🌿 Ecosystem Life Simulator

An interactive, pixelated ecosystem simulation built with pure HTML5 Canvas, CSS3, and Vanilla JavaScript (ES Modules).

Observe predator-prey dynamics, biological lifecycles, carcass decomposition, floral blooming cycles, seed dispersal, and periodic rainstorms in a living sandbox meadow.

---

🌟 Key Features & Mechanics

1. 🐑 Sheep Grazing & Herd Behavior

• Rapid Grazing (Node Removal): Sheep are ravenous grazers. When a sheep reaches a plant, it instantly consumes and removes the entire plant node from the field. A herd of sheep can sweep through and clear an entire field in moments.
• Grazing Reach & Hunger: Sheep continuously search for food whenever hunger drops below 96%, with a configurable grazing reach.
• Mating & 3-Meal Growth: Satiated adult sheep seek mates and collide to birth a baby lamb. Baby lambs start at 55% scale and grow larger with each meal until reaching adult size after 3 meals.
• Evasion: Sheep actively detect wolves in their perception radius and flee with a panic speed boost.

2. 🐺 Wolf Hunting, Combat Exertion & Population Controls

• Combat Exertion (Lunge Health Cost): Wolves expend health every time they deliver an attack bite. Reckless over-hunting without resting or eating inflicts stamina fatigue and damage.
• Chase Drain: Wolves expend hunger 50% faster while actively sprinting in hunt mode.
• Controlled Reproduction: Wolves require high satiety (86%+) and a long mating cooldown (35s+) to reproduce, preventing runaway wolf swarms from wiping out the sheep population unchecked.
• Feeding: Defeating a sheep restores hunger. Wolf pups must eat 3 meals to mature into adult wolves.

3. 💀 Carcass Decay & Soil Enrichment

• Decay Cycle: Dead animals leave carcasses that decompose through flesh and skeletal stages before dissolving into rich brown soil mulch.
• Decay Speed Slider: Adjust decomposition rate from 0.2x to 3.0x.
• Floral Blooms: Fully decomposed remains fertilize the ground and trigger a lush Flower Tuft to sprout on the enriched soil.

4. 🌸 Flora Dynamics, Seed Dispersal & CPU Guard

• Max Plant Cap (CPU Guard): Strict upper ceiling slider (default: 90) preventing plant overpopulation and keeping framerates rock-solid.
• Low Seed Spread Rate: Mature, clustered plants have a rare chance (configurable, default 8%) to release an airborne dandelion seed that lands nearby.
• Moisture & Withering: Plants lose moisture during dry weather and wither away if unhydrated.
• Periodic Rain: Rain showers roll across the meadow periodically (or on demand), reviving all flora to 100% moisture.

5. 🎛️ Comprehensive State Sliders & Presets

• Populations & Caps:
  • Initial Sheep (2 - 80)
  • Initial Wolves (1 - 20)
  • Initial Plants (5 - 100)
  • Max Plant Cap (20 - 300)
• Sheep Dynamics:
  • Sheep Hunger Depletion Rate (0.2 - 3.0/s)
  • Grazing Reach (10 - 35px)
  • Sheep Mating Cooldown (10 - 60s)
• Wolf Dynamics:
  • Wolf Lunge Health Cost (0 - 20 HP)
  • Wolf Hunger Rate (0.5 - 3.5/s)
  • Attack Bite Damage (15 - 80)
  • Wolf Mating Cooldown (15 - 80s)
• Flora & Atmosphere:
  • Plant Seed Spread Chance (0 - 40%)
  • Plant Withering Speed (0.5 - 6.0/s)
  • Rain Frequency (0 - 100%)
  • Carcass Decay Speed (0.2x - 3.0x)
• Preset Configuration Tools:
  • 💾 Save As Defaults: Saves your customized slider configuration to localStorage as your new default baseline.
  • ↺ Reset: Reverts all sliders to your saved defaults.
  • 📋 Copy JSON: Copies the current configuration object to your clipboard for sharing or manual tuning.

6. 📊 Extinction Event & Analytics

• If all animals perish, an extinction modal appears with an interactive population timeline chart (Sheep, Wolves, Plants) and detailed ecosystem stats.

---

📂 Project Architecture

LifeSimulator/
├── index.html            # Layout, categorized sliders sidebar, canvas arena, and modal
├── css/
│   └── style.css         # Modern dark theme, glassmorphic cards, custom sliders
├── js/
│   ├── config.js         # Settings, bounds, factory & custom defaults, localStorage
│   ├── state.js          # Population stats, birth/death counters, timeline snapshots
│   ├── particles.js      # Blood spray, eating crumbs, hearts, seeds, and ripples
│   ├── terrain.js        # Decals canvas buffer, blood spots, and carcass decomposition
│   ├── weather.js        # Rain cycles, cloud shadows, raindrops, and hydration
│   ├── entities/
│   │   ├── animal.js     # Base animal class (steering, hunger, mating, baby growth)
│   │   ├── sheep.js      # Sheep AI: rapid grazing, flee wolves, mate, baby growth
│   │   ├── wolf.js       # Wolf AI: multi-bite hunting, lunge health cost, mate
│   │   └── plant.js      # Grass & flower tufts, moisture depletion, regulated seeds
│   ├── ui.js             # Slider bindings, presets, HUD updates, chart rendering
│   ├── simulation.js     # Master simulation loop and entity manager
│   └── main.js           # Entry point and animation frame loop
└── README.md             # Project documentation

---

🚀 How to Run Locally

python -m http.server 8080

Then open your browser to http://localhost:8080.