click on the up or down arrows in the SCROLL BAR on the right side of the window. To make the HELP WINDOW go away, click in the CLOSE BOX. > 20 < The MAP WINDOW gives you a view of your entire planet. At the top of the MAP WINDOW is the TITLE BAR. It displays the name of the current map display. You can move the MAP WINDOW around the screen by clicking and dragging the TITLE BAR. At the left of the TITLE BAR is the CLOSE BOX. If you click in this box the EDIT WINDOW will close. To bring it back, select MAP from the WINDOWS MENU. All windows, graphs and control panels have TITLE BARS and CLOSE BOXES. The MAP WINDOW also has a DISPLAY AREA and a CONTROL PANEL. The DISPLAY AREA shows the entire planet. A rectangle somewhere in this area shows the part of the planet that will be displayed in the EDIT WINDOW, your close-up view of the planet. The CONTROL PANEL, at the bottom of the window, lets you select different views of the planet that give you information about the land, water, air, climate, life and civilization. The views are changed by clicking on the 12 icons. Go ahead and click on them. Many of them won`t do much because there is no active planet. To get the original view back, click on the far left icon. Clicking on the little buttons at the bottom that say GEOSPHERE, ATMOSPHERE, BIO, and CIV will bring up various MODEL CONTROL PANELS, and double-clicking on some of the icons will bring up graphs. Don't worry about this now. If an unexpected small window pops up, close it by clicking in its CLOSE BOX, or just click on any part of the MAP WINDOW to bring it to the front. > 21 < Near the right side of the CONTROL PANEL is the INFO BOX. It displays various graphs and legends for each of the map views. To the right of the INFO BOX are three buttons. The top one takes you to the EDIT WINDOW; the bottom one changes the INFO BOX between graphs and legends (when available). The middle button, GLOBE, changes the flat map into a globe. All of the map views are available on both the flat map and the globe. Click on GLOBE again to return to the flat At the top of the DISPLAY AREA is a MESSAGE BAR that will sometimes appear and display messages to you from the simulation and from the SimEarthlings that inhabit the planet. At the moment, the MESSAGE BAR should say, "No Game in Progress. Use 'New Planet' to Start." When SimEarth first starts, there is no actual planet or game running. This gives you a chance to look around a little before things start to happen. When you are ready to start playing, you must choose NEW PLANET from the FILE MENU. Before doing that, we'll take a quick look around. Look at the MENUS along the top of the screen. If you are unfamiliar with drop-down menus, check with the SimEarth addendum for your machine. A complete description of every item on every menu is found in the Reference section of this manual. Open the FILE MENU. It is for starting new planets, loading and saving old planets, printing, and quitting SimEarth. Open the WINDOWS MENU. Use this menu to open the various SimEarth windows. Open the MODELS MENU. This menu gives you access to the four MODEL CONTROL PANELS that you will use to modify the simulation. > 22 < Open the GRAPHS MENU. This menu gives you access to the four graphs that give you information on air, life and technology on the planet. Open the OPTIONS MENU. It lets you Customise the program to your tastes. Open the SPEED MENU. It lets you set the simulation speed of the game and choose the way the date is displayed. Open the DATASOUND MENU. It lets you control some of the sound in SimEarth. Along with the MAP WINDOW, the most important window you will be using is the EDIT WINDOW. To see it, choose EDIT from the WINDOWS MENU. For a complete description of everything in the EDIT WINDOW, see the Reference section of this manual. The EDIT WINDOW is your close-up view of your planet. It is where you will make modifications to the planet itself and the life on it. The EDIT WINDOW also has a TITLE BAR, CONTROL PANEL, and a DISPLAY AREA. You can use the TITLE BAR to close or move the window. The DISPLAY AREA shows the area of the planet that is in the rectangle in the MAP WINDOW. > 23 < Edit Window Control Panel ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ____________________ | _____ _____ | | | | | | | | |_____| |_____| | | _____ _____ | | | | | | | | |_____| |_____| | | _____ _____ | | | | | | | | |_____| |_____| | | _________________ | || || || || ||_________________|| | _________________ | || Oceans || || Biomes || || Cities || || Life || || Events || ||_________________|| | _________________ | || Heat || || Rainfall || || Winds || || SeaFlow || || SeaHeat || || Magma || ||_________________|| | _________________ | || 5000 || ||_________________|| |___________________| On the left side of the window is the EDIT WINDOW CONTROL PANEL. This is where you choose your tools to modify the planet, and choose the data you want to view in this window. An easy way to find out what all the icons and buttons on the EDIT WINDOW CONTROL PANEL do is to use the HELP function. Hold down the SHIFT KEY and click on an icon or button. The HELP WINDOW will give you information on the spot where you clicked. In the lower-right corner is the SiZE BOX. Click and drag this box to enlarge or shrink the size of the EDIT WINDOW. The biggest part of this window is the DISPLAY AREA. This is the close-up "satellite's eye view" of your planet. At this point you will see only land and water in this area. The elevation of the land is shown in shades--the lighter the shade, the higher the elevation. To see different parts of the planet you must scroll the planet's terrain under the window. Depending on your computer, you may or may not have SCROLL BARS at the right and bottom of the EDIT WINDOW. If you have SCROLL BARS, then use them (click on the arrows or the bar) to scroll the terrain. If you don't have SCROLL BARS, then simply move the mouse pointer to any edge or corner of the screen, and the display will scroll. Go to the WINDOWS MENU and open the TUTORIAL WINDOW. This is a HELP WINDOW that introduces you to SimEarth and explains much of the program. The tutorial that you are reading now is much more complete. Use the on-line TUTORIAL WINDOW for a quick refresher course whenever you need it. > 24 < There is also a HISTORY WINDOW that graphs 15 factors through the history of your planet, and a REPORT WINDOW, which gives you feedback on your planet's condition and your planet management skills. Since there is no active planet yet, these windows won't tell you much. We'll come back to them later. Open the MODELS MENU and select GEOSPHERE. You will see the GEOSPHERE MODEL CONTROL PANEL. Go back to the menu And select ATMOSPHERE to see another CONTROL PANEL. These CONTROL PANELS, four in all, let you modify the actual simulation. You can only display one MODEL CONTROL PANEL at a time. You can switch between them by clicking on the NEXT or LAST buttons in the upper-right corner of the panel. Open the GRAPHS MENU and select one of the graphs. Only one graph can be viewed at a time. These graphs keep you informed on the status of the Atmosphere, Biomes, Life, and Technology on your planet. Let's build some planets. > 25 < CREATING AND MODIFYING PLANETS ============================== CREATING A PLANET IN THE GEOLOGICAL TIMESCALE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Name your Planet: Select NEW PLANET from the FILE MENU. You will now be asked a question. The answer to the question will be found at the back of the SimEarth manual in the PLANET SPECIFICATION SHEETS. Type in the answer, and hit return. You will see the NEW PLANET WINDOW. At the top of this window, you select whether you want to play an easy, average, or hard game. You can also select experimental mode, which gives you an unlimited energy budget. The bottom of the window gives you choices of planets. There are seven scenarios--pre-set planets--that you can load, or you can create a random planet. Let's create a random planet in easy game mode. Click on EASY CAME in the top section of the window, and click on the planet that says RANDOM PLANET. Now you will see a dialog box asking you to name your planet and select the Time Scale. There are four Time Scales in SimEarth; each simulates different aspects of planetary development. There is a complete description of each Time Scale in the Reference section. Click in the box next to GEOLOGIC it may already be selected(), then type in a name for your planet--try GEOWORID and click the BEGIN button. > 26 < A new planet is born. Select the EDIT option in the WINDOWS MENU and look at the EDIT WINDOW. In the TITLE BAR, along with the planet's name, is the date-- the elapsed time since the planet was created. In the SPEED MENU you can change the format of the date between RELATIVE DATE (time elapsed since the beginning of the present Time Scale) and ABSOLUTE DATE (time elapsed since the creation of the planet). Since this planet is in the first Time Scale, the two are the same. There will be no oceans for a while, and there is no atmosphere to burn up incoming meteors. Sit back for a couple minutes and watch, switching between the EDIT and MAP WINDOWS. You will witness events: meteor strikes, volcanoes, and earthquakes. Soon oceans will form and life will form in the oceans. TOURING THE PLANET ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bring the EDIT WINDOW to the front, and make it as big as you can. Scroll around the planet and go sightseeing for a few minutes. A lot is going on: time is passing very fast in this Time Scale. You can see the continents drifting. Single-celled life is spreading. Meteors hit the land and make craters that become lakes or hit the ocean and cause tidal waves. EDIT WINDOW CONTROL PANEL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bring the EDIT WINDOW to the front and look at the EDIT WINDOW CONTROL PANEL. At the top-left of the panel are six icons. Click on these icons to activate tools for changing the planet. Below that is the CURRENT TOOL DISPLAY. It shows which tool is being used and the cost in energy to use it. Click on each icon. The three on the left have submenus. Click and hold to see them. Keep the mouse button down, and slide the pointer to an option on the submenu to select it. To get an explanation of what an icon does, hold down the SHIFT KEY and click on the icon. The HELP WINDOW will explain what it does and how to use it. Below the icons are the DATA LAYER BUTTONS--five buttons that let you decide what information about the planet will be displayed. You can have any, all, or none of these on at once. You can also get HELP WINDOW messages about these buttons. > 27 < Click on these, and play with them. When you turn off the display of the oceans, you can see the elevation of the ocean floor. This doesn't make the ocean go away, it just makes it invisible. Depending on how fast you read, and how fast your computer is, you may or may not have life or biomes to turn on and off at this time. Below the DATA LAYER BUTTONS are the CLIMATE OVERLAY BUTTONS--six buttons that let you turn on and off display of climactic information. Only one of these can be on at a time. You can also get HELP WINDOW messages about these buttons. Go ahead and play with these for a while. At the bottom of the EDIT WINDOW CONTROL PANEL is the AVAILABLE ENERGY DISPLAY. In SimEarth, the price you pay to manipulate the planet is in energy. This little box tells you how much you have left. As time passes, your energy supply will slowly build back up, but it will never exceed 5000 in an easy game, or 2000 in an average or hard game. In experimental mode, you have unlimited energy. USING THE SET ALTITUDE TOOL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This tool has two modes: RAISE and LOWER. Click once on the SET ALTITUDE icon. The icon will be highlighted. In the CURRENT TOOL DISPLAY, you will see the SET ALTITUDE icon, but with only an up arrow along with the cost to use it: 50n (energy units). Only the up arrow is shown to indicate that this tool is in RAISE mode. Scroll the EDIT WINDOW to a place on the planet that is mostly water (make sure the display of oceans is on). Point to the water and click and hold for a few seconds. You've just built an island. If you watch for a while, you'll notice that the island moves and changes. That is because time is moving so fast in this Time Scale that you can see the continents moving (continental drift). Now click on the SET ALTITUDE icon again. The icon in the CURRENT TOOL DISPLAY shows only a down arrow to indicate that the tool is in LOWER mode. The price to lower altitude is also 50 energy units. Scroll over to a landmass, click and hold for a few seconds. You've just dug a lake. > 28 < THE GAIA WINDOW ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Select GAIA from the WINDOWS MENU. A small window appears with a representation of Gaia--the planetary organism. This face will give you constant feedback on the "mood of the planet." Gaia's mood is based on how well life on the planet is doing. The moods range from bliss to horror. Everything that happens and everything you do affects the planet's mood. You may want to keep this window showing in a corner of the screen to give you constant feedback on your planetary management. Gaia will sleep until life forms, then it will wake up. Its eyes will follow the pointer around the screen. Please don't poke it in the eye. TRIGGERING EVENTS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Note: The Icons here are obvious for what they are. So i aint pratting about trying to re-create em with Ansi. Now for some real fun--triggering events. Make sure the EVENTS DATA LAYER BUTTON in the EDIT WINDOW CONTROL PANEL is on. Events are more than just disasters or occurrences: they are tools. They can be helpful in shaping the land and changing the composition of the atmosphere. They can also cause mass extinctions. Remember, in SimEarth, everything is interrelated. To see how each event can be used for good or bad, and its side effects that affect the planet, see the "Events" chapter of the Reference section and use the HELP function (hold the SHIFT KEY and click on the TRIGGER EVENTS icon). METEORS ~~~~~~~ Click and hold on the TRIGGER EVENT icon. You will see the submenu of events. Slide the pointer until METEOR is highlighted, then release the mouse button. Scroll the EDIT WINDOW so water is showing. Click a few times on the ocean. Meteors will crash into the water, creating tidal waves. When meteors hit the water, they add a lot of moisture to the air, which will increase rainfall and contribute to the greenhouse effect. To check this, select AIR SAMPLE from the GRAPHS MENU, which will open the ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION GRAPH. Look at the percentage of Water Vapor. Go back to the EDIT WINDOW and drop a few more meteors in the ocean. Check the Water Vapor percentage again. > 29 < Crash a few meteors into land. You will get huge craters. If they are deep enough, they will become lakes. Crashing meteors into land spews dust into the atmosphere. Too much dust in the air blocks sunlight, which will kill plants (biomes), which will kill animals. Check the dust levels in the ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION GRAPH before and after triggering meteors. VOLCANOES ~~~~~~~~~ Click and hold on the TRIGGER EVENT icon again, and select VOLCANO from the submenu. Trigger a volcano somewhere in the ocean--instant island. Volcanoes in the water cause tidal waves, which can kill land life near the coasts. Volcanoes also add dust and carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. EARTHQUAKES ~~~~~~~~~~~ Now activate EARTHQUAKE on the TRIGGER EVENTS submenu. It has a sub- submenu for choosing the direction of the earthquake's energy. Earthquakes in SimEarth let you change the direction of the magma flow under the surface of the earth, which affects continental drift. In other words, earthquakes let you move continents. To easily see the results of earthquakes, turn on the MAGMA