By Daniferrito: This no longer stands for our current code

Here's a class structure I was thinking of, that should take care of everything up through creature stage.

Code:

Resource     WorldObject         Organism             Cell             Creature             Plant         Particle         Rock         Organics     Atmosphere     Soil     BodyOfLiquid

Where a Resource is a list of compounds, a WorldObject has a position, and an Organism has an eat() function.

Depending on the class, it might be useful to have a parallel definition class structure as follows.

Code:

ResourceDef     WorldObjectDef         OrganismDef             CellDef             CreatureDef             PlantDef         ParticleDef         RockDef     AtmosphereDef     SoilDef     BodyOfLiquidDef

All of these will store data for a particular species, etc. Each class will contain a reference (const Def &) to its particular definition class.

EDIT:I'm pretty sure this will only be useful for Organisms, Particles, and Rocks.

That's my idea, let me know if you have questions.

So this is what the class structure in C++ looks like huh? We would use curly brackets and a specific term, such as string, int, etc in C#.
Thanks for this, I'm starting to understand C++ even more.

This seems pretty thorough. What about waste products/carcasses? They could be part of an "Organics" class under WorldObject, and that would round off anything that I can think of. They're essential to the game, given that you have to eat dead things.

Ok, makes sense. Still there's waste products. I hate to bring up something that seems to inconsequential, but they do contain important nutrients, which coprophagous animals can benefit from.