so obviously in game, there’s no real description of what the cilia part is going to be about, but it being included in the structure category of the editor doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. it feels like it’s just gonna end up being a slightly altered version of the flagellum, similar to how metablolosome is to cytoplasm. i feel like it would make more sense to have cilia fall under the membrane category, since in real life, cilia are these tiny hairlike thingies that cover cells from head to toe. i was thinking there could be a slider that changes cilia density, with the far left being no cilia, and the far right being a big fuzzy hairball of a cell. the more cilia you have, the more propulsion you get, but also the more atp you use. it could also do more to allow some specialization between playstyles, which the current selection of parts currently kind of lacks. For instance, big predatory cells could use flagella to move directionally and hunt down smaller, nimble cells, while photosynthesizers or chemical feeders could use cilia to provide some slightly slower but more efficient movement. just a thought. idk if the cilia part is currently intended to go in a direction like this, i don’t really keep up with devlogs or anything.
fun fact, stentors use cilia to suck their prey into their mouths
i heard of those things. you know, maybe the game should add some sort of way for stationary cells to exist. Possibly a way of generating renewable phosphate or attracting prey. although stuff like that may make the game too easy.
renewable phosphate is actually impossible i believe? but the reason i pointed that out was because cilia are more than just speed stuff IRL
i mean, it’s an alien world. i don’t know any chemistry, but it makes sense that some of the game’s biochemistry would be different. not that it’s the most realistic thing on earth in the first place lol.
as for the thing about stentors, those instances are more specialized and evolved versions of ordinary cilia. maybe if they wanted to do something like that, they could add some sort of all-purpose manipulator part.
it wont be that different lol
this game still tries to stick to known scientific things
I remember devs said that cilia will be part of new physics system and will be used to help organism rotate only (while flagellum will be only used to increase organism’s speed)
? What are you talking about? The cilia placeholder button is definitely in the “external” organelle category.
For the longest time the plan for cilia has been to be like flagellum but for cell turning speed. So once cilia is added the turn speed of big cells will be nerfed and they’ll need cilia to turn well. There’s also been some other ideas for what cilia could do like creating currents and acting like as a primitive mouth.
i said before that cilia !!!usually!!! cover cells from all sides. There’s not gonna be just one or two of them dotted around the surface of a cell, which is why it makes sense to put it in the membrane category to me. Not that it would make much of a difference to the gameplay anyways, you could simply have the price of shifting the density slider scale with the price of adding more cilia parts. as for those other functions, i feel like it would be smarter to have those be controlled by specialized parts, given that in real life those things can’t really be done by ordinary, unspecialized cilia.
otherwise, the turning speed thing does seem like a pretty good idea. maybe a little unrealistic, but at least it’s a good game design decision.
considering that organelle upgrades and specializations are gonna be a thing, it makes sense for cilia to be in the external structures category, and for you to add it to your cell on your own
have you heard of the pentose pathway