CLIMATE LAYER BUTTON. You can use earthquakes to build mountain ranges. Center the EDIT WINDOW over a landmass, preferably an area at a low altitude (you can use the SET ALTITUDE tool to lower it). Near the top of the window, set off a few earthquakes that expend their energy to the south. Near the bottom of the window, set off a few earthquakes that expend their energy to the north. This has the effect of squeezing the land from both sides, and a mountain range will be pushed up where the energy from the southbound and northbound quakes meet. OTHER EVENTS ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The other events work the same way--they are useful tools with both good and bad side effects. Take some time and play with them. > 30 < REPORT WINDOW ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Open the WINDOWS MENU and select REPORT. The REPORT WINDOW tells you how you, your planet, and your planet's life are doing. The information displayed in the REPORT WINDOW varies for each Time Scale. There is also a special REPORT WINDOW for the Daisyworld scenario and for the two terraforming scenarios (Mars and Venus). At the bottom of the window is your CURRENT TASK. This is what must be accomplished before advancing to the next Time Scale, or successfully completing a scenario. Let's start a new planet in the Civilisation Time Scale and look at the rest of our tools. ---------------------- First, save the old planet to disk. Select SAVE AS... from the FILE MENU. Choose the disk or directory you want to save to, and change the name of the planet if you wish. Click the SAVE button. Refer to the SimEarth addendum for details. Select NEW PLANET from the FILE MENU. This time, choose experimental mode, then click on the random planet. When the Name and Time Scale dialog box appears, click in the box to the left of "Civilised," type in the name CIVWORLD, and click the BEGIN button. > 31 < INVESTIGATING THE NEW WORLD MAP WINDOW ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lets take a look around the new planet. Open the MAP WINDOW, if it isn't already open, and have it display the world in the flat projection (not the globe). At the bottom of the window is the MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL. In this control panel are 12 icons that change the map display. They are arranged in five groups: Geosphere, Hydrosphere, Atmosphere, Bio(sphere), and Civ(ilization). (Icons from Left to Right number 1-12!). 1.) The map now displayed is the Terrain Map, which corresponds with the Terrain Map icon. Here you can see the continents and the oceans, and the terrain level of the land. Click on the INFO BUTTON in the lower-right corner of the window. The INFO BOX now displays a legend to the map's altitude. 2.) Click on the Event Map icon. Now the map shows the land and water (no altitude), plus tiny symbols that appear where events are occurring (if they are occurring). The INFO BOX shows a legend to the event symbols. 3.) Click on the Drift Map icon. Now you see the direction of the magma currents, which controls continental drift on your planet. 1.) Click on the Terrain Map icon. The drift is gone, and the altitude display is back. 4.) The first icon in the Hydrosphere group is the Hide/Show Oceans icon. This toggles on and off the view of the oceans. It can be used along with any of the other icons. Click on it a couple times, but when you are done, leave the display of oceans on. 5.) Click on the Ocean Temperature icon. You are shown the temperature of the ocean in shades or colors. The INFO BOX displays a legend of the temperatures. 6.) Click on the next icon to see a display of ocean currents. > 32 < Now for the Atmosphere group. The three icons in this group display Air Temperature, Rainfall, and Air Currents, respectively. Click on each of them. The INFO BOX will display a legend for each display. The Biosphere group only has two icons: Biomes shows the biome distribution on the planet, and Life shows the diversity of life on the planet. Once again, the INFO BOX displays a legend to help you interpret the map. There is only one icon in the Civilisation group. It displays the distribution of the seven levels of Technology on the planet. GRAPHS ~~~~~~ The graphs will also give you information about this planet. Select BIOMES from the GRAPHS MENU to see the BIOME RATIO GRAPH. Biome Ratio Graph ----------------- This graph shows the relative amounts of each biome on the planet. Since it shows changes over time, you can see the rise and fall of biomes through time. Life Class Ratio Graph ---------------------- Select LIFE-FORMS from the GRAPHICS MENU to see the LIFE CLASS RATIO GRAPH. This shows the relative amounts of each class of life on the planet. Technology Ratio Graph ---------------------- Select TECHNOLOGY from the GRAPHS MENU to see the TECHNOLOGY RATIO GRAPH. This shows the relative amount of each level of technology on the planet. > 33 < EDIT WINDOW ~~~~~~~~~~~ Go back to the EDIT WINDOW, and look at the EDIT WINDOW CONTROL PANEL. Turn on all the DATA LAYER BUTTONS. Click on the EXAMINE icon (Magnifying Glass). Now click and hold on any spot in the EDIT WINDOW DISPLAY AREA. A small window will pop up on the screen that gives you data on the biomes, life, and Civilisation in that spot. While still holding down the mouse button, move the pointer around the EDIT WINDOW. The data window will update to describe the spot under the pointer. Take some time and use the EXAMINE tool to explore your world. If you ask for HELP (hold down the SHIFT KEY and click) in the EDIT WINDOW DISPLAY AREA it will bring up the same data window as the EXAMINE tool. Now that we know something about the planet, let's shake things up a little. THE PLACE LIFE TOOL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Make sure the EDIT WINDOW is displayed, and the LIFE and CITIES DATA LAYER BUTTONS are on. Click and hold on the PLACE LIFE icon. > 34 < You will see a submenu. This is where you choose life, civilisations (cities), and terraformers to place on your planet. The left side of the submenu is for selecting life. The top seven are sea life, the bottom seven are land life. On the right side, the top seven items are cities for your intelligent SimEarthlings. The seven cities represent seven levels of technology. Below the cities are seven terraformers. These are tools that you will need to terraform Mars and Venus. Select one of the life-forms on the left side of the submenu. Move the pointer to the EDIT WINDOW DISPLAY AREA and click. The life- form will be placed where you click. Depending on the Time Scale and level of development on the planet, some of the options on the Place Life submenu will not be available. These include both life-forms and cities. Just because you place life on the planet doesn't mean it will stay there. If you place ocean life on the land or land life in the water, it won't last long. Also, life-forms can only survive well in certain biomes. A complete chart of what life can live in which biome is in the "Life" chapter in the Reference section of this manual. Notice that placing different life forms and cities costs different amounts of energy, depending on the level of advancement of the item you are placing. THE PLANT BIOME TOOL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Just as you can place animal life on the planet, you can plant biomes. Click and hold on the PLANT BIOME icon. You will see a submenu that will allow you to choose a biome to plant. The various biomes can only survive in certain climates--if you plant a swamp in a polar icecap, it won't last long. A complete chart of what biomes can survive in which climates is in the "Life" chapter in the Reference section. When planting biomes, you can click and hold the mouse button, and slowly drag the mouse across the planet. The biomes will be continuously "painted" onto the terrain. > 35 < THE MOVE TOOL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The last tool in the EDIT WINDOW is for moving biomes, life, and cities. Click on the MOVE icon. Move the pointer to the EDIT WINDOW DISPLAY AREA and click and hold on a spot with life, a city, or a biome. Move the pointer to a different spot, and release the mouse button. Besides moving things, the MOVE tool is helpful for investigation. When you have multiple data layers on, LIFE symbols will cover BIOME symbols, and CITY symbols will cover both LIFE and BIOMES. To see what life or biome is under a city, use the MOVE tool to lift it, then put it back in the same place. We've covered exploration and modification of the planet; now we'll learn how to modify the simulation. > 36 < MODIFYING THE SIMULATION ======================== INTRODUCTION. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In the EDIT WINDOW you change the planet. In fact, you only change part of the planet. With the MODEL CONTROL PANELS, you make changes to the actual model that controls the fate of the entire planet. There are four MODEL CONTROL PANELS. One each to modify the simulation in the following areas: GEOSPHERE --the planet itself; ATMOSPHERE --the planet's air and climate; BIOSPHERE --life on the planet; and CIVILISATION --the behaviour of the planet's sentient species. This tutorial won't explain each and every control on each CONTROL PANEL. It will explain what each CONTROL PANEL does, and how to use it. For a complete description of the control panels, see the "Model Control Panels" chapter in the Reference section. You can also find out what each control does by using the HELP function: hold down the SHIFT KEY and click on one of the controls. A HELP WINDOW will appear with a description of what each individual control does. ---------------------- GEOSPHERE CONTROL PANEL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The GEOSPHERE MODEL CONTROL PANEL controls the geologic aspects of a planet. These aspects, such as continental drift and core formation, change very slowly over millions of years. Since they change so slowly, the only way to see them clearly is in the Geologic Time Scale. Create a new, random planet in the Geologic Time Scale. Close all the windows, except the MAP WINDOW. Open the GEOSPHERE MODEL CONTROL PANEL. You can either do this by selecting GEOSPHERE from the MODELS MENU, or by clicking on the GEOSPHERE button in the MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL. Open the OPTIONS MENU and make sure UPDATE BACKGROUND is on. (It will have a checkmark on the left if it is on.) This will allow you to keep the MODEL CONTROL PANEL in front and still see the changes in the MAP WINDOW. > 37 < There are seven controls on this panel. Each control has a name and an indicator. The indicator is usually an arrow. For this tutorial, we'll concentrate on the CONTINENTAL DRIFT control because the results of changing it are easy to see. Click on the words CONTINENTAL DRIFT in the GEOSPHERE MODEL CONTROL PANEL. The words and the arrow above those words will be highlighted to show that this control is ready for your changes. To change the settings, you will use the slider control on the right side of the control panel. Click above or below the slider to move it up or down one notch. You can also click and drag the slider. If the oceans haven't formed yet on your newest planet, wait a minute until they do, then continue. Click and drag the slider all the way to the top, turning continental drift to its maximum setting. Go to the SPEED MENU and set the simulator to FAST. Watch the MAP WINDOW for a while: you will actually see the continents moving. Now turn the continental drift all the way down. The continents will slow their movement to nearly nothing. The other controls are operated the same way, and though the results of changing them isn't as obvious as with continental drift, they all have a powerful impact on the planet. ---------------------- ATMOSPHERIC MODEL CONTROL PANEL. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now open the ATMOSPHERE MODEL CONTROL PANEL. You can open it three ways: select ATMOSPHERE from the MODELS MENU, click on the ATMOSPHERE button on the MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL, or click the NEXT button in the upper-right corner of the GEOSPHERE MODEL CONTROL PANEL. > 38 < The ATMOSPHERE MODEL CONTROL PANEL is effective in all four Time Scales. Bring the MAP WINDOW to the front, and click on the AIR TEMPERA- TURE icon. Click on the INFO BUTTON to display a color/shade legend of the temperatures. Bring the ATMOSPHERE MODEL CONTROL PANEL to the front. Click on SOLAR INPUT, then drag the slider all the way to the top. You just turned the heat from the Sun to maximum. Your planet will soon start warming up. To add insult to Injury, turn GREENHOUSE EFFECT all the way up, and turn CLOUD ALBEDO, SURFACE ALBEDO, and AIR-SEA THERMAL TRANSFER all the way down. Each of these actions will contribute to global warming. Click on the INFO BUTTON. It will now display a graph of the changes in air temperature. Watch for a while. Soon the map and graph will show a rise in temperature. If you leave it rising long enough, your oceans will boil off and all life on the planet will die. After a few minutes, set all the settings back to midway, and watch the map and graph as everything begins to cool down. --------------------------------- BIOSPHERE MODEL CONTROL PANEL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The BIOSPHERE MODEL CONTROL PANEL is most effective in Evolution Time Scale, but has some effect in the other Time Scales. It controls how the simulation models life on the planet. Create a new planet in the Evolution Time Scale, set the simulation speed to FAST in the SPEED MENU, and open the BIOSPHERE MODEL CONTROL PANEL. It can be opened from the menu, the MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL, or the NEXT button on the ATMOSPHERE MODEL CONTROL PANEL. Turn ADVANCE RATE, MUTATION RATE, and REPRODUCTION RATE on the BIOSPHERE MODEL CONTROL PANEL all the way up. The changes from this control panel are much less obvious than the others. You can best see them in the HISTORY WiNDOW. > 39 < HISTORY WINDOW ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Open the HISTORY WINDOW by selecting HISTORY in the WINDOWS MENU. The HISTORY WINDOW displays the changes in 15 factors over time. Click on the DIVERSITY button to display the changing number of species on the planet. Watch for a few minutes, and the changes you made in the BIOSPHERE MODEL CONTROL PANEL will cause a rise in the diversity. ---------------------- CIVILISATION MODEL CONTROL PANEL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The CIVILISATION MODEL CONTROL PANEL controls how the model deals with your intelligent species. It is only useful in the Civilisation and Technology Time Scales. Open the CIVILISATION MODEL CONTROL PANEL. This control panel is one of the main challenges of SimEarth. You decide what energy sources the intelligent inhabitants of your planet will invest their time in, and what they will do with the energy. This is a very complex control panel. For a complete explanation, see the "MODEL CONTROL PANEL" chapter in the Reference section of this manual. The left side of the CIVILISATION MODEL CONTROL PANEL is for choosing the energy sources to develop. These are set the same as settings on the other control panels. Different energy sources are appropriate for different levels of technology: you can make a Stone Age level Civilisation spend a lot of time trying to develop nuclear energy, but they don't have the knowledge or tools to succeed, and won't get any return from it. The more you invest in energy forms that are appropriate for the technology level, the more energy the civilisations will have to use for advancement to the next technology level. > 40 < The right side of the control panel is where you allocate energy. You decide to what use the civilisations will put the energy they produce. This side of the control panel works a little differently from the left side. It is a ratio. All energy that is produced is used. The higher the setting for each energy use, the higher the