Multicellular and Macroscopic and Trophic Lineages

What did you mean to say here?

Even for this: the sphere of cells with hollow inside is quite possible in Thrive multicellular, but reproducing would always result in some partial sphere (with the only current reproduction method always just one cell) That then eventually forms a closed sphere. Biologically, that does not make much sense, and I think does not look anything like how those spheres form IRL.

I donโ€™t think thatโ€™s quite the same? Thatโ€™s still a rigid structure, itโ€™s just that the locations got a bit scrambled.

But donโ€™t get me wrong, I am not criticising the multicellular design here. A system more accurate to IRL would have you move around your cells for each growth stage from initial to final, and I donโ€™t think thatโ€™s feasible to implement. And even if you could, would that even be fun? Sounds too tedious and elaborate I think.

Thrive multicellular is I think โ€œrealisticโ€ enough if you squint, say โ€œeach cell actually does represent multiple cellsโ€, and youโ€™re kind of skipping an โ€œembryoโ€ phase.

But if I were to design the multicellular stage from the ground up, I might have you start the stage with a โ€œclumpโ€ of cells (representing a pre-differentiation colony) that you can then start specialising, with the initial reproductive method being binary fission. Instead of the current โ€œstart with one cell and grow out from one cellโ€. Though I suppose that actually trips into the debate on different hypotheses on the origin of multicellularity.

Sorry, got a bit stream-of-thought at the end there.

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Would this still have macroscopic unlocked at 20 cells or would you need more if this was the way multicellular was designed?

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Would having a minimum number of two different cell types as an additional requirement for Macroscopic make Multicellular more realistic and engaging? Also, would different lineages in Multicellular and Macroscopic be able to reproduce in different methods, once those alternative reproduction methods are added into the game?

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Well the player would also need to actually have to use those 2 cell types or else nothing is really changed. Also why wouldnโ€™t other repro types be used by various lineages when theyโ€™re added?

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Maybe there would a high mutation cost for changing reproduction methods?

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I donโ€™t think autoevo uses MP

Or maybe some drawback to prevent sudden changing of reproduction methods.

True. In real life, polarization/differentiation of surfaces of cells, or even different cells, occurs to have better function. In the Multicellular stage, it becomes an emergent gameplay from players messing around, rather than necessity.

Also, I just realized that having an โ€œInteriorโ€ and โ€œLumenโ€ surface would be relative for Multicellular and Macroscopic, since the stage is 2D. For instance, is a circular organism in Multicellular actually a pancake or ring in 3D, or does the organism truly have an โ€œinsideโ€ and โ€œoutsideโ€? Early macroscopic organisms like Charnia and Fractofus are very thin, and might not even have an interior surface.

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If multicellular intermediate wasnโ€™t scrapped we probably wouldnโ€™t have this problem but oh well we canโ€™t have everythingโ€ฆ

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Still 20 max, from what I understand, that is just a mechanical limitation. But in theory I guess the transition can require evolving something specific that allows more growth, instead of just โ€œcertain number of cellsโ€.

That would be bypassed by just having one cell of a different type, does not make much sense. I would rather have cell specialisation be very powerful, making you want to use it. And otherwise, other species that do should beat you.

I think the current iteration does?

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Yeah, didnโ€™t Deus suggest strong bonuses from cell adjacency stuff a while back for this?

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Wellโ€ฆ according to the developer forum I bullied him so belgium that (/s), that heโ€™s reconsidering how to approach it.

As for me, I think one simple way to encourage cell differentiation is by giving cells an effectiveness bonus based on how specialised they are. A simple and extreme example:

One cell is 50% toxin vacuoles? Cool, theyโ€™re now also producing toxins 50% faster.

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This would have a smoother gradient than just a buff at precisely 50% toxin vacuoles, right?

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this oneโ€™s really funny actually. i was saying wrong, uh, spot, but if the only think between those words is a space it goes g then spot, which is not something worth filtering lmao. i mean, it is nsfw to discuss, but such a discussion would be so weird i donโ€™t think banning one weird little phrase would stop it, i mean, read amateur belgium, or even the pro stuff, theyโ€™ve come up with thousands of ways to say every nsfw phrase or word.

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So we need to say โ€œbad spotโ€ then for this case.

Oh, of course! And also not exactly by that amount, just throwing numbers out.

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Should there be a cap to how much can one buff a cell?

Maybe buffs should cap out at 100%? I donโ€™t know if that would be too high, since buffs are still in the planning stages at this point.

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I think the cap being at 100% could work, especially if getting there is already hard enoughโ€ฆ

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It does. After the miche-based auto-evo refactoring, auto-evo now follows the same MP calculations as the player. Though thereโ€™s the difficulty-dependent multiplier on how much MP the AI has.

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