Idea for a new thing for scientists to do: Life Simulation

[Xkallubar]

Nanotrasen, having much success in their new bitrunning operations, has now decided to expand their usage of the virtual domain and is now simulating existence to study dangerous creatures and hazards without the real life consequences.

This idea proposes a new set of machines similar to bitrunning but relying on ghost roles.

So you run a virtual domain on a chosen map, with human ghost roles that can be played in these simulations that in character, are completely unaware they're in a simulation.

Examples for research domains would be:

Tribal human ghost roles with primitive gear in a jungle themed simulation.
A small station with crew ghost roles simulation.
A lavaland ashwalker ghost role simulation.

On top of being able to run these simulations, scientists also get a special console to essentially play god in their simulation. They can build and destroy, spawn materials, items, enemies, animals, transmit messages to the virtual people, as well as enter the simulation directly in their own VR pods similar to bitrunning.

You start out with only the ability to observe the simulation, and eventually with additional upgrades and research unlock more ways to interact with the simulation. Additionally, you can scan items and biopsies of real creatures with a special machine to unlock the ability to use them in your simulation. If mining kills a megafauna, it will also add it to the list of creatures you can spawn in your simulation.

The simulation generates research points via a button you can press every 10 minutes that uploads the simulation logs to NT and grants more points depending on how many times a new occurrence has happened in the past 10 minutes of the simulation, or gimme ideas because I don't really have any crazy ideas on how this could generate points.

So yeah, science gets to pretend to be an admin from the safety of their labs.

[Shadowflame909]

would be epic

[Helios]

I read Anonymous;Code recently. It's not on the level of Steins;Gate but deserves to be a part of the science adventure series.
Life simulation could be interesting. Instead of an Earth simulator that simulates what will happen tomorrow or next week on Earth it would be a Space Station Simulator. This could offer a new twist on Malfunctioning AI as well that is a bit 4th wall shattering. The crew figure out they aren't on base reality, and in fact are in an Station simulator. An AI or Mad Scientist is running the simulation and treating the crew like guinea pigs, and has god like powers. The crew try to crash the simulation or otherwise escape it. That is turning it into a mode. In normal rounds it could warn about events before they happen, so instead of spawning meteors now, it spawns them in 10 minutes while in the Station Simulator they spawn immediately.

[DrOof]

If sci is playing god, they could manipulate the beings in the simulation to building or completing specific tasks that would seem useless to those in the machine, but would actually generate more points