percentage of the produced energy will be allocated to that use. If the settings are all in the middle, or all the way up, the model interprets it the same. The important thing here is the relative settings of each energy use. Set your priorities and allocate to those uses you find most important. The CIVILISATION MODEL CONTROL PANEL is closely related to the REPORT WINDOW. REPORT WINDOW ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Create a new planet in the Technology Time Scale. Make sure the UPDATE BACKGROUND option is on. Open the REPORT WINDOW, and arrange the screen so it and the CIVILISATION MODEL CONTROL PANEL are both visible. Take a look at the REPORT WINDOW. There is detailed information on the planet's Civilised life. It tells you the class of your sentient species, the highest and average (median) technology level, the population, and quality of life. It also shows a chart of what biomes your sentient species prefers to live in. Below that is a section on energy that relates to the CIVILISATION MODEL CONTROL PANEL. It lists the energy sources, and their efficiency. The efficiency depends on the average level of technology on your planet. To the left of each energy source are the hours per week your global citizen works on this energy source. Below these hours are the total hours per week intelligent SimEarthlings must work to survive. As you turn the energy investments on the CIVILISATION MODEL CONTROL PANEL up and down, the hours worked will rise and fall. Try it. Keep this in mind when you set your energy investment--the work hours per week affect the SimEarthling's quality of life. > 41 < ALLOCATING ENERGY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Energy allocation in the CIVILISATION MODEL CONTROL PANEL affects every aspect of the sentient SimEarthling's lives. The results of your allocation are easy to see. Make sure the UPDATE BACKGROUND option is on. For an easy-to-see example, we'll look at PHILOSOPHY. Allocating to PHILOSOPHY lessens the frequency and severity of war. If you take all allocation away from PHILOSOPHY, wars will break out all over the planet. These wars can be viewed in the EDIT WINDOW and the HISTORY WINDOW. Open the HISTORY WINDOW and arrange the screen so you can see it along with the CIVILISATION MODEL CONTROL PANEL. In the HISTORY WINDOW, turn the POPULATE and WAR graphs on. Turn PHILOSOPHY all the way down in the CIVILISATION MODEL CONTROL PANEL. The occurrence of war will quickly rise. Eventually it will fall, because so many of the sentient SimEarthlings have been killed that there's no one left to fight. Allocating or not allocating to the other energy uses can have results as drastic as PHILOSOPHY. These results can be seen in the EDIT, REPORT and MAP WINDOWS. Try turning each one all the way up, then all the way down and see what happens. Allocating to SCIENCE will help your intelligent SimEarthlings advance to higher levels of technology. No allocation to SCIENCE will cause advancement to stop. Allocate too much and they will advance too fast, and kill themselves. Allocating to AGRICULTURE affects the food supply. Allocating to MEDICINE affects the frequency and severity of plagues. Allocating to ART/MEDIA affects the quality of life on your planet. Your task here is making difficult choices and setting priorities. > 42 < Now you know the basics of SimEarth: Using menus; Opening and closing windows; Creating and saving planets; Getting information from maps and graphs; Changing the planet in the EDIT WINDOW; and Changing the simulation in the MODEL CONTROL PANELS. Mastery of planet management takes a lot of time and experimentation. You may even (heaven forbid) have to read the rest of this manual. Happy simulating. > 43 < UNBLANK PAGE (Some weird shit going down here! .. Rb). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To keep this manual consistent by always having a chapter title page on the right side, we either had to leave this page blank, say something dumb like "This page intentionally left blank," or fill it up with something. Here are some profound thoughts and revelations that occurred to us while playing SimEarth. Evolutionary Thought ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In general, SimEarthlings are as lazy as Earthlings. They never want to work, and especially hate physical labour. Whenever there are heavy objects to move, they argue over who has to do it. "I don't want to carry it--you carry it!" "Not me--you carry it." And that's how Eukaryotes evolved. Of course, the usual solution is to hire a professional to do the work. That's what Prokaryotes do for a living. Revelation #1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you're sitting on top of the world, be careful not to break the monitor. SIMEARTHLING EXTINCT BLUES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My life-form's gone, but I don't worry, 'Cause I'm simulating on top of the world. NOBODY READS GAME MANUALS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hi Mom. I know nobody reads game manuals, but I knew you would. I worked real hard on this manual, and...Mom...wake up Mom. QUESTION ~~~~~~~~ Where in the world is Carmen SimDiego? > 44 < ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- REFERENCE MANUAL. ================= "Love makes the world go round but a single click in the Edit window makes it stop." CONTROLLING THE SIMULATION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Depending on your computer, you may or may not have a mouse. If you do have one, then you will want to use it--SimEarth is much easier to control with a mouse than with a keyboard. See the addendum for your computer for more information on using mice and keyboards in SimEarth. In general, you will use the mouse to select items from menus, and to activate tools by clicking on icons. Once tools are activated, SimEarth functions much like a paint program that "paints life on a planet." ---------------------- SimEarth has a lot of windows, graphs, and control panels, and can get confusing. The easiest way to understand the program is to know where you can INPUT information--add or change the planet or model to suit yourself--and where to see OUTPUT, the information about the planet and results of your INPUT. INPUT ~~~~~ There are three places to INPUT information: the FILE MENU, the EDIT WINDOW, and the MODEL CONTROL PANELS. FILE MENU ~~~~~~~~~ By selecting NEW PLANET or LOAD PLANET from the FILE MENU, you remove the existing planet or scenario from memory and load another planet or scenario into the simulation. EDIT WINDOW ~~~~~~~~~~~ The EDIT WINDOW is where you place life, change altitudes and trigger events. When you do these things, you are INPUTTING DATA--changes to the planet. Since this only affects the planet in the locale of your input, we call this LOCAL INPUT. The EDIT WINDOW is also a source of OUTPUT. > 46 < MODEL CONTROL PANELS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The four MODEL CONTROL PANELS are where you change the actual model. These changes affect the entire planet, and change the simulation itself. Since everything--the whole world--is affected, we call this GLOBAL INPUT. The MODEL CONTROL PANELS are the only places in SimEarth that are INPUT ONLY. OUTPUT ~~~~~~ Other than the MODEL CONTROL PANELS, every window in SimEarth gives OUTPUT--information for you about the planet, the simulation, and the results of your input. > 47 < MENUS ~~~~~ FILE MENU ~~~~~~~~~ The FILE MENU is for performing file and disk-related functions. NEW PLANET brings up the NEW PLANET WINDOW, which allows you to pick any of the seven included Scenarios, or a new, randomly generated planet/game in any of three difficulty levels or experimental mode. First, choose the difficulty level. There are three levels of difficulty for games: easy, medium, and hard. There is also an experimental mode that gives you an unlimited energy budget for planet manipulation. Next, pick a scenario or a random planet. If you choose random planet, you will be shown a dialog box allowing you to name your new world, choose the Time Scale, and either begin the new planet or cancel. If you have a planet in progress that has not been saved, you will be given the opportunity to save it before the new planet is generated. LOAD PLANET brings up a dialog box to allow you to load in a pre-existing planet. If you have a planet in progress that has not been saved, you will be given the opportunity to save it before loading a new one. See the SimEarth addendum for your computer for details on loading planets. SAVE PLANET saves your current planet to disk. If it has not been saved before, it will bring up a dialog box window to allow you to name your planet before saving it. See the SimEarth addendum for your computer for details on saving planets. SAVE AS brings up a dialog box, allowing you to change the name and/or location of a previously saved planet. PRINT or SNAPSHOT may or may not be present in your version of SimEarth. See the SimEarth addendum for your machine for details. QUIT ends your SimEarth session, with a final chance to save your planet in-progress. ---------------------- WINDOWS MENU ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The WINDOWS MENU allows access to the various windows in SimEarth. EDIT opens and/or brings the EDIT WINDOW to the front. MAP opens and/or brings the MAP WINDOW to the front. > 48 < GAIA opens the CAIA WINDOW, which displays the face of the planet and gives constant feedback on your actions and the state of life in the world. HISTORY opens and/or brings the HISTORY WINDOW to the front. REPORT opens and/or brings the REPORT WINDOW to the front. TUTORIAL opens and/or brings the TUTORIAL WINDOW to the front. GLOSSARY opens a HELP WINDOW that displays a glossary of many earth science terms used in SimEarth. ---------------------- MODELS MENU ~~~~~~~~~~~ The MODELS MENU allows access to the various MODEL CONTROL PANELS that let you adjust the inner workings of the simulation. GEOSPHERE opens the Geosphere Model Control Panel. ATMOSPHERE opens the Atmosphere Model Control Panel. BIOSPHERE opens the Biosphere Model Control Panel. CIVILISATION opens the Civilisation Model Control Panel. ---------------------- GRAPHS MENU ~~~~~~~~~~~ The GRAPHS MENU allows access to the various graphs used in SimEarth. AIR SAMPLE brings up the Atmospheric Composition graph. BIOMES brings up the Biome Ratio graph. LIFE FORMS brings up the Life Class Ratio graph. TECHNOLOGY brings up the Technology Ratio graph. ---------------------- OPTIONS MENU ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The OPTIONS MENU lets you adjust many features of SimEarth to suit your personal preferences. When the options are active, a checkmark will appear to the left of the option. GOTO EVENTS automatically transports you to the location of any event that occurs. When this option is active, and when the EDIT WINDOW is in the front, the area viewed in the EDIT WINDOW will jump to centre on any events that occur. The default setting is off. > 49 < UPDATE BACKGROUND lets you choose whether or not all windows on the screen will be animated and constantly updated. When this option is inactive, only the front window will be animated and updated. Having this option on greatly decreases the speed of the simulation. The default setting depends on your machine's speed of operation. This is especially useful for high-speed machines with large monitors. If SimEarth runs too slowly, or you rarely display more than one or two windows at a time, you may wish to turn this off. COMPRESS EDIT SCREN is an option that can be very useful on computers with small screens. When active, it changes the Edit WINDOW so it only displays every other tile allowing you to see four times as much area. The default setting is off. MUSIC enables and disables music during the game. The default setting is on. SOUND EFFECTS enables and disables sound during the game. The default setting is on. MESSAGES enables and disables the display of messages to you from the simulator and the SimEarthlings that will appear throughout the game. The default setting is on. AUTOSCROLL allows automatic scrolling of the terrain in the EDIT WINDOW when using any of the EDIT WINDOW icons near or at the edge of the window. The default setting is on. SAVE OPTIONS + WINDOWS saves your present configuration of options, open windows, window sizes and window locations to disk as the default configuration. You can use this option again at any time to change the default settings. > 50 < SPEED MENU ~~~~~~~~~~ The SPEED MENU allows you to set the simulation speed and date options. FAST sets the simulation speed to the maximum available for your machine. MODERATE sets the simulation speed to approximately 75% of the fast setting. This is the default speed setting. SLOW sets the simulation speed to approximately 25% of the fast setting. PAUSE pauses the simulation. All the planet manipulation tools will be available and active, but time will be stopped. RELATIVE DATE displays the date as the number of years since the beginning of the present Time Scale. This is the default date setting. ABSOLUTE DATE displays the date as the number of years since the original cooling of the planet. If you began your planet in a later Time Scale, Absolute Date will estimate and add the time from earlier Time Scales. ---------------------- DATASOUND MENU ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The DATASOUND MENU controls the sound functions in SimEarth. The first two items are ways of using the sound and the last seven items let you choose the data from which the sound will be generated. TONE MONITOR plays an intermittent, recurrent tone based on one of the data settings. This is used for aural monitoring of data. For instance, if you are trying to combat global warming, you could set the tone monitor to report on air temperature. Every so often you will hear a tone. The higher the tone, the higher the average global temperature. You will hear the changes in temperature without having to look at the air temperature map. PLAY DATA SONG is an option that is more fun than useful. It takes 32 evenly spaced samples of the selected data from the top to the bottom of the map, averages the values across the map, and plays them as notes. For example, if air temperature is selected, then the data song will convert the 32 data samples into 32 notes--the higher the air temperature, the higher the pitch. The notes will be lowest around the poles and highest near the equator. ALTITUDE bases the sound on data in the Altitude array. AIR TEMPERATURE bases the sound on data in the Air Temperature array. > 51 < RAINFALL bases the sound on data in the Rainfall array. SEA TEMPERATURE bases the sound on data in the Sea Temperature array. BIOMASS bases the sound on data in the Biome array. LIFE bases the sound on data in the Life array. CIVILISATION bases the sound on data in the Humans array. > 52 < There are many different windows in SimEarth. Here is a complete description of each one. HELP WINDOW ~~~~~~~~~~~ There is on-screen help available for almost everything in SimEarth, including all menus, buttons, icons, tools, graphs, and control panels. Help windows are not available through the menus. To get HELP, press and hold the SHIFT KEY. This will change your cursor to HELP MODE. Then click on any item on the screen, and you will be shown a text window with lots of information about that item. If you ask for HELP in the DISPLAY AREA of the EDIT WINDOW, you will get the same information window that is produced by the EXAMINE icon. If you ask for HELP in the DISPLAY AREA of the MAP WINDOW, you will get information on the active MAP WINDOW display. There is a massive amount of information available in the HELP WINDOW. Almost anything in the world (simulated, that is) that you want to know about is in there. The HELP WINDOW is your friend. Use it. The on-line GLOSSARY is useful for getting help with definitions of words in the program you may not be familiar with. The GLOSSARY is available in the WINDOWS MENU. > 53 < NEW PLANET