Reworking when auto-evo is applied in the gameplay loop

[Rathalos]

@hhyyrylainen

I don’t think you got anything incorrect. I’ll just note that every now and then someone new discovers the order of auto-evo running and when the player makes changes, and inevitably they suggest switching the sequence, but the problem is that reversing the situation doesn’t really help. With the reversed order the player edits first without seeing AI species appearing or mutating, and any auto-evo prediction shown to the player in the editor is not very helpful. Once done editing then auto-evo would run and modify the AI species that are now allowed to directly respond to what the player attempted to do invalidating basically the strategy the player tried. Any real improvement would have to somehow split up the steps somehow to give the player more control.

Yeah, I imagine the fact that these calculations take a lot of time also doesn’t help. Is it the “mutation processes” or “final population calculations” that take the most time?

Because like you said, the most “obvious” solution to me would be to separate the final population calculation from the “create new species” section. Doing either of:

1. Calculating on demand as a player edits their cell
2. Starting the calculation once the player finishes the editor session

In the case of option 2 it would at least be nice for the food chain to be updated dynamically (running just the fitness/miche calculation). The current population calculation before the editor opens could remain, but it would essentially be an “estimate” instead of the real final population numbers. I of course have no idea how easy or hard separating the steps in two like this would be.

Though one other thing comes to mind:

@hhyyrylainen

With the reversed order the player edits first without seeing AI species appearing or mutating, and any auto-evo prediction shown to the player in the editor is not very helpful.

Would the auto-evo prediction really be any less useful than now? In either case, the AI species get to appear/mutate before the next population calculations happen. That is currently already the case, right? The only difference is whether the “gameplay section” occurs in between, and whether the AI and player are same-generation. To emphasize:

@hhyyrylainen

Once done editing then auto-evo would run and modify the AI species that are now allowed to directly respond to what the player attempted to do invalidating basically the strategy the player tried.

For auto-evo (though not action gameplay) this is the current situation, but actually worse, because the AI is a lap ahead. Without splitting auto-evo, just letting it happen after the player would actually be a benefit to the player auto-evo wise compared to the current situation, though obviously not for the action-gameplay section.

If splitting the steps is not possible and your main concern with the player edits coming first is the AI specifically responding to the player’s modifications, an alternative could be to let the mutation step of auto-evo only have access to the previous generation player cell. That way both the player and auto-evo would be editing “blind” respective to each other. Which is “fair” in a way, but maybe not the most fun.

Splitting the auto-evo process would be the obviously better option from a player perspective.

@hhyyrylainen

As was discovered on our community discord, the speed display is just a math estimate and not actually accurate. Relevant issue that I don’t have super high hopes of ever being fixed:

Hmmm okay, then I am afraid I don’t have good feedback on the flagella change other than “I cannot judge what the value of flagella and their modification to me is”. I will have to see if I can tell anything from in-gameplay.