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[G-Flex]

Initialize your variables!!

The way the insect's breathing system is IRL, one could imagine that a simple mutation would be to close up the tracheal tubes into alveoli and use the parts that are shut off to form a simple circulatory system. That would handle most of the oxygen issues.

Considering arachnids use blood flow instead of musculature, they would have to get a hell of a lot more muscle, unfortunately.

Except how do alveoli work if you don't even have any form of oxygen-carrying blood? They have open circulatory systems, and those too probably fall apart in terms of function once tissues get too thick.

I give you giant prehistoric dragon flys!

2.5 ft wingspan may not be house sized, but a wasp that size would have one hell of a sting.

These are pretty neat, but keep in mind that a 2.5 wingspan, judging by that picture, still means the dragonfly's body itself was only a couple inches wide, maximum. Obviously that's still pretty big for an insect, but dragonflies in particular have very slender bodies, which must have helped them grow so large. I couldn't see that happening with a spider, ant, or wasp, at least not to that degree.

[Whales]

Heh!  Thanks Shades.  This is what I get for being lazy, and also for only compiling with -Wall once a year, during Lent.

[TheBronzePickle]

Except how do alveoli work if you don't even have any form of oxygen-carrying blood? They have open circulatory systems, and those too probably fall apart in terms of function once tissues get too thick.

True. The spider would suddenly have to develop oxygen-bearing blood. Someone tinkering with the genetic code of a spider in order to get a giant one would obviously remember to do that, though. At least after their first experiment suffocated.

[G-Flex]

during Lent.

New feature: If your game happens to start on a Friday, places that serve food (including bars) and some houses have an unusual amount of fish & chips lying around.

[BishopX]

Question for the group (and whales), how long after the event do you imagine the game starting? I mean there are already survivor settlements, those didn't get built over night, yet food in the fridge is still good. Maybe 48 hours afterwards? Also, what do you guys think about a randomkized starting time. Rather than starting at 8:00AM every time?

[Whales]

Question for the group (and whales), how long after the event do you imagine the game starting? I mean there are already survivor settlements, those didn't get built over night, yet food in the fridge is still good. Maybe 48 hours afterwards? Also, what do you guys think about a randomkized starting time. Rather than starting at 8:00AM every time?

Yeah, the survivor settlements are getting removed due to not making sense and also being dumb.  They'll get moved to pre-existing structures like airports and stuff.

Not sure what good a randomized starting time would do other than make your game randomly harder sometimes.

[Ehndras]

Hmm, haven't touched Cataclysm in about a month, any juicy updates I missed? Last I heard, you were working on the construction update, Whales.

[Necro910]

Hmm, haven't touched Cataclysm in about a month, any juicy updates I missed? Last I heard, you were working on the construction update, Whales.

Build your own base.

Aw yeahhh

[Flying Dice]

Construction is almost tempting enough to pull me back in; gonna wait till any kinks are worked out before I do though.

[Mr.Person]

I think it would make loads of sense to just be able to define any random area as a survivor base. All you'd then need to do is arbitrarly define random areas for whatever purposes the base needs (leader hangout, sleeping quarters, clinic, armory, kitchen, storage for everything else, and commons area are what I can think of offhand) and then place all the necessary items, NPC's, and add-on buildings such as walls.

I dunno, it makes more sense to me than to have either a base sitting out in the middle of nowhere or to have airports or whatever always be bases. I guess people would rather base up in certain buildings so make houses and certain shops ineligable, or else we'll get things like "Ok guys, everybody meet up at the Payless!" Seems like it might be a lot of work, though, so whatever works best with the system you've set up everything in.

[Whales]

I think it would make loads of sense to just be able to define any random area as a survivor base. All you'd then need to do is arbitrarly define random areas for whatever purposes the base needs (leader hangout, sleeping quarters, clinic, armory, kitchen, storage for everything else, and commons area are what I can think of offhand) and then place all the necessary items, NPC's, and add-on buildings such as walls.

I dunno, it makes more sense to me than to have either a base sitting out in the middle of nowhere or to have airports or whatever always be bases. I guess people would rather base up in certain buildings so make houses and certain shops ineligable, or else we'll get things like "Ok guys, everybody meet up at the Payless!" Seems like it might be a lot of work, though, so whatever works best with the system you've set up everything in.

Yup!  Not only does it make more sense but it's also much cooler to have people holed up in a mall, airport, or college campus, than some arbitrary square colony.

[Ehndras]

Is there a windows update for the newest version yet?

[The13thRonin]

Why is heads no longer maintaining the Windows version?

Also how do we compile this / extract the source again? I've forgotten and the post explaining it is lost somewhere in the depths of this thread .

[Jacob/Lee]

Related to the earlier conversation, massive insects/arachnids like that are impossible I believe. IIRC, if you scale up an ant to the size of a house it would crush itself under its own weight, something like the weight/strength ratio not increasing to fit. I assume the same would apply to other small creatures.

[G-Flex]

Yup!  Not only does it make more sense but it's also much cooler to have people holed up in a mall, airport, or college campus, than some arbitrary square colony.

I agree, especially since half the fun of a zombie/post-apocalyptic setting is figuring out what you'd do with normal surroundings like that. I remember trying to figure out once how good a mall would be for a sort of fortified indoor city. Generally, I think it would work pretty well (mall storefronts can be much larger than they appear! plus they have those gates), except for the fact that they have a ton of glass.