Color Lock

Future Game
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Plants, on Earth, have not undergone drastic random color changes. Their leaves are always green. However, in Thrive, plants could randomly change the color of whatever they’re using to do photosynthesis. This is because, in Thrive, color is purely cosmetic.

I’m not sure how to properly represent the idea of ‘photosynthetic proteins generally are a specific color and you’d need a different protein to get a different color’, as well as the idea of ‘the protein you’ll pick will be dependent on the wavelengths of light your sun emits’, so as a rudimentary method, I’d suggest preventing the player from changing the color of their cell, or only allowing them a certain range of colors close to the one they started with, if they have photosynthetic parts in their cell. Alternatively, only apply this to the AI.

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Note that for most star wavelengths there are two color bands theorized to work well. But otherwise, I agree with you.

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I don’t think this will be getting added anytime soon since it would take a considerable amount of time just to make the game somewhat more realistic. Not like this should be ignored, but you know how the situation is currently…

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And let us not forget that there are different types of Hemoglobin and other similar Oxygen-binding proteins like Haemocyanin (blue-blood).

From Wikipedia:

Other oxygen-binding proteins

Main article: Respiratory pigment

Myoglobin
Found in the muscle tissue of many vertebrates, including humans, it gives muscle tissue a distinct red or dark gray color. It is very similar to hemoglobin in structure and sequence, but is not a tetramer; instead, it is a monomer that lacks cooperative binding. It is used to store oxygen rather than transport it.

Hemocyanin
The second most common oxygen-transporting protein found in nature, it is found in the blood of many arthropods and molluscs. Uses copper prosthetic groups instead of iron heme groups and is blue in color when oxygenated.

Hemerythrin
Some marine invertebrates and a few species of annelid use this iron-containing non-heme protein to carry oxygen in their blood. Appears pink/violet when oxygenated, clear when not.

Chlorocruorin
Found in many annelids, it is very similar to erythrocruorin, but the heme group is significantly different in structure. Appears green when deoxygenated and red when oxygenated.

Vanabins
Also known as vanadium chromagens, they are found in the blood of sea squirts. They were once hypothesized to use the metal vanadium as an oxygen binding prosthetic group. However, although they do contain vanadium by preference, they apparently bind little oxygen, and thus have some other function, which has not been elucidated (sea squirts also contain some hemoglobin). They may act as toxins.

Erythrocruorin
Found in many annelids, including earthworms, it is a giant free-floating blood protein containing many dozens—possibly hundreds—of iron- and heme-bearing protein subunits bound together into a single protein complex with a molecular mass greater than 3.5 million daltons.

Leghemoglobin
In leguminous plants, such as alfalfa or soybeans, the nitrogen fixing bacteria in the roots are protected from oxygen by this iron heme containing oxygen-binding protein. The specific enzyme protected is nitrogenase, which is unable to reduce nitrogen gas in the presence of free oxygen.

Coboglobin
A synthetic cobalt-based porphyrin. Coboprotein would appear colorless when oxygenated, but yellow when in veins.

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I wonder how will blood cells work like…

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I’ve just had the thought that camouflage will definitely be implemented at some point, and that sounds like the ideal time to backport pigment mechanics into the Microbe stage and therefore remove the need for arbitrarily locking the colors of photosynthetic cells.

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To be fair pigments still could decrease the efficiency of photosynthesis if they’re on leaves and whatnot.

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