Here is where we talk about methods of reproduction, even if they don’t exist in real life (Only if they are possible), and how they would effect the game.
How would we handle things like pollen/ovules or eggs/pupae?
Will we be able to play as them?
If not how will we delineate whether to play certain stages?
I’d say there has to be an option to program a single stage as a egg stage, where stats don’t change and you don’t play it. You could designate sessile or cocoon stage as a dormant stage, where you have the option to timeskip it. Something like that idk. Devs if you aren’t busy is that reasonable or do you have a better solution in mind?
different forms of reproduction may be possible with the introduction of life cycles, introduced as early as the multicellular stage, and fluid production, which could become available in the macroscopic stage. for example, in the multicellular stage, you could have a section of your life cycle dedicated to playing as a small, speedy, sperm-like cell, which would seek out another like it in an attempt to reproduce sexually (probably through the use of some kind of new part). while in the macroscopic stage, you could produce a slew of these cells and gain the ability to… dance. i feel like there’s a lot of opportunities being missed out on with reproductive methods being achieved by a simple dropdown menu, that should definitely be considered more in depth
Is it possible to create a very complex life cycle in something like block programming? Well, that is, for example, there is a simple cycle with an egg, a cub and an adult, it is clear that all this is configured separately, but will it be possible, for example, to make a life cycle with five different sexual stages, the same number of asexual ones, and also whether each of them has its own stages of calf and adult, and did they go in a strictly defined order? Or what about the large carnivorous theropods, in which the young occupied one niche, the juveniles another, and the adults a third?
And also, there are questions about mitosis and meiosis, homoploid and polyploid organisms, for example, will they appear without a nucleus, or will it be an exclusively eukaryotic feature? Just the appearance of mitosis, and after meiosis, greatly affects the appearance of sexual reproduction, which means that the topic can be relevant
In this regard, there is such a proposal:
When we install the nucleus, it is fully formed over several generations, after which (in the case of accumulation of phosphates and ammonia), near the usual button for evolution, a variant with meiotic division appears, after which four cells are formed, one of which is controlled by the player. The properties of the two types of these cells can be configured in the semblance of the current cell editor of the multicellular stage, and although in the case of meiotic division there is a higher risk of cell death and population decline, if the player manages to get to a cell of the opposite sex, instead of the usual 100 mutation points, he immediately receives 500. In the case of a multicellular stage, everything is a little different - the player still presses the button near the usual evolution (if he has not yet switched to sexual reproduction completely, then he simply presses it), after which a certain number of germ cells are selected, which are edited in the same way as all the rest, but the cost grows more and more with each change, so that at one moment conservative germ cells are obtained. After the cells have been selected, several new scales appear in front of the player - the remaining time to live, the distance to the nearest target, or something similar. In any case, when one of the cells dies, the player switches to another until everyone dies, after which the population drops. If the cells unite, he receives not 100 MP, but 500 or even 1000, since during sexual reproduction, mutations occur more intensively. Also, it seems to me that different MPs should be responsible for the appearance of new cells and their change, or the price of new cells should be slightly changed. In any case, over time, the stage in which we play as male germ cells ceases to appear (for example, during internal fertilization, or in the case when the body becomes too large and, for example, reproduces like fish, that is, participate in the flow already boring and pointless), now the player is faced with the task of achieving an effective reproduction strategy, which radically changes the situation, since earlier this process was under his control, and now the player can only adjust the strategy and arrange the release of germ cells near an individual of the opposite sex. Plus, now it becomes possible to play as a female (before that, the gameplay would not have been different, but there would have been no stage of searching for a cell of the opposite sex), gender selection is provided either before the birth of an individual, or in the process of life (for example, add sex change mechanics, like some amphibians). There is a possibility of sexual dimorphism and some kind of mating games (at this time the player no longer places individual cells, now he works with tissues and adjusts their components, well, sex cells). Over time, we can also tweak the body’s reaction to mating, such as releasing hormones like dopamine, which will cause non-player-controlled individuals of their species to tend to reproduce. Later, sexual dimorphism may lead to the development of colonial animals like ants or bees, and thus, in principle, one could go to an additional stage, somewhat reminiscent of the Spore Tribe stage, but with a much larger number of organisms. In addition, reproduction is one of the most important engines of evolution, take the same situation with the appearance of flight and tail feathers. And this smoothly brings us to the creation of covers, which, for example, can be divided into zones (somewhere bright scales, hair or feathers, and somewhere bare skin, well, or gray cover), and also give each of them a function. In any case, this is far from all that I could say, but I think for now this concept of reproduction will be enough
Well, I think it would be logical if, along with the complication of the body structure plan, the prices of mutations also grew.
Sorry for any mistakes, if any.
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I forget the name but there are robots that were made using the cells of other animals. At some point they told a computer to build one that can reproduce in any way possible, and the result the computer gave was to structure them in such a way that they constantly gather up cells from the dish they’re in and BUILD a new robot out of them.
