surely if the whole game is generated 'on the fly' rather than having pre-made models, then it would be quite intensive? I was going to build a computer after i graduate this summer and get a job, but I might put off to nearer the time of this game's release or just wait till next year for the quad-cores.

:)

If it's generated on the fly, it will be using mainly math, which is what a computer is built for. These are just big calculators, after all. Since there's less memory used up saving the locations of this and that and the way this animal or that animal moves or behaves, the system requirements will be lower, despite how impressive the game is.

If the game generates the world realistically, most worlds are going to have a large amount of plants just to feed the herbivores - if you're the top of the food chain, there's going to need to be a lot of fodder for you to snack on (10% rule). I'm not so sure about the "tall creatures = taller trees," since it's because the trees are tall that animals like giraffes became taller, not the reverse. If the overall climate of the planet is dry, there will probably be less life because water is needed to sustain it.

I think it's more like because the trees are taller, taller animals are the ones who survive and make offspring more adapted to the environment.. this brings me a question:

You saw how terraforming could make a planet habitable? Can you render a planet's environment hazardous and useless too? And if you do that, what happens to the species that are there, if they can't escape?

I'm SO gonna buy this game: It is God's gift to gamers.

That's a little misleading. It actually might need more memory/processing power because of the intensive calculations. I doubt it'd be ridiculously high, but if 'math problems' aren't that simple for a computer to do. The Revolution has a separate processor just for physics calculations. It's definitely a big factor.

I imagine this would involve nuking the planet repeatedly. They had a volcano tool, so I imagine you could generate the tonnage. A 'lil bit of over-terraforming?

I remember reading something on Spore a while back saying that all the information for a creature, building, or plant would be able to fit in under 1Kb of space. I have a hard time believing it would be that intensive on the processor, though I could be horribly wrong.

Oh, and hiya Drey! :3

to phil: yeah I know bombys don't actually shoot fire, but who needs fire when you have the fluid they use, and it does burn stuf, leaving smoke and ashes, instead of corrosion like acid does. f you look carefully at the editor while wills still in cell mode, you will notice that the creature has a structure, it might be an interior cell, wall but there are bone like structures at that stage. my next question. burrowing. Can I build a society of ant/termite like creatures? I saw swimming, I still don't have enough verification on flying, but noone has addressed subteranean creatures yet.

Hard drive space != active processes.