![]() With an ecosystem with basically every type of plant and animal possible across it, with a lot more herbivores than predators, things are all reproducing at different rates and that helps spread out the eating relationships and growth cycles. The large/apex predators also tend to reproduce more slowly (every 2 years or so), so they make sense to hold down the growth of smaller predators that reproduce more quickly (every year often).Īnother note, given the varying reproduction cycles, that's another reason having more biodiversity helps a lot. You've likely noticed that the large predators can cover pretty much the entire map, so I like to have several zones working well with smaller prey/predators before I add those. I let that grow out, cover at least a couple zones and start reproducing, before I put in the predators. If I want to start a good, sustainable biodome, I do nothing but plants and maybe a few herbivores, decomposers, and pollinators. We've scaled this back so like 3-5x generally does it since it was way too hard like that, but you get the gist. Which feed bigger predators (10x more, you know) Herbivores feed smaller predators (10x more biomass of herbivores than the predators) Plants feed herbivores (need 10x more biomass of plants than herbivores) If you look at Trophic Levels as an ecological concept, you generally need about 10x more biomass on each lower level. So the challenge to get things to feel balanced is to get a really good base going first. You have the Lynx, Arctic Wolf, and even some bears. ![]() While the fox doesn't have any natural predators that prefer to eat it, the Tundra is a rough place and larger predators/carnivores definitely will. So it is possible to get close to mature and balanced, but given the limited space and the way the AI works, it's going to need a bit of help along. ![]() With a large biodome with a lot of biodiversity and reproduction that is mature and at variable rates because of a variety of species, I've had ecosystems that I barely touched except for once every year or so to restock in a few areas. Which makes the game fun and responsive as you can see them immediately running to the needed food source, but also means that they tend to voraciously destroy things. This is because we designed each individual animal to be seeking its own best interest of food. In an effort to reduce this, we did enable prey to escape at increasing rates when the ratio gets out of balance, but most of the time after a while the predators will still find them. So yes, the AI is a bit stupid and will keep growing and reproducing until it out-eats an area and dies. If your ecosystem could be perfectly balanced, then the game would basically just be over. ![]() We've had a lot of debates in our development about this, and definitely had mixed feelings (as you've had) on the outcome. You're not going to be able to get a truly sustained balanced ecosystem. ![]()
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