I don’t know if this can be called a full question, or a full idea, but since I haven’t found any specific comments from the developers about the macroscopic editor, I want to guess what it might look like.
At first, the editor is arranged exactly as described in this post:
But, over time, if the body has a tissue similar to muscles, as well as solid skeletal tissue (be it at least the beak of cephalopods, even the skeleton of vertebrates, the main thing is that muscles can attach to it), a separate item appears in the editor - “Support -motor system”, which is somewhat reminiscent of a graphics editor, although, probably, more Blender. Description of this editor option:
It consists of a workspace and a hierarchy, where initially there are three groups of “layers” - bones, cartilage and skeleton. The cost of creating each new bone at the very beginning is extremely small, and given that at the very beginning you edit only one segment, I think it’s understandable that there will be more and more bones over time. At this point, the player can choose the type of bone he will create (tubular bone, cancellous bone, flat bone and mixed bone), after which he will have a small bone rudiment that cannot be edited yet. The cost of increasing and decreasing the length of the bone does not change throughout the game, but the decrease is still cheaper than the increase. Also, there is a general slider that is responsible for the hardness of bone tissue (in general, at first, there is no difference between bone and cartilage tissue, it is this slider that determines it). Muscles cost a little more to create, and their mechanics are very different. If we just place the bone and everything is cool, then we should place the muscle between at least two bones (at first, fusiform, but later it will be possible to do biceps, triceps, quadriceps …), or between the bone and the skin / two skin points if the player wants to create mimic muscles. Depending on the bone to which they are attached, the muscles have a different attachment area (for example, there are large pectoral muscles, in which it would be large if a person got into the game), on which the limit of muscle strength depends, that is, the player can infinitely increase the muscle will not be able to, sooner or later the bone to which it is attached will have to grow. The cost of increasing muscle strength (inflating) is much lower than the cost of creating a new head or reducing it, this is, in principle, one of the cheapest actions in the editor. The muscle is not completely formed instantly, but in 2-3 generations. Making cartilage is basically like making bone, but with the ability to make more complex shapes, like an auricle, relatively quickly. Also, there is an editor of the joints, or rather, what covers them, for example, the articular bag.
Joints. Quite an interesting topic, I think. A joint can be formed between two closely spaced bones. The joint is considered to be the connection of the vertebrae by the intervertebral disc, and the usual joint of long bones. When you create it, you are prompted to choose what function this joint will perform (for example, there is a function of flexion, and the trochlear joint, like the elbow, is responsible for it, I will describe all the functions and their joints at the end of the post), and, after that, when changing the joint area on one of these bones, the joint area of the other will automatically change.
Detailed customization of the bone. For a relatively small price, it will be possible to create a process on the bone for muscle attachment (for example, a process on the back of the theropod femur, which was responsible for attaching the caudofemoral muscle) or simply slightly change its shape.
Seams of bones. They can also be formed between two adjacent bones, while, over time, the seam can be eliminated by turning two bones into one (the main way to get VERY complex bones in shape)
Types of joints and their examples:
- Block joint, interphalangeal joints of the fingers.
- Cylindrical joint, atlanto-axial median joint.
- Screw-shaped joint, shoulder-elbow joint.
- Ellipse joint, wrist joint.
- Condylar joint, knee joint.
- Saddle joint, carpometacarpal joint of 1 finger.
- Ball joint, shoulder joint.
- Cup joint, hip joint.
- Flat, intervertebral joints.
Also, there is a “Veil Editor” mode, under water it can be useful for creating vibration-sensitive villi or a semblance of a whalebone necessary for filtering water, later, such villi can be turned into a semblance of hair or feathers, well, it is also created here scales (from shape to structure)
How it works? You can create a type of cover, for example, a hair, adjust its softness or hardness, add additional processes (feather), or make a flat scale, then take a creature and select the area on which this cover grows, and then the direction in which it is tilted (in 3d it is selected, that is, it can just hang around). After that, you can select the function of the cover, a window will open in which one unit of the created cover is visible along with neighboring parts, for example, if it is tactile, sensory neurons will lead to the unit, if it is heat-insulating or demonstrative, muscles will be attached to it, moving it . Also, it is here that the color of the animal is created. What do you think? How do you imagine the macro editor?