I saw a post on the dev forum suggesting the removal of compound clouds. I’d never thought about it before, but now that I have, I am DEAD SET on seeing this done.
I sincerely believe that like some of the devs suggested, many of the devs who are apprehensive to remove them are simply too used to them. This isn’t supposed to be an insult. I can’t blame them.
But as someone who just casually plays the game, and has been frustrated by the growth system many times (especially due to the impossibility of sessile gameplay which I constantly attempt to do,) as soon as I saw the post’s suggestions I had 0 qualms. In fact, seeing what we could have gameplay-wise, visual-wise, and realism-wise actually sort of… spoiled some of the fun of the current game? I’m not blaming the devs, I just now know what sort of experience I could be having, and it saddens me to know that it might not happen.
That sadness is why I made this account.
Please, I IMPLORE all the devs who are hesitant on this revamp to read my post. I do not think making some of the clouds passive will make the game any less fun. In fact, I think it’ll be much more fun.
For one, it opens more opportunity for a changing environment, bringing more opportunities to evolve.
For two, more strategy in both your builds (so you can absorb and utilize passive compounds more quickly or slowly,) AND in the patches you choose to live in.
For three, it looks significantly prettier AND more realistic. The bubbles and rocks floating around rather than gas would be much more dynamic, interactive, and aesthetically appealing.
You don’t limit the gameplay. If you aren’t able to produce your own food, you still need to hunt. You need to search for food and you need to fight and you need to be able to move on a whim if the compounds in your area become depleted and are no longer sufficient to be passively absorbed in the area. At the moment there is little reason to move to new patches, because the compounds remain more or less the same and can be found by just exploring. The only time I’ve moved patches was because I didn’t like how little glucose there was and decided to become an iron eater.
If you DO produce your own food… Then, you’re probably going to want to be sessile! Which means for those of us who want this, it’s actually a huge damper on the fun when you’re forced to move around regardless because you need to find your own phosphate and ammonia. It’s not fun at all.
My thoughts were extremely rambly and I was basically repeating what the devs in support of the revamp said, so let me just summarize.
As it stands, the gameplay is not dynamic, supports just one playstyle, and does not encourage evolution.
Simply adding passive growth via the removal of clouds will add more playstyles, survival strategies, and potential threats. It removes the monotonous process of collecting clouds manually to grow, in favor of other, funner gameplay mechanics, AND makes the game significantly more gorgeous.
It isn’t just a good idea, it’s a necessary one.
I need this revamp.
Finally, I just want to say… You’re doing great work. These updates are coming faster than ever and they’re legitimately game-changing. An (extremely early) macroscopic prototype? First I thought the furthest you could possibly get was early to late multicellular stage. Then I thought that the furthest the game could POSSIBLY get before development ceased would be early macroscopic stage! But now, I’m convinced you’ll at least reach mid to late macroscopic stage. And hopefully, further.
The digestion revamp was a game changer! It’s so fun to play with. It’s super exciting to see the screenshot of an experiment with the macroscopic animals. It looks really good! Looks like an animal you’d see in real life. I’m really looking forward to the release of a playable macroscopic stage, even if it’s the most minimal gameplay in the world. Excited to see how you’ll make the cells you developed in the microscopic stage impact the macroscopic version of the organism. Especially since there are items like spikes. Do you think offensive things like this or the toxins could be utilized to develop special tissues that can cause stings and the like? Heh… enough of the speculation, it’s not relevant. Just wanted to remind you guys how good you’re doing. The game is looking great.