WINDOW ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is really a dialog box, not a window, but it is so important that for the purposes of this manual, we are giving it a promotion. Use this window for creating new, random planets, and for starting the scenarios. At the top of the window are settings that let you choose the difficulty of the game or scenario. At the bottom of the window are the scenarios and random planet buttons. Any random planet or scenario can be played in Experimental Mode, Easy Game, Average Game, or Hard Game. Help is available on every setting and button in this window. Hold down the SHIFT KEY and click on anything in the window to receive help. You can get explanations of all the options and scenarios before beginning a game. SETTINGS ~~~~~~~~ Use these settings to adjust difficulty levels for all games, scenarios, random planets, and experiments. Just click on the button next to a setting to choose it. EXPERIMENTAL MODE allows you to load any of the scenarios or a random planet and have unlimited energy for planet manipulation. With the unlimited energy, you can set up any type of planet you want in any stage of development, and add any other factors or conditions you want. This mode is really a "planetary spreadsheet." This is also a good mode for learning SimEarth. > 54 < The MODEL CONTROL PANELS will all be randomly set at "moderate" values that should allow planetary progress without many changes. EASY GAME is good for beginners. In an easy game, life appears and evolves quickly and easily. In fact, it will take some effort on your part to stop it. Your starting energy level is 5000 E.U. (energy units) The MODEL CONTROL PANELS will all be randomly set at "moderate" values. AVERAGE GAME is a little more challenging. It will take some effort on your part to get your planet progressing and keep it going. Your starting energy level is 2000 E.U. The MODEL CONTROL PANELS will all be randomly set at "extreme" values that will require some fine tuning. HARD GAME is really difficult. In fact, it's really very difficult. Not only will you have to adjust the MODEL CONTROL PANELS, but you will have to take on the role of Gaia. The MODEL CONTROL PANELS will all be randomly set at "extreme" values that will require some fine tuning. All Gaian regulation of climate, atmosphere and life is turned off and there will be no spontaneous generation of life--it's all in your hands. CANCEL removes the NEW PLANET WINDOW in case you change your mind. PLANETS AND SCENARIOS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Any planet or scenario can be played in Easy, Medium, or Hard Game as well as Experimental Mode. For in-depth descriptions of the scenarios see the "Scenarios" chapter of this manual. Just click on one of the planets to choose it. RANDOM PLANET creates a randomly generated planet in any of the four Time Scales. When you choose this option, you will be shown a dialog box that will let you pick the Time Scale and name the planet. > 55 < AQUARIUM is a planet with no continents. It is a good starting point for those who like to design their own landscapes. STAG NATION is a planet in the early civilisation time scale. Sentient life on this planet is limited to one small island. You can help it spread, or eliminate it and try to bring another life form to intelligence. EARTH CAMBRIAN ERA is a simulation of Earth in the Evolution time scale. One of the best features of this scenario is that its continental drift re-creates the reak Earths drift. EARTH MODERN DAY - gives you a chance to take over the Earth of today. Youll get to deal with all the problems we deal with in the real world. This scenario is not recommended for escapists. MARS gives you the chance to terraform Mars and turn it into a planet capable of supporting Eart life-forms. VENUS gives you the ultimate challenge in Terraforming. DAISYWORLD is the original simpler versiob of the SimEarth simulation. Daisyworld was originally devised by James Lovelock as a demonstration of the Gaia theory. > 56 < THE EDIT WINDOW ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The EDIT WINDOW is a close-up view of your planet. It is used for LOCAL INPUT--making changes to the planet, and for OUTPUT--investigating the planet and seeing the results of your input. The EDIT WINDOW consists of four major parts: the TITLE BAR, the DISPLAY AREA, the SCROLL BARS, and the EDIT WINDOW CONTROL PANEL. TITLE BAR --------- Located at the top of the EDIT WINDOW, the TITLE BAR displays the name of your planet and the date. The date can displayed as either the RELATIVE date or the ABSOLUTE date, selected from the SPEED MENU. On the left side of the TITLE BAR is the CLOSE BOX. Clicking in this box will close the EDIT WINDOW. The window can be reopened by selecting the item "EDIT" from the WINDOWS MENU. On the right side of the TITLE BAR is the GROW BOX Clicking in this box will make the EDIT WINDOW grow until it fills the entire screen. Clicking it again will return the window to its former size. The EDIT WINDOW can be moved around the screen by clicking and dragging the TITLE BAR. > 57 < EDIT WINDOW DISPLAY AREA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is where you are shown your planet in a close-up view. The information you are shown here is controlled by the EDIT WINDOW CONTROL PANEL. There are two scales that can be shown in this display: Normal and Compressed. If you select "Compress Edit Screen" from the OPTIONS MENU, this window will only display every other tile. This will give you less exact information, but will show you four times as much of the area of your planet as the Normal view. This is especially useful on machines with small screens (Mac Plus, SE, SE/30). This is the view that prints out with the PRINT option on the FILE MENU. Using the HELP function (hold the SHIFT KEY and click) in the EDIT WINDOW DISPLAY AREA will bring up a window detailing all the information that the simulation has about the spot where you clicked. Messages from the simulation and the SimEarthlings will sometimes appear at the top of the display area. TERRAIN AND ELEVATION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There are 32 levels of terrain. The lighter the shade, the higher the altitude. Each different shade represents a change of 500 meters. Since altitude is measured from sea level, and sea level can be anywhere--or nowhere--there is no exact altitude that can be assigned to each shade. There are three types of sea displays, depending on the depth of the water. SHELF --O to 1000 meters deep OCEAN --1001 to 2500 meters deep DEEP SEA--greater than 2500 meters deep SCROLLING THE TERRAIN ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Depending on your computer, there may or may not be SCROLL BARS along the right and bottom of the EDIT WINDOW. If they are there, you can use them to scroll the terrain in the EDIT WINDOW to see different parts of the planet. Click on the arrows or the bars, or drag the scroll box to cause scrolling. > 58 < If there are no SCROLL BARS, then scrolling is accomplished by moving the pointer to any edge or corner of the screen. For keyboard-controlled scrolling, see the SimEarth addendum for your machine. SIZE BOX ~~~~~~~~ In the lower-right corner of the window is the SIZE BOX. Clicking and dragging this box will allow you to re-size the EDIT WINDOW. EDIT WINDOW CONTROL PANEL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This control panel is for controlling both the information viewed in the EDIT WINDOW and for accessing the tools for planet modification. Using the HELP function (hold the SHIFT KEY and click) in the CONTROL PANEL will bring up a small window with information about each of the items and buttons. There are four sections to the EDIT WINDOW CONTROL PANEL: the TOOL ICONS, the CURRENT TOOL DISPLAY, the DATA LAYER BUTTONS, and the CLIMATE OVERLAY BUTTONS. TOOL ICONS ~~~~~~~~~~ By clicking on these icons, you access the tools for modify- ing your planet. There are six icons, three of which have submenus. Just below the Tool Icons is a box displaying the active icon and giving budget information for using that tool. Every time you use one of the TOOL ICONS it will deplete your precious energy stores. PLACE Life allows you to choose and place life and cities on the planet. This icon also allows you access to various terraforming tools for use on Mars and Venus. Use this tool to spread life on the planet, to set various life- forms in competition with each other, and to test living conditions for various life-forms. > 59 < To select a life-form, city, or terraformer, click and hold on the PLACE LIFE icon. A submenu will appear. While holding the mouse button down, move the pointer to highlight the life, city, or terraformer of your choice, and then release the button. Your choice will appear in the CURRENT TOOL DISPLAY, just below the icons, along with the cost in energy to place or use it. To place the life, city, or terraformer on the planet, point to a spot in the display area and click. There are 15 classes of life in SimEarth, seven in the sea, and eight on land. Each class of life is represented in SimEarth by 16 species. Only 14 of the classes of life are available in the PLACE LIFE tool. CARNIFEROUS mobile, carnivorous plants that can develop intelligence will sometimes evolve, but cannot be placed. There are seven types of cities, each representing a level of Civilisation and technology. Most levels of technology are represented by cities with three population densities. Each of these levels also has a travelling population that represents sentients moving around, as well as trade and communication. The exception to this is the Nanotech Age, which is the highest level of technology in SimEarth. It has four levels of density, and no travelling population: we assume that they have matter transporters for instantaneous moving of people and products. There are seven terraformers. A complete description of the 15 classes of life in SimEarth is found later in this manual, in the chapter "Life." A complete description of the cities is covered in the chapter "Civilization." The terraformers will be covered in detail here. > 60 < The classes of life and cities available to place, with their cost in energy, are: SEA LIFE CLASSES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PROKARYOTE--Single-celled life with no nucleus (bacteria). 35 E.U. EUKARYOTE --Single-celled life with nucleus (amebas). 70 E.U. RADIATE --simple multi-celled life (starfish). 105 E.U. ARTHROPOD --Crabs, lobsters, and craylish. 140 E.U. MOLLUSK --Snails, clams, oysters, scallops, octopi, and squid. 115 E.U. FISH --Fish. 210 E.U. CETACEAN --Whales and dolphins. 245 E.U. LAND LIFE CLASSES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TRICHORDATE--Simple animal with a three-chord spine. 280 E.U. INSECT --You know what these are. 315 E.U. AMPHIBIAN --Frogs, newts, and toads. 350 E.U. REPTILE --lizards, snakes, and turtles. 385 E.U. DINOSAUR --great big, huge reptiles. 420 E.U. AVIAN --Birds. 455 E.U. MAMMALS --Humans, apes, rodents, dogs, cats, etc. 490 E.U. (Wheres the PiNK FLuFFY KiWiS ???? Hahaha Fukkas!) CITIES ~~~~~~ The dates mentioned below are for reference to Earth only, and do not necessarily correspond with dates in SimEarth. STONE AGE -- oldest Human culture; used stone tools. 500 E.U. BRONZE AGE -- Began circa 3500 B.C.; used bronze tools. 1000 E.U. IRON AGE -- Began circa 1000 B.C.; used iron tools. 1500 E.U. > 61 < INDUSTRIAL AGE-- Began in late 18th century with the use of powered machinery. 2000 E.U. ATOMIC AGE --Began in the 1950s with the use of atomic power. 2500 E.U. Information AGE--Begins circa 2000 A.D.--information is the most important tool. 3000 E.U. NANOTECH AGE --Begins sometime in the future, characterised by science and technology beyond our imagination. 3500 E.U. TERRAFORMERS ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Terraformers are tools for turning Venus and Mars into earth-like planets. They aren't needed on Earth, or planets that are earth-like to begin with, but go ahead and try them to see what happens. Once placed, Terraformers keep working. Don't place too many--the only way to stop one is to hit it with a Meteor, Fire, or a Volcano. BIOME FACTORY--When terraforming Mars or Venus, place the Biome Factory instead of individual biomes. The Biome Factory, once placed, looks at the terrain and climate and starts producing the appropriate biome type that can survive there. It will also detect changes in climate, and change the biomes it produces to a type that will survive the changes. Biome Factories cost 500 E.U. OXYGENATOR--The Oxygenator takes carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the atmosphere and spits out free oxygen. Life requires a certain percentage of oxygen, between 15 to 25%, to survive. Too much oxygen on a planet will cause fires. Since it lessens the CO2, a greenhouse gas, the Oxygenator will help cool a hot planet. An Oxygenator costs 500 E.U. N2 GENERATOR--The N2 (nitrogen) Generator is used to increase atmospheric pressure on a planet. The atmospheric density affects the planet's temperature--a denser atmosphere allows the planet to retain more heat. The thinner the atmosphere, the colder the planet. Also, having a denser atmosphere with lots of N2 stabilises the percentages of the other gases. An N2 Generator costs 500 E.U. > 62 < VAPORATOR - The vaporator spews water vapours into the atmosphere raising the overall humidity of the planet and increasing rainfall. A Vaportator costs 500 E.U. CO2 GENERATOR - The CO2 Generator produces CO2 which is necessary for plants to live. A CO2 generator costs 500E.U. MONOLITH - The monolith isnt a terraforma but we didnt have anywhere else to put it in the program. It is an Evolution speed-up device (our thanks to Arthur C. Clarke) --> (And they call US pirates!! ;-) The use it select the monolith then immediately click on a life-form. There is a one-in-three chance of that life form suddenly mutating to a higher level, which immediately moves you to the next Time Scale. It costs 2500E.U. to use a Monolith, whether or not it works. The monolith cant be used on all life forms - If you try to use the monolith on a life-form that cannot mutate, the program will beep at you, but there will be no energy charge. A disadvantage of using the monlith is that you could jump ahead into the civilization timescale before enough fossil fuels have been generated, and civilisation will collapse. Also, you need a wide population base to advance to the next technology level. Dont rush to a new timescale at the expsense of your population. If you successfully use the monolith in the technology time scale it will bring about the exodus event. ICE METEOR - The ice Meteor is a huge chunk of ice that you can crash into a dry planet to add water to the planetary system. An Ice Meteor costs 500E.U. THE EXTINCT FUNCTION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ An added feature of the PLACE LIFE tool is the EXTINCT FUNCTION. If you want to remove a particular class of life from the planet, hold down either the OPTION KEY or the CONTROL KEY (depending on your machine), the click on the PLACE LIFE icon and select a life form from the PLACE LIFE submenu. All oocurrences of the life form you choose will dissappear. > 63 < The EXTINCT FUNCTION only works on life-forms--not on cities. If you want to eliminate a life-form, you must do it before it reaches sentience and builds cities. EVENT TRIGGER ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The EVENT TRIGGER lets you select and activate various events at various places on your planet. The simulation will cause events to occur automatically, depending on many factors including the age of the planet, the climate, air and water temperatures, and sea level. There are 11 possible events that occur in SimEarth. Three of them, exodus, war and pollution, will occur, but cannot be triggered by the user. By triggering events yourself, you can learn the effects these events have on local populations as well as to the planet as a whole. To activate events, click and hold on the EVENT TRIGGER icon. A submenu will appear, giving you a choice of eight events. While the mouse button is still down, slide the pointer to the right so it highlights the event you want to place, and release the button. The selected event will appear in the CURRENT TOOL DISPLAY, just below the icons, along with the cost in energy to trigger it. Next, move the pointer to the DISPLAY AREA, and click the mouse button to trigger an event on your planet. Click again in another place to cause the same event. A complete description of all events and their causes and effects will be covered in the chapter "Events." The available events in SimEarth, and their cost in energy, are: Hurricane --High winds and rain. 50 E.U. TIDAL WAVE --A huge, destructive ocean wave. 50 E.U. METEOR --A huge rock from space that crashes into your planet. 