0.4.3.0 Feedback

[hhyyrylainen]

@Solitarian

Perhaps a sentence could be added above the editor tooltips which says something like “The efficiency values in [patch name] are:”. Or perhaps under the values there could be a note that says “These values only apply to [patch name].” I just want the patch’s name to be clearly shown in the tooltip so the player knows that the tooltip and patch are connected.

I think that adds too much visual clutter, but if you can make a mockup design, I’d like to see it.

@Solitarian

Since the absorption rates are complex, perhaps showing a number in the upper right is more confusing than helpful. It could be replaced with a descriptor like “high” or “low” and be functionally identical. Indeed, a descriptor might not need to be added at all, as the player can see the density of the compound in the game world;

It’s a bit messed up currently, with the cloud brightness maxing out at a pretty low value, so the same looking cloud can result in very different compound amounts, and the only way to tell between them is the compound amount text.

@Solitarian

I knew what the ATP bars meant. My intent was to present questions that a new player might have. If you plan to add information in another update, then my point is irrelevant.

We talked about on stream what extra info we want to add to the ATP balance bars.

@Solitarian

Perhaps others will have the same crash I do. I’ll not investigate futher for now. Let us hope for more developers!

@Deus

There is already a feeling of evolution happening in terms of cells other than your own, and a small feeling of increased efficiency on their behalf (in other words, they become more adapted to their environment and thus more competitive). I can’t comment on whether or not there has been progress since the last update as I had an Intel laptop for that time, but it’s definitely there.

Wait until we implement an actual algorithm for adapting the species to their environment. As currently only the immediate darwinian effects (like cells dying on screen) and a random number affect the populations, which do help a bit to weed out species that just constantly dies.

@Deus

Small design changes regarding accessibility could be valuable. I find myself usually switching between patch details and the cell editor as I try to plan out which organelles to add. Maybe there could be another section of the GUI which shows up when you hover over a specific organelle which shows the current state of the compound it depends on (for example, hovering over chloroplast gives you sunlight data of the current patch you are in).

That is the dynamic tooltips. The game does in fact show how much photosynthesis your chloroplast can do in the current patch (at least tylakoid should work, there could be a bug with chloroplasts) and it even shows you the current light level that caused the process efficiency

Here’s a recycled screenshot about it:

@Deus

Engulfing is a bit too overpowered in my opinion. I have gotten out of many situations which my cell shouldn’t have simply due to how devastating engulfment is; for example, a swarm of medium sized pilus-based cells that were attacking me were decimated by my rather large cell which doesn’t really seem to have that much of a size advantage over them. I think a limit regarding how many enemy cells can be engulfed at the same time could solve this.

I think that the pilus should be made more effective against engulfment, so that even small cells could somewhat easily block attackers with it.

@Deus

This is a small gripe and I’m not really sure if this is intentional, but I find that my population seems to be dwarfed by other cell’s populations when it shouldn’t be. After several successful generations in the same patch for example, my population will typically be around 400, while other populations could be as much as 7000.

We haven’t really put much thought into it. I’ve just been using the random evo numbers untrustedlife added and those are so that a species gets between -500 and 500 population added each cycle.
Definitely making the population numbers accross the player and AI species to be consistent is a good goal.

@blackjacksike

6 mol is 6 mol. Period.

The process amounts were tweaked to balance the game, but once we moved to variable rate ticks the balance has gone off a bit.

@blackjacksike

One other way I thought of to fight organelle gluttony is that an organelle check should be made. Depending on the biome, this checker would know which organelle is not useful and thus would increase its price, which would discourage the player at buying it.

Making organelles locked before they are useful is planned:

Add unlock conditions for organelles

@blackjacksike

Now, everytime I go to the patch viewer, going to another patch is not useful because there is a constant lack or absence of glucose (only a lack),

Glucose is set to decrease every editor cycle.

@blackjacksike

So there is no real reason for the patch system if it doesn’t give any advantage except for going to the surface for light.

I might be wrong, but I think that the lower patches and the cave have more iron and hydrogen sulfide, so there is a difference between going to the surface or staying at the bottom.

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Once again if there are any potential game designers reading this, I would accept analyzing all these effects and making concrete updated designs as sample work for joining the team.