more things to do, perhaps there are and this is good… But you are actually not required to do them. The insufficient engagement was my point.
Engulfing things is fine, I also like that now dead cells give more resources making predatory lifestyle more viable (heterotrophy). But to me, those two compounds needed to reproduce are still gratuitous if the game is intended to be played with auto-reproduction, they are not needed for much else and are very prominent. Iron at least is used for energy. Thus, I still believe my proposal is very reasonable. As it is, the game on auto is still very easy (easier still now that you can direct cells to migrate, without even migrating yourself - the greatest difficulty has been actually mostly destroyed this way, since you can play in the single patch). And the game on non-auto is still a slog because of the greater costs and long gameplay in each stage associated with it.
I might publish some settings for non-auto reproducers like myself to customize their game experience such as denser clouds and less osmoregulation cost (since you need to move a lot to gather resources and movement is ATP/glucose intensive in the game), but I would still like to see the main problem of excessive cost addressed eventually (since this problem was already admitted).
PS: Here’s the guide for others to be able to better try this from my experience and observations in the best way possible right now: Active reproduction settings setup and guide