50 E.U. VOLCANO --An explosive leak in the planet's surface that spews molten rock. 50 E.U. > 64 < ATOMIC TEST --An atomic explosion. 50 E.U. FIRE --Hot stuff. 50 E.U. EARTHQUAKE --Shake, rattle and roll. 50 E.U. Clicking and holding on the Earthquake icon brings up a submenu that allows you to direct the Earthquake's energies. PLAGUE --A deadly disease. 50 E.U. PLANT BIOME --allows you to place or plant biomes onto your planet. A biome is a major ecological community of plants and animals. Biomes will automatically be placed on the planet by the simulation. Their quantity and location is primarily controlled by altitude, temperature, and rainfall. With this tool you can place any of the biomes anywhere on the planet at any time. Of course, they won't necessarily stay there. An Arctic biome will not last long in the hot equatorial zone, and a Jungle will not thrive at a planet's pole. Place biomes to experiment, and to help shape or speed up development on your planet. To use this tool, click and hold on the PLANT BIOME icon. A submenu will appear, giving you a choice of eight biomes. While the mouse button is still down, slide the pointer to the right so it highlights the biome you want to plant, and release the button. The selected biome will appear in the CURRENT TOOL DISPLAY, just below the icons, along with the cost in energy to place it. There is an energy cost of 50 E.U. for each biome planted. Next, move the pointer to the DISPLAY AREA, and click the mouse button to place a biome on your planet. The button can be held down while the mouse is slowly moved to place multiple segments. A click will be heard as each BIOME is placed. The pitch of the click will raise and lower with the terrain altitude. A complete description of all the biomes in SimEarth will be found later in this manual in the chapter "Life." There are seven available biomes in SimEarth, plus ROCK, which represents a lack of a biome in a location. > 65 < BIOME TYPES ~~~~~~~~~~~ ROCK --No biome. ARCTIC --Can survive in a cold and dry climate. BOREAL FOREST--Can survive in cold temperatures, with moderate to high rainfall. DESERT --Can survive in moderate to hot temperatures, with very little rainfall. TEMPERATE GRASSLANDS--Can survive in areas with moderate temperatures and rainfall. FOREST --Can survive with moderate temperatures and high rainfall. JUNGLE --Can survive with high temperatures and rainfall. SWAMP --Can survive with high temperatures and moderate rainfall. BIOME PREFERENCE CHART ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DRY MODERATE WET (<30 cm/yr) (30-90 cm/yr) (>90 cm/yr) COLD(<0C) Arctic Boreal Forest Boreal Forest MODERATE (0-25C) Desert Temp.Grasslands Forest HOT (>25C) Desert Swamp Jungle Biome preferences are also influenced by altitude and the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. ---------------------- SET ALTITUDE allows you to raise or lower sections of land. There are 32 possible levels of terrain in SimEarth. Use this tool to raise or level mountain ranges, create islands in the ocean, or lakes in dry land. All these changes will have impact on climate, rainfall, local biomes, and local life-forms. Click on the SET ALTITUDE icon. Look at the CURRENT TOOL DISPLaY. It shows that the SET ALTITUDE tool is active in "raise terrain" mode. > 66 < Move the pointer to the DISPLAY AREA. Click and hold the mouse button over land or water, and the land around the pointer will be raised in altitude, displayed by a lightening of the color or shade of the land. Click on the SET ALTITUDE icon again, and look at the CURRENT TOOL DISPLAY. It shows that the SET ALTITUDE tool is active in "lower terrain" mode. Move the pointer to the DISPLAY AREA. Click and hold the mouse button over land, and the land around the pointer will be lowered in altitude, displayed by a darkening of the color or shade of the land. Levels of terrain are displayed in shades. The lighter the shade, the higher the altitude. Each different shade represents a change of 500 meters. Since altitude is measured from sea level, and sea level can be anywhere--or nowhere--there is no exact altitude that can be assigned to each shade. The cost for using the SET ALTITUDE tool to raise or lower the terrain is 50 E.U. ---------------------- MOVING TOOL lets you pick any biome, niche, or Civilisation and move it. This can be useful for transplanting populations to other continents, or separating warring tribes. Since niches and biomes can occupy the same space in the display, you can use this tool to temporarily move the niche to see the biome that is displayed underneath it. Click on the MOVING TOOL icon to activate it, then click and hold on a biome, niche or civilization. Drag the pointer to the destination location, and release the mouse button. The cost for using the MOVING TOOL is 30 E.U. > 67 < EXAMINE gives you information on individual spots in the DISPLAY AREA. Click on the EXAMINE icon, and the mouse pointer changes to a magnifying glass. Then click and hold on a spot in the DISPLAY AREA. An information window will appear, giving you all the information that the simulation has about that spot. If you click and hold the button, and slowly drag the pointer across the screen, the information window will change and report on each section as you point to it. The EXAMINE function is very useful for gathering information about specific areas of your planet. You will need this information for planning your next moves in planet development. The same information window can be accessed by using the HELP function hold the SHIFT KEY or HELP KEY while clicking on a spot) in the DISPLAY AREA. The EXAMINE tool only gives information on places in the display window. For information on icons and tools, use the HELP function. The cost for using the EXAMINE tool is 5 E.U. There are four sections to the EXAMINE WINDOW: the Biome Section, the Life Section, the City Section, and the Altitude/Magma Section. BIOME SECTION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Biome Section shows a picture of the local biome (if any), and a description of its present condition, i.e., thriving, dying, etc. Next, it displays the rainfall, air temperature (heat), and wind direction. If there is no biome present, this section will display the message "No Biome." LIFE SECTION ~~~~~~~~~~~~ If there is life, the Life Section shows a big picture of the predominant class of non-sentient life in that location. (Sentient life is treated separately in the City Section.) Below that are three small pictures. The middle one is the present species of the class, the left one is the species that it evolved from, and the right one is the species that, if all goes well, it will evolve into. > 68 < Below that is a chart of how that life class gets along in the various habitats, with picture rating of how happy the species are there: (KEWL ANSIS HERE DUDEZ, REMEMBER TO VOTE FOR ME IN THE ANSI WORLD CHARTS H0H0H0!!! ) X Can't live there. 8-( Can survive there, but it's miserable. 8-| Can survive there, and quite nicely. 8-) Paradise. If there is no life, this section will display the message "No Life." CITY SECTION ~~~~~~~~~~~~ If there are no sapients near, this section will display the message "No Sapients." If there are sapients, but no city, this section will display the message "Lightly Inhabited." If there is a city, this section displays a large picture of the city, and tells the sapient class, the technology level, and the population. ALTITUDE/MAGMA SECTION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This section, at the bottom of the window, displays this location's altitude and direction of magma flow. CURRENT TOOL DISPLAY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The CURRENT TOOL DISPLAY shows the active icon, tool, life-form, biome, terraformer, or event, and the energy cost to use it. DATA LAYER BUTTONS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These buttons control what data is displayed in the DISPLAY AREA. By clicking on these buttons, you toggle on and off the various layers of data. Using these buttons does not change the planet, or affect the model in any way--it only changes your view of the planet. The default settings for these buttons changes with the Time Scale. In the Geologic Time Scale, the default setting has everything on except BIOMES and CITIES. In the Evolution Time Scale, everything is on except CITIES. In both the Civilisation and Technology Time Scales, everything but LIFE defaults to the "on" setting. > 69 < OCEANS allows you to turn off and on the display of the Oceans, allowing you to see the elevation of the sea bottom. BIOMES allows you to turn off and on the display of Biomes, so you can see the elevation of the terrain, and see Life and Cities more clearly. ClTIES allows you to turn off and on the display of the Cities of the current sentient species. LIFE allows you to turn off and on the display of life-forms. Since these are so numerous and fast-moving, you may want to turn these off every so often to get a clearer view of the other things on your planet. This display is of individual species, not classes --there are 240 different species in SimEarth. EVENTS allows you to turn off and on the display of Events. CLIMATE OVERLAY BUTTONS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These buttons also control what data is displayed in the DISPLAY AREA. By clicking on these buttons, you toggle on and off the various layers of climate data. Using these buttons does not change the planet, or affect the model in any way--it only changes your view of the planet. The default setting for all these buttons is OFF. Only one climate overlay can be active at any one time. HEAT--A display of air temperature. Higher temperatures are represented by darker shades. RAINFALL--A display of average rainfall. Higher rainfall densities are represented by darker shades. WINDS --A display of the wind currents. SEA FLOW--A display of the sea currents. SEA HEAT--A display of water temperature. Higher temperatures are repre- sented by darker shades. MAGMA --A display of the magma currents under the planet's crust. AUAILABLE ENERGY DISPLAY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This display lets you know how much energy you have left for planet manipulation and modification. The maximum energy that can be stored is set by the game level. For a complete explanation, see the chapter "Energy." > 70 < MAP WINDOW ~~~~~~~~~~ The MAP WINDOW is your overview of the whole planet. It can be viewed as a MAP WINDOW flat or spherical projection. The MAP WINDOW consists of three major parts: the TITLE BAR, the MAP DISPLAY AREA, and the CONTROL PANEL TITLE BAR ~~~~~~~~~ The TITLE BAR displays the type of map being shown in the MAP DISPLAY AREA and the date. On the left side of the TITLE BAR is the CLOSE BOX. Clicking in this box will close the MAP WINDOW. You can bring the window back by selecting the MAP item in the WINDOWS MENU. The MAP WINDOW can be moved on the screen by clicking and holding in the TITLE BAR, and dragging the window to its new location. MAP WINDOW DISPLAY AREA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The MAP WINDOW DISPLAY AREA is where the map of the planet is displayed. There are many different types of displays and views of your planet, which are selected in the MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL. > 71 < In the MAP DISPLAY AREA you will see the EDIT RECTANGLE. This rectangle indicates the area of the world that is visible in the EDIT WINDOW. If you double- click in the EDIT RECTANGLE, the EDIT WINDOW will be brought to the front. Messages from the simulation and the SimEarthlings sometimes appear at the top of the MAP DISPLAY AREA. MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL allows you to look at various views of your planet, giving different types of information in each view. From here you can also access all of the MODEL CONTROL PANELS, the HISTORY WINDOW, the EDIT WINDOW, and all the GRAPHS. MAP DISPLAY ICONS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Along the top of the MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL, from the left, are 12 icons. Clicking on each of these icons displays different information in the MAP DISPLAY AREA. These 12 displays are divided into five groups: GEOSPHERE, HYDROSPHERE, ATMOSPHERE, BIO(SPHERE) and CIV(ILIZATION). A MODEL CONTROL PANEL can be accessed for four of the five groups (excluding HYDROSPHERE) by clicking on the name of that group. GEOSPHERE GROUP ---------------- The GEOSPHERE group gives information on the terrain, events and magma flow of the planet. Clicking on the GEOSPHERE icon brings up the GEOSPHERE MODEL CONTROL PANEL. TERRAIN MAP ----------- Shows oceans and altitude across the planet. Higher altitudes are shown in lighter shades, lower altitudes are darker. Water is shown as either blue or black, depending on your monitor. A legend of the altitude is visible in the INFO BOX near the right side of the MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL. An extra feature accessed through this icon is a display of landmarks on the scenario planets. Click and hold on the icon, and names of landmarks will be displayed until you release the mouse button. This is available only on scenario planets. Random planets have no landmarks. Landmarks on Earth will stop being displayed 2,000,000 years in the future. We figure the names will change by then. > 72 < Double-clicking in this icon will open the GAIA WINDOW. GLOBAL EVENT MAP ----------------- Shows global events, such as hurricanes, forest fires, earthquakes, meteorites, wars, etc., as small symbols. A key to the symbols is visible in the INFO BOX near the right of the CONTROL PANEL. CONTINENTAL DRIFT MAP --------------------- Shows the currents within the magma layer. Magma is the hot molten rock within the earth, upon which the continental plates are "floating." The currents here determine the direction and speed of continental drift. A legend of the magma current vectors is available for this map in the INFO BOX. HYDROSPHERE GROUP ----------------- This group gives information on the ocean. There is no MODEL CONTROL PANEL for the Hydrosphere. HIDE/SHOW OCEANS ---------------- toggles the ocean display on and off so you can see the elevation of the ocean floor. This doesn't make the ocean go away--it just makes it invisible. This option is used in combination with other maps, and has no legend in the INFO BOX. OCEAN TEMPERATURE ----------------- Displays the average annual ocean temperature. In most cases this will correspond closely with the air temperature, but it will change much more slowly. > 73 < The INFO BOX can display both a legend to the ocean temperatures and a graph of average ocean temperature over time. To switch between these two displays, click on the INFO BUTTON in the lower-right corner of the MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL. OCEAN CURRENTS -------------- displays the surface currents of the oceans. A legend of ocean current vectors is available for this map in the INFO BOX. ATMOSPHERIC GROUP ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This group displays information on the atmosphere and