Shifting biomes

[SuperGoop]

Howdy Peeps,I thought I'd chime in with my two cent about a game mechanic I think could increase replayability and fun!I've been really enjoying the game so far, having not yet tried out every bit and bob. But I already feel something could benefit from more enhancements. It might already be in the pipe, or not. Anyway, here goes.The world needs to feel more dynamic, more alive. Where player involvement or non involvement has an effect.Some people have already suggested the addition of a proper foodchain/ecosystem mechanic to the game, where spiders would actually roam looking for food or lay webs to catch birds, where rabbits would feed, rampantly reproduce, where beefalos would actually eat grass etc… creating an interesting dynamic between the player, animal species, food sources, demographics, either initially balanced or unbalanced, whether through the player's actions or not.I was thinking about From Dust, how the sim managed erosion.And this is where, maybe, an erosion mechanic could enhance the world even further, on top of animal/plant ecosystems.What if the biomes shifted in case of extreme imbalances of the various ecosystems, ultimately endangering your fertile, food providing grounds, and making the game more challenging. Choosing the easy, careless path would have consequences.Some biomes should be inherently dominant and progress over more fragile ones. And typically, fertile biomes being more exposed than rocky or swampy ones, making them very precious, and to care about. A lack of trees in a particular biome would have it recede for example. And you would have to try and slow down this dynamic by replanting trees, grass, by regulating species populations etc... Swamps taking over forests, desert taking over grass land for instance. And perhaps winter and weather would enhance these phenomenons.Erosion could eat away at the edges of islands in particular conditions, progressively reducing the landmass, if the player didn't do anything about it. Sinking islands, HOW COOL!You would end up with a very dynamic, changing and alive world, where every player action would have a reaction, on a short or long term, adding a lot of depth and replayability to the game, making the survival aspect even broader than just farming for food, which is making the game too easy. The player would have to deal with gathering (or farming) food while making sure the world is sustainable.I am not a developer, and I don't know how complex this mechanic would be to implement, especially at this stage of the game. But I thought I'd add my contribution anyway.What do you peeps think? I hope I made sense.

Edited December 29, 2012 by SuperGoop