It would be overly complicated and would likely never happen, but I suppose it is possible an organism could produce cells and then manually build another organism out of them. There’s no point in doing it this way. You might as well just do what real creatures do- produce and structure the cells of an organism passively through eggs, spores, etc. But, theoretically, it should be possible to build all of your babies yourself through manual labor, as long as you’re able to create the cells required to build them.
I really don’t think Thrive devs should implement this because the only reason anything exists that reproduces this way is because scientists forced it to happen. I doubt it could happen naturally in real life. The robots can’t even reproduce forever without human intervention because they lack the crucial step I mentioned about CREATING cells. They can’t do that, they just build using cells that were already put there. But anyways, it’s cool to think about the what if. What if an organism did produce cells and build them up, all through natural evolution? It’s interesting to think about.
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as MP represents a percentage this should not be the case. instead the player should notice that the cost of everything has been divided by 5.
one possible method of asexual reproduction similar to mitosis/budding but exclusively for organisms that have mineralized membranes is releasing prokaryotic cells from a pore on one of your cells to build a frustule on the cell it was released from either as an extension of the cell it is being built on(for growing) or as an entirely new object(for reproduction) and once the new frustule is complete filling it with cytoplasm to make the empty frustule into an actual cell. this is what, logically, diatoms should use but since they do not have endosymbiotic bacteria that excrete SiO2 they split inside their frustule and build a wall between themselves until they reach their minimum possible size in which case they divide into gametes and undergo sexual reproduction.
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Man, it’s been almost a year
Many types of reproduction can exist at the same time. Imagine a eusocial colony. 2n males and females reproduce and create 4n creatures, these reproduce asexually and create 1n creatures which are hermaphrodic, these reproduce among themselves and create 2n creatures. There are 3 castes, based on the ploidy. This would be nice to see in the game.
All the life cycles have to survive until reproductive maturity. They can fill different nieches (changing prey), hibernate until they become adults (a large egg), feed parasitically (xenomorph), feed parasitically from their own species (milk), or scavenge from their own species (a bird feeding its babies).
Germs cells (after they merge) are the primary stem cells, they turn into endoderm, ectoderm etc. cells and those ones turn into the rest. Before a large egg (hibernation) evolves, the gametes and the zygote can have stuff like spikes and oxytoxy throwers. Multicellular can have a unicellular start until internal fertilisation evolves.
I think there should be more than 1 generation before you enter the editor, maybe 3, and the auto evo should consider the same number of generations for other species. Because, if only one generation determines a creature’s success, then how would childcare evolve? It wouldn’t.
Would there be a return to asexual reproduction? There are a few species that did it, but its rare
After the 3rd reproduction, you enter the editor. If all the reproductions were sexual, the creature receives the full mutation point bonus. If all of them were asexual, the creature only does parthenogenesis, it is asexual. If the creature is unable to do asexual reproduction, that means it switched to sexual reproduction completely.
This was added to the game. Not for germ cells though.
I think playing the “find the other germ cell” game wouldn’t be fun, which is obvious for late multicellular and aware. The playthrough should start after the gametes have met. You start as a zygote, you grow up as you play and you create another zygote, which increases your population, when you die, you start playing as another creature in the second generation. If you die before you reproduce, this reduces the population.
There needs to be a second requirement for counting the generations. When you die in the first generation, if the population is less than the what you started with, then you start in the same generation, the first generation. If it increases, you are born in the second generation. You can have just 1 kid every time you reproduce, but you would still be counted as being in the first generation (a lowering population is a sign of upcoming extinction). You can do cannibalism, but you have to reproduce more than you kill.
Childcare by being in the womb, obviously should be skipped. There is nothing to do inside the womb. Childcare after birth is more complicated. I say, in your lifecycle, if you have a guarenteed a high chance of survival, you should be able to skip it, as it is already you who is protecting the young which causes those stats, you don’t have to play it twice. r/k selection changes which part you can skip, after reproduction (death by old age) or the time before adulthood. Note that this couldn’t have happened with only a single generation being played.
It doesn’t matter what type of dance it is. It is not chosen by natural selection, it can be anything. We can just put a short generic dance and call it a day.
This is too much details.
In society stage, eusocial species can have permenant casts, or it may be still be possible for them to switch to a nuclear family system while still having the eusocial unity
I liked the former, because it has bigger numbers, that gives a sense of progress, you know?
But we can put it to a vote
When you start doing sexual reproduction
- Increase mutation points
- Reduce mutation point costs
0
voters
Mutation points is a percentage. A discount system has already been implemented in the game. It’s not going to change unless someone programs the entire change in a single PR, checks over all text in the game, and convinces majority of the developers (and some fans) without major pushback.
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Dude, it’s been almost a year… Gotta live in the present
It was the most recent, so present.
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I analyzed the same situation in the thread about larvae, look 
I won’t answer anymore, well, a belgium year has passed, I was young and inexperienced
Irrelevant, now if someone comes and sees this thread they can also see the other reply and get more information.
You aren’t living in the present, you are merely surviving the moment.
Nifiga here the philosophers have gathered, I’ll take a look
I have an idea for budding reproduction in the early multicellular, essentially you designate some parts of your body to split off into a new organism which you then play as until you reproduce again and then the cycle repeats.
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