climate. Clicking on the ATMOSPHERE icon brings up the ATMOSPHERE MODEL CONTROL PANEL. AIR TEMPERATURE --------------- Displays the average annual air temperature. The heat displayed here comes primarily from the sun, and secondarily from warm ocean areas. The INFO BOX can display both a legend of the air temperatures and a graph of average air temperature over time. To switch between these two displays, click on the INFO BUTTON in the lower-right corner of the MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL. Double-clicking on this icon will open the ATMOSPHERlC COMPOSITION GRAPH. RAINFALL -------- Displays the average yearly rainfall. The heaviest rainfall will usually be concentrated over the equator. The INFO BOX can display both a legend for the rainfall map and a graph of average rainfall over time. To switch between these two displays, click on the INFO BUTTON in the lower-right corner of the MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL. Double-clicking on this icon will open the ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION GRAPH. > 74 < AIR CURRENT ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Shows the average air currents. As with ocean currents, these are determined by thermal disequilibrium and Coriolis effect. A key to the air current vectors is available in the INFO BOX. Double-clicking on this icon will open the ATMOSPHERlC COMPOSITION GRAPH. BIOSPHERIE GROUP ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This group gives information on the life on your planet. Clicking on the Biosphere icon brings up the BIOSPHERE MODEL CONTROL PANEL. BIOMES ~~~~~~ Displays the distribution of biomes on your planet. C T R The INFO BOX can display both a legend to biome distribution on the map L and a graph of average biomass over time. To switch between these two + displays, click on the INFO BUTTON in the lower-right corner of the MAP M WINDOW CONTROL PANEL. H Double-clicking on this icon opens the BIOME RATIO GRAPH. E R LIFE E ~~~~ ! Displays the diversity of life on your planet. The INFO BOX can display both a legend to the life-forms and a graph of genetic diversity over time. To switch between these two displays, click on the INFO BUTTON in the lower-right corner of the MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL. Double-clicking on this icon will open the LIFE CLASS RATIO GRAPH. CIVILISATION GROUP ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is where you will find worldwide information on civilisations on your planet. Clicking on the Civilization icon brings up the CIVILISATION MODEL CONTROL PANEL. > 75 < CIVILISATION ~~~~~~~~~~~~ shows the distribution of civilisations on the planet. More advanced civilisations will appear darker. Terraformers will be shown on this map in black. The INFO BOX can display both a legend to the civilisations on the planet and a graph of the population of your sentient species over time. To switch between these two displays, click on the INFO BUTTON in the lower-right corner of the MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL. Double-clicking on this icon will open the TECHNOLOGY RATIO GRAPH. INFO BOX ~~~~~~~~ The INFO BOX is located just to the right of the Civilisation icon. This box displays helpful information about the map view: legends to help interpret the map, and graphs of the information displayed in the map shown over time. These graphs correspond with the graphs in the HISTORY WINDOW. You can bring up the HISTORY WINDOW by double-clicking inside the INFO BOX. Some map views have map legends to be displayed here, others have both legends and graphs. HIDE/SHOW OCEANS has neither. Toggle between info sets by clicking on the INFO BUTTON in the lower-right corner of the MAP WINDOW. > 76 < DAISYWORLD INFO DISPLAY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When in the Daisyworld Scenario, in the Biome view, the highlighted INFO BOX displays the distribution of the different shades of daisies. Continental DRIFT RECORD ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you click and hold on the INFO BOX (regardless of the status of the INFO BUTTON) and slowly move the mouse back and forth, you will be shown an animated history of continental drift on your planet. Note: Two Events, Pollution and Exodus, are not included in the Event Map legend, but will appear on the map when they occur. > 77 < BUTTONS ~~~~~~~ There are three buttons on the far right side of the MAP CONTROL PANEL. EDIT brings the EDIT WINDOW to the front. GLOBE changes the MAP' WINDOW view from a flat robinson projection to a spherically mapped globe projection. All maps and displays are available in GLOBE mode--the MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL doesn't change. When in this mode, the GLOBE BUTTON will be highlighted. Clicking on the GLOBE BUTTON again will return you to the flat projection. The EDIT RECTANGLE becomes an EDIT TRAPEZOID on the GLOBE. If you double-click in the EDIT TRAPEZOID, the EDIT WINDOW will be brought to the front. Clicking, holding, and dragging the outer rim of the globe, will allow you to move it on the screen. The interior of the globe can be viewed by double-clicking on the globe, anywhere but in the EDIT TRAPEZOID. Click again to return to the surface of the planet. INFO ~~~~ toggles between different information views in the INFO BOX. ACCESSING MODEL CONTROL PANELS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The MODEL CONTROL PANELS are available through the MODELS MENU, but they can also be accessed by clicking on the icons CEOSPHERE, ATMOSPHERE, BIOSPHERE, and CIVILISATION on the MAP CONTROL PANEL. ACCESSING GRAPHS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ All graphs can be accessed both through the GRAPHS MENU and the MAP CONTROL PANEL. They are opened by double-clicking on various icons in the MAP CONTROL PANEL. The ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION GRAPH is opened by double clicking on any of the three ATMOSPHERE icons. > 78 < The BIOME RATIO GRAPH is opened by double-clicking on the BIOMES icon. The LIFE CLASS RATIO GRAPH is opened by double-clicking on the life icon. The TECHNOLOGY RATIO GRAPH is opened by double-clicking on the CIVILISATION icon. ACCESSING OTHER WINDOWS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Double-click in the INFO BOX to open the HISTORY WINDOW. Double-Click on the TERRAIN MAP icon to open the GAIA WINDOW. ACCESS TO GRAPHS AND WINDOWS FROM MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- A single line represents a single click. == A double line represents a double click. > 79 < GAIA W|NDOW ~~~~~~~~~~~ The GAIAWINDOW shows Gaia, a caricature of the Earth as one living organism. This "face of the planet" will give you constant feedback on the planet's "mood." This window can be opened by selecting GAIA from the WINDOWS MENU, or by double-clicking on the TERRAIN I MAP icon in the MAP WINDOW. The planet's mood is based on how well life on the planet is doing. The face will be asleep until life forms, then it will wake up. The moods range from bliss to horror. Everything that happens and everything you do affects the face. At the bottom of this window is a little message bar that will display messages from Gaia. In the upper-right corner of the window is the Sun. As solar heat increases through time, the Sun will slowly begin to enlarge. At the end of your planet's 10 billion-year life, the Sun will burn up Gaia. You may want to keep this window in a corner of the screen, and let it guide you as you develop your planet. Its eyes will follow the pointer around the screen. Please don't poke it in the eye. > 80 < The HISTORY WINDOW provides a graphical record of many factors that define H|STORY your planet. Use this window for tracking the changes and development of your planet's chemical: composition, temperature, humidity, life, events, and pollution. This window is accessed through the WINDOWS MENU, and by double-clicking on the INFO BOX in the MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL. Click on any of the icons at the bottom of the window to toggle the display of that factor on and off. There are 15 items that can be displayed as a graph in this window. Up to four items can be displayed at a time. CO2 displays Carbon Dioxide levels in the atmosphere. O2 displays Oxygen levels in the atmosphere. CH4 displays Methane levels in the atmosphere. SEA TEMPERATURE displays overall average temperature of the oceans. AIR TEMPERATURE displays overall average temperature of the atmosphere. RAINFALL displays overall average planetary rainfall. POPULATION displays population of the sentient species on your planet. BIOMASS displays the total weight of all plant and animal matter on the planet. The biomass of Earth is 99% plant material. DIVERSITY displays the number of different species of life on the planet. Major extinctions will be visible here. > 81 < FOSSIL FUELS displays the amount of fossil fuel reserves still within the planet. This amount grows during the Evolution Time Scale as biomass decays, and is depleted by civilisation. ATOMIC FUEL displays the amount of atomic fuel reserves within the planet. FOOD displays the total amount of food produced on the planet. WAR displays the level of armed conflict across the planet. PLAGUE displays the number of plague events that have occurred. POLLUTION displays the total amount of toxic releases by the sentient species. To keep the planet data file at a reasonable size, a complete history is not saved with the planet. Once the graph goes off the left of the HISTORY WINDOW it is lost forever. There will be a dividing line to mark when one Time Scale ends and another begins. The amount of time displayed per division in this window is different for each of the Time Scales. The full width of the HISTORY WINDOW covers approximately: 1,000,000,000 years in the Geologic Time Scale; 70,000,000 years in the Evolution Time Scale; 2,500 years in the Civilisation Time Scale; and 50 years in the Technology Time Scale. > 82 < The REPORT WINDOW ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Is your main source of feedback on how well both you and life on your planet are doing. The information in the REPORT WINDOW changes for the various Time Scales, giving information that is useful for each era. There is also a special REPORT WfNDOW for the Daisyworld Scenario. REPORT WINDOW IN THE GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In this Time Scale, the REPORT WINDOW gives four items of information. VIABILITY This rating tells you how hospitable your world is to multi- celled animals. Viability is based on the oxygen and dust content of the atmosphere. The rating levels are: X Life cannot exist here. ;-( Life can exist, but barely. ;-| Life can exist fairly well. ;-) Paradise. BIOMASS ------- Biomass is the total weight of all plants and animals on the planet. In the Geologic Time Scale there are no plants, so the Biomass is formed entirely of Eukaryotes. The theoretical maximum value for Biomass in this Time Scale is 40,960. HIGHEST LIFE ------------ This is a display of the most advanced microbe life-form. CURRENT TASK ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Your CURRENT TASK is what needs to be accomplished before moving on to the next Time Scale. > 83 < REPORT WINDOW IN THE EVOLUTION TIME SCALE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In this Time Scale, the REPORT WINDOW gives a few more items of information. INTELLIGENCE ~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is a display of the "race to intelligence." The three most advanced forms of life are listed, and given an "intelligence" rating (IQ). This rating is just a rough estimate of how advanced the life-forms are and does not relate to human IQ levels. This display show the leaders in the race to sentience. When a life-form reaches an IQ of 100, it becomes sentient. BIOMASS ~~~~~~~ Biomass in the Evolution Time Scale consists of the com- bined mass of both the animal life and the biomes--plant life. Jungles are the richest, highest mass biomes, Deserts the poorest and lowest mass. The theoretical maximum value for biomass is 180,224. The icon shown for Biomass is the predominant biome. VIABILITY ~~~~~~~~~ This rating tells you how hospitable your world is to multi-celled animals. Viability is based on the oxygen and dust content of the atmosphere. The rating levels are the same as in the Geologic REPORT WINDOW. GROWTH ~~~~~~ The biomass requires CO2 for survival and growth. The Growth rating is based on the CO2 content of the atmosphere. CURRENT TASK ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Your CURRENT TASK is what needs to be accomplished before moving on to the next Time Scale. > 84 < REPORT WINDOW IN THE CIVILISATION AND TECHNOLOGY TIME SCALES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In these Time Scales, you are given much more information. SENTIENT TYPE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This tells you what class of life is the dominant, intelligent species on your planet. HIGHEST TECHNOLOGY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tells you the highest level of Civilisation on your planet. MEDIAN TECHNOLOGY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tells you the average technology level of your planet POPULATION ~~~~~~~~~~ Population tells the current population of your planet's sentient species. LIFE QUALITY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gives an overall "quality of life" rating for the sentient species on your planet. The two factors taken into consideration in this rating are number of work hours per week, and your allocation of resources to Arts and Media. It is difficult to have a life quality above tolerable in lower technology levels. The possible quality levels are: Heavenly, Marvelous, Good, Pleasant, Tolerable Unpleasant, Bad, Miserable, and Hellish. HABITATS shows the ability of your sentient species to survive in the various biomes, and how well they are adapted to the habitat. The rating levels are: X Can't live there at all. ;-( Can live there, but hates it. ;-| Can live there, and likes it. ;-) Paradise. > 85 < ENERGY SECTION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Below the Habitats is a large section that deals with energy. To best understand what happens here, look at the REPORT WINDOW and the CIVILISATION MODEL CONTROL PANEL side-by-side. WORK is the amount of hours per week that your sentient SimEarthlings must work to survive. In SimEarth, we have simplified the concept of work: all work produces energy. The amount of time intelligent SimEarthlings work is divided between five different energy sources. The amount of time worked to produce energy from each of the five sources is set on the left side of the CIVILISATION MODEL CONTROL PANEL. The total number of hours worked per week affects the quality of life. TYPES OF ENERGY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BIOENERGY-- Burning wood, animal power, plant power (farming), work done by hand by the sentient species. SOLAR/WlND-- Sun-drying of food and clothes, windmills, sailing ships, solar heating, wind-powered generators, solar electric cells, satellites collecting solar energy. HYDRO/GEO -- Waterwheels, dams, steam power, hydroelectric power, geothermal power. FOSSIL FUEL--Coal and oil made from long-dead animals. NUCLEAR --Atomic power plants. EFFICIENCY ~~~~~~~~~~ Is a rating of how much energy you receive for the amount of work put in. The efficiency of each energy source varies with the level of technology. > 86 < ENERGY EFFICIENCY VS. TECHNOLOGY LEVEL. Bioenergy Solar/Wind Hydro Fossil Nuclear ---------- ----------- ------ ------- ------- Stone Age 40% 20% 10% 0% 0% Bronze Age 40% 20% 30% 10% 0% IronAge 60% 20% 30% 30% 0% Industrial Age 60% 30% 50% 80% 10% AtomicAge 70% 50% 50% 80% 80% Information Age 80% 60% 60% 90% 90% Nanotech Age 90% 80% 80% 90% 90% The efficiency rating displayed and used in the REPORT WINDOW is averaged over the number of the~various technologies. For example, if your planet has one city in the Nanotech