Brownian motion Sails

Future Game Microbe Stage
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I would like to suggest a new passive external organelle/membrane modification for the Microbe Stage, based on Brownian Motion. Currently, cells without flagella are completely static.

I propose an ultra-low-energy movement module called โ€œBrownian Sailsโ€.

How it works mechanically:ATP Cost: 0 ATP to maintain.

Movement: The module harnesses the random, thermal collisions of water molecules.

The cell is constantly pushed in random directions by the physics engine (simulating actual Brownian motion).

Player Control: The player cannot directly accelerate forward. Instead, they can only use turning organelles (like Cilia) to steer the cell and change the angle of the drift.

The Main Disadvantage (No Braking):Constant Motion: The cell cannot stop.

Because the molecular collisions never cease, the microbe is always in motion.

The Feeding Dilemma: When the player finds a nutrient cloud, they cannot just sit on it and harvest it.

They will constantly drift away. To stay inside the cloud, the player must continuously steer in tight circles, which does cost ATP via turning organelles.

If they run out of ATP for turning, they will simply drift past the food source and float away into the void.

Why it fits Thrive:It is highly scientific and provides a unique high-risk, high-reward playstyle for early autotrophic prokaryotes.

It trades speed and control for absolute energy efficiency, forcing the player to master the art of drifting.

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Welcome to the forum @Andorkao !

I wouldnโ€™t say so, I do fine without flagella (but with slime jet instead)

That would take a good while to implement and I donโ€™t think we can afford to spend the time on that in our current predicament

Iโ€™m pretty sure itโ€™s non-lawk? It can still be scientific sure but it does take away from the value the organelle would provide somewhat.

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Welcome to the forum, @Andorkao!

I agree with aah31415. There are highly requested Lawk parts being skipped to get to Macroscopic faster, so a Non-Lawk part is probably off the table at this time, unless you want to program it yourself, though convincing hhyyrylainen that it is scientific enough to allow may require a stronger and well sourced argument.

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Iโ€™m not sure focus will shift again to them once multicellular is done as macroscopic, at least initially, will also needs absolutely maximum attention, mind you

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Agreed, though late Macroscopic and/or sometime during Aware there will probably be a few additions to Microbe. I suspect there will be several more when we get to Galactic (outside of your solar system).

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I think the strategy stages (so all the way from society already) is the time updates to the early stages could ramp up?

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Welcome, @Andorkao!

Interesting idea, but as aah31415 and Poodelicus said, it is not currently scientifically known and actual LAWK parts have been skipped for now to work on other game stages.

I do wonder if enough photons could be used to move these theoretical microbial sails, like potential solar sails on spaceships?

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Luckily Iโ€™m not the science team so I wouldnโ€™t have to be the one to determine if the scientific basis for this would be valid.

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Well if the brownian sail has any chances, this microbe solar sail proposal definitely has none for official development

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Welcome to the forums!

So, as said before, this just isnโ€™t the case. Where did you gather this from?

Similarly to the above, you can also turn just fine without cilia and additional ATP costs. Ho would you balance for this?

Scientifically, I am not sure how reasonable it is to harness this affect for movement of something as large as cells. That would require more research.

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Also Iโ€™m pretty sure unlike winds brownian motion would hit from a variety of directions all the time so Iโ€™m not sure itโ€™d even theoretically be possible to make (use of such a) sail

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