Plate Tectonics and more...

[Hendrik the Great]

Since most people around here seem to have run out of ideas I'll take over now.

There are five distinct features I want to see in Dinosaurs.

1. Plate Tectonics
2. Klimate Change
3. Evolution of the entire or at least most of the habitat the dinos live in
4. (World Wide) cataclysmic events
5. The interaction of the above 4 points, wherein 4 might be an exception

In this thread I will concentrate on point 1.

Many have argued that in Civ 2 there should be more change in the way the world looks alike. However, I think you all agree that the effects of Plate Tectonics within a timeframe of 6000 years are neglectible.

That is not the case when speaking of millions and millions of years of the past. Dinos ruled the world for millions years. During that time entire continents moved from the equator to the south pole and back, oceans rose from the depths and vanished again and mountains reached the clouds and were transfromed to dust. I want to see that in the game. I want Oceans that from and mountains to rise.

It is understandable that such a model cannot possibly be as complex as the real world. It would never get finished.
Yet, a model can in my opinion be created that reflects the changes of Plate Tectonics in an satisfactory way.

So what is needed to create a model that suits our needs? To simplify this I will concentrate on 3 factors:

One is the age of the world: The older a planet is the more the radioactive break-up of the elements declines along with the fact that is loses the heat it has keept from its creation out of stellar dust. Thus one would expect that the strenght and activity of Plate Tectonics reduces over the aeons. Looking only at a small geological timeframe of 1 million years it is probally insignifcant but when looking at a time of several hundred millions, possibly thousands, of years it will be important.
Therefore, the activity will be the highest on the beginning of any game. With time the results of it would also reduce or become less lethal events like earthquakes and vulcanos.

The size of the planet: Is necessary to calculate the time to cool down and how plates would interact along with the factors of stress that are build up along fault lines. Which also needs the age.

The underlieing shape of the hot and cold areas of the planetary magma and the planets internal structure: Affect greatly the activity of plate tectonics. The direction of travell is connected directly to this. Also is the presence of vulcanos which is linked to the edges of the plates and where hot upcomming magma reaches the surface(like Hawaii). Mainly not always subduction zones will be under the oceans where the outer crust of the earth is generally far thinner than on the dry land.

All the above 3 factors are somewhat linked together. Neither can cause large scale plate movement on their own but combined they produce the shapes we all know from satellite pictures and globes.

Of course, Plate Tectonics has huge impact on the other 3 points I mentioned. It is respondsible for the climatic zone a continent is and thus affect the evolution in that part of the world as well as global and local weather patterns. But that I will discuse in another thread.

I would welcome any comments, suggestions and thoughts. Please do not be too harsh. I just wrote down what I thought of while writing neither am I an expert of nor very familiar with geology and plate tectonics.

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Mathias' Civ II Page
http://members.xoom.com/thalys/index.html

[Ken Bregott]

I certainly think this is a feature that needs inclusion in the game. My fear is that #3 will be very hard to simulate in a convincing way. While the age and size of the planet are factors that are reasonably easy to factor in, the convection currents in the magma will probably work along a similar model to that of SMACs weather. Or, they might be assigned by the random map generator, ie. "This continent which is divided here will move in this direction and form a mountain range when it hits this continent." What I mean is, if there is a model it will most likely not be dynamic. A set pattern will be created with the randomly generated map, which might include Cataclysmic events (this stops people from cheating by loading) that might change the way the plates move (the earth being hit by a huge meteor, for example).

Another issue to consider is how to simulate the effects of plate tectonics. Earthquakes, volcanoes, the formation of mountain ranges...

[Hendrik the Great]

I already feared that point 3 might be the problem. However, one should agree that the surrounding cannot just stay the same for millions of years. It is one of the driving factors of evolution. Plants and smaller animals change and thuse dinosaurs will have to adept.
It should be included in some level.
Think of it like this: it will be far more a challenge for the player and it will add certainky to the realism.

Thr effects of plate tectonics could be that at the edges of the plates where 2 or more interact the vulcanic activity is much higher than normal. The groung should be basalt and therefore affect the effort required to live there.
Also earthquakes are much more frequent at those places. They can change the flow of rivers, vulcanos can block out hte sunlight if a large eruption occurs and there are even records that there have been vulcanic eruptions fo the size of entitre countries. There is one very big lava field in India I believe the size of a counrty. That eruption must have had an enormous effect on the climate.

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Mathias' Civ II Page
http://members.xoom.com/thalys/index.html

[MattHiggs]

Is there a web site for this game - dinosaurs?