Age, and one city in the Stone Age, then the displayed efficiency rating for Atomic Energy would be 45% (1 city * 90% + 1 city * 0%/2 cities). This rating can be changed by the availability of resources. As fossil fuel and atomic fuel run out, their efficiency rating declines to 0%. ENERGY is the amount of each type of energy produced, with a total for all combined energy sources. All energy that is produced is used. The total energy produced will roughly equal the total of all the allocated energy. There is some energy lost, and some rounding off of numbers for the display, but it all gets used. ALLOCATION is what your sentients are doing with the energy. All the energy produced is allocated and used. Allocation is set on the right side of the CIVILISATION MODEL CONTROL PANEL > 87 < The possible uses that you can allocate energy to are: PHILOSOPHY--Philosophy is a deterrent to war. Investing in philosophy reduces the number and intensity of violent conflicts on your planet. SCIENCE--Investing in science helps your civilisations advance to higher technology levels. You must have at least some investment in science to advance at all. Advancing technology levels too fast, or without a fair share of philosophy, agriculture, medicine, and art/media does not produce a stable, long-lasting civilization. If you invest too much too soon in science, your population will die off from war and plague. AGRlCULTURE-- Investing in agriculture increases food production, which increases the rate of population growth of your sentient species. MEDICINE--Investment in medicine reduces the number and severity of plagues. ART/MEDIA--Investment in art/media improves the quality of life of your SimEarthling global citizen. CURRENT/TASK-- Tells you what needs to be accomplished to advance to the next Time Scale. REPORT WINDOW IN THE DAISYWORLD SCENARIO ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In the Daisyworld Scenario, you are only given four items of information. MAJOR DAISY ----------- This is a display of the shade of the most populous Daisy. EMPTY SPACE ----------- This shows you how much open land there is on the planet to fill with Daisies. MAJOR ANIMAL ------------ This shows the most populous animal (if any) on the planet. CURRENT TASK ------------ Your Daisy-raising goal. > 88 < REPORT WINDOW IN THE TERRAFORMING SCENARIOS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In the Terraforming Scenarios, Mars and Venus, you are given much of the same information as in the CIVILISATION and TECHNOLOGY REPORT WINDOWS, but with added terraforming progress feedback. VIABILITY ~~~~~~~~~ This rating tells you how hospitable your world is to life. Viability is based on the oxygen and dust content of the atmosphere. The rating levels are the same as in the geologicAL, CIVILISATION, and TECHNOLOGY REPORT WINDOWS. GOAL BIOMASS ~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is the biomass that you must attain before the planet is considered terraformed. BIOMASS ~~~~~~~ This is your world's present biomass. The icon shown fo Biomass is the predominant biome. GOAL POPULATION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is the population your planet must reach to be considered colonized. POPULATION ~~~~~~~~~~ This is your present population. HABITAT AND ENERGY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The HABITAT and ENERGY sections of this window are the same as in the CIVILISATION and TECHNOLOGY REPORT WINDOWS, with two exceptions: These sections will not appear in the window until you have begun the colonisation process (placing sentient life on the planet). The HABITAT section will always display the information for sentient mammals since the majority of SimEarth players are mammals. CURRENT TASK ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Your current task is to terraform and Colonise the planet. > 89 < TUTORIAL WINDOW ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The TUTORIAL WINDOW is a text window that gives a brief review of the tutorial in this manual. It can be accessed through the WINDOWS MENU. Like all help and text windows in SimEarth, it can be moved around the screen and re-sized. Click on the up and down arrows in the Scroll Bar on the right side of the window to scroll through the text. Depending on your computer, you may or may not be able to have this window open at the same time as the HELP WINDOW. The GLOSSARY WINDOW is a special HELP WiNDOW that can be accessed through the WINDOWS MENU. It gives definitions for words and terms that are used in the SimEarth program. Like all help and text windows in SimEarth, it can be moved around the screen and resized. Click on the up and down arrows on the right side of the window to scroll through the text. > 90 < There are four graph windows, which can be opened through the GRAPHS MENU and through the MAP WINDOW icons. Only one GRAPH WINDOW can be displayed at a time. These windows can be moved around the screen by clicking and dragging the TITLE BAR, and closed by clicking the CLOSE BOX. Two of the graphs display their information over time as well as for the present. The information is given in horizontal or vertical bars, with the most current bar in front. -------------------------------------------------------- This graph is accessed either through the AIR SAMPLE item on the GRAPHS MENU or by double-clicking on the AIR TEMPERATURE icon on the MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL. The ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION GRAPH gives only the atmospheric composition for the present time. Its information is shown in horizontal bars. It displays the chemical composition of your planet's atmosphere. It gives the ratio in percentages of four gases--Nitrogen (N2), Oxygen (O2) Carbon Dioxide (CO2), and Methane (CH)--plus dust particles and water vapor (H20). It also gives the air pressure expressed in atmospheres. The plusses and minuses at the end of the bars indicate whether that item is increasing or decreasing. If there is no plus or minus after the bar, the level is temporarily stable. The shade or pattern of the bars is a scale indication. Percentage is less than 1%. Percentage is between 1 and 10%. Percentage is above 10%. The Air Pressure bar has its own shade, and does not change with the percentage. This graph is useful for monitoring trends in atmospheric composition: Too little oxygen, and life will end. Too much oxygen, and fires will burn all over the planet. Too little carbon dioxide, and plants will die. > 91 < Too much carbon dioxide, and animals will become extinct. Too much dust causes solar blockage and extinctions. Water vapor affects rainfall. Water vapor, carbon dioxide and methane are greenhouse gases--high levels will increase the greenhouse warming effect. BIOME RATIO GRAPH ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This graph is accessed either through the BIOMES item on the GRAPHS MENU or by double-clicking on the BIOMES icon on the MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL. It displays the relative amounts of the seven biomes on your planet over time. This graph is useful for detecting and tracking trends in the dominant biomes. When playing the Daisyworld Scenario, the BIOME RATIO GRAPH displays the eight shades of daisies. > 92 < This graph is accessed either through the LIFE-FORMS item on the GRAPHS MENU or by double-clicking on the LIFE icon on the MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL. It displays the relative amounts of the life classes on your planet over time. The 14 classes from the PLACE LIFE tool are, displayed, plus the Carnifern: a mobile carnivorous plant that can achieve sentience. This graph is useful for tracking trends in the life on your planet. -------------------------------------------- This graph is accessed either through the TECHNOLOGY item on the GRAPHS MENU or by double clicking on the CIVILISATION icon on the MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL. It displays the population ratio between the various levels of Civilisation on your planet. > 93 < The four model control panels are used to obeserve and change the settings of many variables in the model. These control panels are the only places in Sim Earth that are used only for input. These windows are reached either through the MODELS MENU or through the MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL. Only one MODEL CONTROL PANEL can be displayed at a time. You can cycle through the four panels forward or backward by clicking on the NEXT and LAST buttons in the upper right corner. There are 16 possible settings for each item on each control panel. To change model settings, first click on the item you want to change. The name of the item and an indicator (usually an arrow) will become highlighted. A dotted box will appear around the indicator and the SLIDER CONTROL at the right of the panel will display the setting of the active item. Next, click on the SLIDER CONTROL above or below the slider to increase or decrease the setting one increment. You can also click and drag the slider to change settings. Even though the life on your planet is self-regulating, and affects the model, these changes are not shown on the model control panels. These panels reflect you settings and display only your changes. There will be a lag between the time you change a MODEL CONTROL PANEL and the time your change takes effect. The cost in energy for changing the control panel is 30E.U. per click and 150E.U. per drag. For small changes use clicks. For big changes use drags. If you change a panel from the lowest to the highest setting by clicking, it will cost you 30 E.U * 15 clicks = 450EU. The same change by dragging would cost 150EU. You would save a lot of energy by dragging instead of clicking. If you change a panel setting one level, clicking would cost you 150 E.U, > 94 < MODEL CONTROL PANELS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This MODEL CONTROL PANEL deals with the variable factors affecting the Geosphere, Meteor Impacts, and the Axial Tilt of your planet. It can be accessed through the MODELS MENU or by clicking on the GEOSPHERE icon in the MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL. The factors you can adjust are: VOLCANIC ACTIVITY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ controls the frequency of periodic volcanic eruptions. In early stages of the planet this will influence the formation of continental areas. EROSION ~~~~~~~ controls the rate ot "smoothing" of the terrain by erosion. Increasing erosion also increases CO2 in the atmosphere. CONTINENTAL DRIFT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ controls the rate at which the continents move on the magma layer. CORE HEAT ~~~~~~~~~ controls the temperature of the planet's core. The higher the core heat, the larger and more severe the volcanos. Also, the hotter the core, the more the direction of magma flow will change. CORE FORMATION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ controls the rate at which the planetary core forms. As the core forms, it gets larger. The size of the core affects the speed at which the magma flows. The bigger the core, the slower the magma. The slower the magma, the smaller the volcanos, and the slower the continental drift. METEOR IMPACT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ controls the frequency of periodic meteor (or planetesimal) strikes. AXIAL TILT ~~~~~~~~~~~ controls the tilt of your planet's spin axis. This affects the severity of the seasons--the greater the tilt, the greater the seasonal severity. This is only noticeable in the two modern Time Scales. The current tilt of the real Earth's axis is about 22 degrees from vertical. > 95 < ATMOSPHERE MODEL CONTROL PANEL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This MODEL CONTROL PANEL deals with the variable factors affecting the atmosphere of your planet. It can be accessed through the MODELS MENU or by clicking on the ATMOSPHERE icon in the MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL. SOLAR INPUT controls ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ the incoming solar radiation (heat). This is the amount of heat from the Sun that hits your planet. Setting the slider all the way down will turn the sun off. CLOUD ALBEDO ~~~~~~~~~~~~ controls the reflectivity of the clouds, which controls the amount of sunlight (heat) that passes through them to the planet. GREENHOUSE EFFECT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ controls the intensity of the warming greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is caused by certain gases that block outgoing infrared radiation. In SimEarth, the greenhouse gases are water vapor (H20), methane (CH4), and carbon dioxide (CO2) CLOUD FORMATION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ controls the amount of clouds formed from a given amount of evaporation. RAINFALL ~~~~~~~~~ controls the amount of rainfall on the planet. SURFACE ALBEDO ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ controls the reflectivity of surface biomes. The higher the albedo, the more solar radiation is reflected back into space. AIRSEA THERMAL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Transfer controls the rate at which the air and ocean can exchange heat. > 96 < BIOSPHERE MODEL CONTROL PANEL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This MODEL CONTROL PANEL deals with the variable factors affecting the biosphere of your planet. The factors you can adjust are: THERMAL TOLERANCE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Controls the temperature range in which life can survive. The higher the setting, the wider the acceptable temperature range for life. Reproduction RATE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Controls how quickly life as a whole will reproduce. CO2 ABSORPTION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ controls how much carbon dioxide is scrubbed from theair by the plants. ADVANCE RATE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Controls the rate at which life-forms advance to the next higher level of development towards intelligence. It is usually a change of one species. MUTATION RATE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Controls the rate at which life-forms will mutate. Mutations can jump ahead, skipping species, to the next class of life. > 97 < CIVILISATION MODEL CONTROL PANEL. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This panel is used to define and control the civilised, sentient species on your planet. It is only useful in the Civilisation and Technology Time Scales. It can be accessed through the MODELS MENU or by clicking on the CIVILISATION icon in the MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL. The CIVILISATION MODEL CONTROL PANEL is one of the real challenges of SimEarth. You must make some important decisions and set priorities both for the types of energies you want to invest in and the uses you want to put the energy to. This control panel has a major effect on the REPORT WINDOW. It is a good idea to have these two on the screen together. ENERGY INVESTMENT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The left side of the control panel is where you set your priorities for investment in various types of energies. The greater your priority, the longer you should make the bar next to the choice. If you don't want to invest in a particular type of energy at all, then shrink the bar to nothing. The total amount of investment in all the types of energy sets the amount of hours your global citizen must work per week. The work week is a major factor affecting quality of life. The types of energy you can invest in are: BIOENERGY--Burning wood, animal power, plant power (farming), work done by hand by the sentient species. SOLAR/WlND--Sun drying of food and clothes, windmills, sailing ships, solar heating, wind-powered generators, solar electric cells, satellites collecting solar energy. HYDRO/GEO --Waterwheels, dams, steam power, hydroelectric power, geothermal power. > 98 < FOSSIL FUEL--Coal made from long-dead animals. NUCLEAR --Atomic reactors, bombs, etc. ENERGY Allocation ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The right side of the control panel is where you allocate the energy. All energy produced is used. Rather than actual numerical settings, allocations are ratios. This means that you should adjust the length of the bars for each allocation choice to show your priorities--the longer the bar, the higher the priority. If all the bars are all the way up, or all are in the middle, the model interprets your settings the same. It is the differences in lengths that matters, not the actual length. It is best not to turn any of the settings all the way off. The allocation setting has a feedback effect on the energy investment. Low allocations can reduce the efficiency at which technologies can produce the energy. This can make your technology level decline. The uses to which you can put your energy are: PHILOSOPHY--Philosophy is a deterrent to war. Investing in philosophy reduces the number and intensity of violent conflicts on your planet. SCIENCE-Investing in science helps your civilisations advance to higher technology levels. You must have at least some investment in science to advance at all. Advancing technology levels too fast, or without a fair share of philosophy, agriculture, medicine, and art/media does not produce a stable, long-lasting civilisation. If you invest too much too soon in science, your population will die off from war and plague. Agriculture--investing in agriculture increases food production, which increases the rate of population growth of your sentient species. MEDICINE--investment in medicine reduces the number and severity of plagues. ART/MEDIA--Investment in art/media improves the quality of life of your SimEarthling global citizen. > 99 < TIME SCALES - INTRODUCTION TO TIME SCALES. =========================================== SimEarth runs in four different Time Scales: Geologic, Evolution, Civilisation and Technology. Each Time Scale simulates a different set of factors on the planet. You can start a planet at any Time Scale, or start at the first (Geologic) and the game will automatically evolve through all the Time Scales. In the Civilisation and Technology Time Scales, you can rush the intelligent SimEarthling's advance through the levels of civilisations by model manipulation or by using the Monolith. Advancing too fast is not necessarily a good thing. If you do not allow enough time in the Geologic and Evolution Time Scales, there won't be enough fossil fuel for the later Time Scales. You will need a wide population base for continued advancement. If you push a small group to advance before its population has built up, it will stagnate and die out. > 100 < The GEOLOGIC Time Scale begins just after a planet is formed and begins cooling. It ends with the development of multi-celled life. This covers the time period on the real Earth from 4.5 billion to 570 million years ago. In this Time Scale, the planet changes very slowly, so the simulation time is sped up to keep things moving. The Time/Simulation cycle for this Time Scale is 10 million years. This means that each time the program runs through one simulation cycle, 10 million years passes on the planet. Your available energy builds up at 1 E.U. per Time/Simulation cycle. The factors simulated in this Time Scale, in order of their influence, are: continental drift, atmospheric composition, extraterrestrial collisions, single- celled life, and climate. The goal of this Time Scale is to manipulate all the simulated factors to facilitate the formation of multicellular life, at which time you will be advanced to the next and slower Time Scale, Evolution. Time moves very fast in this Time Scale, and your planet only has 10 billion years to live. If you want to complete all the Time Scales before the end of your planet, you should try to reach the next Time Scale when your planet is between three and four billion years old. Don't advance too soon, or there will not be enough fossil fuels for later civilisations. > 101 < s~ SUMMARY--GEOLOGIC TIME SCALE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Time/Slmulation cycle : 10 million years Energy Increase/cycle : 1 E.U. Time on real Earth : 4.5 to .570 billion years ago. Factors Simulated : Continental drift. Atmospheric conditions. Extraterrestrial collisions. Single Celled Life. Climate. Advancement Conditions: Evolution of muti-cellular organisms. Optimum advancement age: Between 3 and 4 billion years. THINGS TO DO: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Design continents. Spell your name in land masses. Burn off oceans. Make life impossible in a number of ways. Use earthquakes to create mountain ranges. Use meteors to create lakes. Use meteors and hurricanes to increase rainfall. Use earthquakes, volcanos and meteors to achieve the highest dust level you can. Using only events (not the ALTITUDE tool), try to recreate the continents on Earth today. (Hint: you'll want to pause the simulation or at least turn the core heat ail the way down to stop or slow continental DRIFT.) Play Bumper-continents. Get two or three friends, each build a small continent, and take turns setting off earthquakes to propel the continents into each other. > 102 < EVOLUTION TIME SCALE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The evolution time scale comes after the Geologic time scale. It begins with the appearance of multi-cellular organisms and ends with the development of intelligence. Things change a little faster in this timescale than in the Geologic, so the time scale/Simulation time has been lowered to 500,000 years. Your available energy builds up at 1.EU per time/simulation cycle. This timescale relates to the period of time on the real earth from 570 to .01 million years ago. The factors simulated in this timescale are; life, biomes, climate, atmpospheric composition and continental drift. The goal of this timescale is to manipulate the simulation factors and evolve intelligence, at which you will be advanced to the Civilisation timescale. Your planet has only 10 billion years to live. If you want to complete all the time scales before the end of your planet, you should try to reach the next timescale when your planet is between 5 and 6 billion years old. Dont advance too soon, or there will not be enough fossil fuels for future civilisations. > 103 < SUMMARY--EVOLUTION TIME SCALE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Time/Simulation cycle : 500,00 years Energy Increase/cycle : 1 E.U. Tbne on real Earth : 570 to .01 billion years ago. Factors simulated : Life Biomes Climate Atmospheric composition Continental drift Advancement conditions : Development of intelligence Optimum advancement age : Between 5 and 6 billion years THINGS TO DO: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Choose and help a particular class of life to develop intelligence. Prevent particular species from developing intelligence. Manipulate the evolutionary path. Try to get Carniferns to reach intelligence without using the Monolith. Try to get the highest biomass rating you can. Try to maintain a valley or island of dinosaurs in the midst of a civilised world. Play with the atmosphere and see what happens. Raise the terrain all over the planet, and see what happens. See how much and how little of your planet you can have as land without major repercussions to life. > 104 < CIVILISATION TIME SCALE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Civilization Time Scale comes after the Evolution time scale It begins with appearance of intelligent organisms and ends with the Industrial Revolution. Things change fast in this Time Scale, so the Time/Simulation cycle has been lowered to 10 years. Your available energy builds up at different rates, depending on your highest available technology level: 2 E.U. per Time/Simulation cycle in the Stone Age, 3 E.U. per Time/Simulation cycle in the Bronze Age, and 4 E.U. per Time/Simulation cycle in the Iron Age. This Time Scale relates to the period of time on the real Earth from 10,000 to 100 years ago. The factors simulated in this Time Scale, in order of their influence, are: Civilisation, life, biomes, climate, and atmospheric composition. The goal of this Time Scale is to manipulate the simulation factors and evolve higher levels of technology, at which time you will be advanced to the Technology Time Scale. Your planet only has 10 billion years to live. If you want to complete all the Time Scales before the end of your planet, you should try to reach the next Time Scale before your planet is 9.5 billion years old. > 105 < SUMMARY--CIVILISATION TIME SCALE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Time/Simulation cycle : 10 years Energy increase/cycle : 2 EU - Stone age. 3 EU - Bronze age. 4 EU - Iron age. Time on real EArth : 10,000 to 100 years ago Factors simulated : Civilisation Life Biomes Climate Atmospheric composition Advancement conditions : Development of higher technology Optimum advancement age : Less than 9.5 billion years THINGS TO DO: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cause or prevent wars. Eliminate unwanted technologies. Promote or eliminate various energy sources. Mold the sentient species to your liking through the CIVILISATION MODEL CONTROL PANEL. Improve the quality of life for your sentient species. Set up equivalent civilisations on different continents, and let them race to the Technology age. Vary the altitude, biomes, etc. for the two civilisations, and see what helps and hinders. Try to control pollution. > 106 < TECHNOLGOY TIME SCALE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Technology Time Scale comes after the Civilisation Time Scale. It begins with the appearance of high levels of technology, and ends when technology evolves to the level when your planet can reproduce itself through interstellar "genetic" seeding--the ability to Colonise other planets. When you complete this Time Scale, and achieve interstellar migration, all Civilisation leaves the planet. The planet is then turned into a wildlife reserve, and returns to the Evolution Time Scale. Things change very fast in this Time Scale, so the Time/Simulation cycle has been lowered to one year. Your available energy builds up at different rates, depending on your highest available technology level: 5 E.U. per Time/Simulation cycle in the Industrial Age, 6 E.U. per Time/Simulation cycle in the Atomic Age, 7 E.U. per Time/Simulation cycle in the Information Age, and 8 E.U. per Time/Simulation cycle in the Nanotech Age. This Time Scale relates to the period of time on the real Earth from 100 years ago to the future. The factors simulated in this Time Scale, in order of their influence, are: Civilisation, life, biomes, sentient expansion, climate, and atmospheric composition. > 107 < The goal of this Time Scale is to manipulate the simulation factors and evolve a level of technology high enough to Colonise other planets. Your planet only has 10 billion years to live. You should try to complete this Time Scale before the end of your planet. SUMMARY--TECHNOLOGY TIME SCALE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Time/Simulation cycle : 1 years Energy increase/cycle : 5 EU - Industrial Age. 6 EU - Atomic Age 7 EU - Information Age. 8 EU - Nanotech Age. Time on real Earth : 100 years ago to the future. Factors Simulated : Civilisation Life Biomes Climate Atmospheric Composition. Advancement conditions : Development of high enough technology to colonise other planets. Optimum advancement age : Less than 10 billion years old (before the planet dies). THINGS TO DO: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Prevent the sentient creatures from destroying themselves. Cause or prevent wars. Eliminate unwanted technologies. Return the planet to ignorant bliss. Move cities of different technologies close to each other, and see what happens. Control pollution. Test the greenhouse effect. > 108 < SCENARIOS ========== There are six scenario planets included with SimEarth, plus the Daisyworld Scenario. They can all be played in easy, medium, hard, and experimental modes. Each scenario has a task for you to accomplish, but feel free to just play with these worlds. Scenarios are chosen and started in the NEW PLANET WINDOW. > 109 < AQUARIUM ~~~~~~~~~ Aquarium is a world that will never develop sentient life. Sentience can only be reached in SimEarth by land animals. We hope we're not offending any intelligent, purely aquatic aliens anywhere in the universe, but as far as we can tell, Civilisation requires the use of fire and the burning of fossil fuels to develop. Intelligence in SimEarth requires land because of the need of fire, tools, and forges. Water creatures can reach intelligence, but need access to land for toolmaking. The problem: No continents Time Scale: Evolution Your mission: Create continents on this planet so Civilisation can evolve. The methods: The easy way is to use the SET ALTITUDE tool. A more creative approach is to use events. The most subtle method is by manipulating the MODEL CONTROL PANELS. Hints: Make sure you keep plenty of shelves (shallow water) in your oceans. Most marine life lives near the surface. Notes: Aquarium is a good starting place for people who like to design their own continents. > 110 < STAG NATION ~~~~~~~~~~~ The civilisation on this world is stuck in the Stone Age. The sentiet mammals are all stuck on a small island. They have no room to expand, and are unable to develop or expand energy for a technological jump. The problem: Population stuck in the stone age. Time Scale : Civilisation Your Mission: Aid the population in a migration to larger land masses and increase their level of science. The Methods: The advancement in science will require manipulation of the CIVILISATION MODEL CONTROL PANEL. The migration canbe performed oin a number of ways, pick them up and move thenm to a larger sandmass with the MOVING tool; build a land bridge for them to cross with SET ALTITUDE tool; or use events. Hints: If you use events to make a land bridge, be careful not to wipe out your sentient population by accident. Notes: If you dont like intelligent mammals, you can destroy the island where they live and try to nurture another class of life to sentience. > 111 < EARTH: THE CAMBRIAN ERA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This scenario takes place on Earth 550 million years ago at the beginning of the Cambrian era. Life on Earth at that time was undergoing an explosion of diversification. Plants started moving onto the land, followed by insects and other animals. In this scenario, the drift of the continents will follow the drift of Earth's continents. It starts with the supercontinent called Pangaea, which then splits apart into the ancient continents of Condwanaland and Laurasia. Eventually, you will recognise the continents as we see them today. The pre-programmed drift will continue into the future following scientific predictions for about 200 million years. After that, the simulation takes over and controls the drift. The problem: Living in the past Time Scale: Evolution Your mission: Help evolution develop intelligent life while seeing an instant replay of our planet's continental drift. The methods: On this one, you can just sit back and watch, or get involved in every planetary process. The continents will drift whether or not any life is around to see where they go. Hints: Beyond 200 million years in the future, the drift will diverge from scientific predictions, and will be at the whim of our simulation code. > 112 < To see a real instant replay of the continental drift, click and hold on the INFO BOX and slowly drag the mouse back and forth. Any changes you make to the continents by using events will disappear. The continental drift will follow its pre-programmed path no matter what you do. Notes: Try to develop intelligence/Civilisation in your sentient species just as the continents reach the stage of modern Earth. See if you can create an earth with intelligent dinosaurs. > 113 <