[TOTW] Most Desired Features for 0.4.1 and the Future!

Cells can detect light with eye spots, so, its totally fine.

Oh great! So yeah maybe the abyss has limited vision and bioluminesence can help you see better

I have looked into this in the past. There are some uses.
Dinoflagellates use it to evade predators so i suppose, if your predator has a eye spot (pretty common in microbes) and dislikes light (also common, also known as photophobia) perhaps bioluminescence can be useful to that single celled organism
But only in that rather specific situation, or if there are lots of things with eye spots around
(From an article: Bioluminescence is used to evade predators and acts as a type of burglar alarm defense mechanism in dinoflagellates. Dinoflagelletes produce light when the deformation of the cell by minute forces triggers its luminescence. When the cell is disturbed by a predator, it will give a light flash lasting 0.1 to 0.5 seconds. The flash is meant to attract a secondary predator that will be more likely to attack the predator that is trying to consume the dinoflagellate. The light flash also makes the predator jump and worry about other predators attacking it, making the predator less likely to prey on the dinoflagellate.)

It has also been hypothesized that enteric bacteria (bacteria that survive in the guts of organisms) - employ bio-luminescence as an effective form of distribution. The bio-luminescence of bacteria thereby ensures their survival, persistence, and dispersal as they are able to enter and inhabit other organisms. So if that bacteria can survive in a microbe with an eye spot (or benefits from attracting photophillic microbes (cells that are attracted to light) ), or there are multicellular things around, that also works.

2 Likes

great i can only imagine the gameplay now.

Would an in-game cladogram be foreseeable? Especially if/when the game starting with a single eukaryote becomes a thing.

1 Like

Nice posts everyone. @Mitobox I did a little work on a clade diagram generator so hopefully we can do that at some point, though I don’t think it’s such a priority.

@TheXenomorphian I like the idea of counterplay between eye-spots and bioluminescnce. So you can use like to attract cells with eyespots, maybe that’s because you want to eat them (angler fish style) or because you are under attack and need help as @Untrustedlife mentioned. I think maybe we need to save this until we have all the biomes seperated out as it would need to be dark to work well I think. @Dak28 I think it’s a good idea to seperate out the biomes now as I agree it adds a lot of choice and depth to the game.

@Silverstorm Pilli sounds like a really popular one so that’s good, I think it should add a lot too. Cell walls we sort of already have but it would be nice to make them into a proper feature.

@blackjacksike I think saving and loading is difficult though I totally agree it’s important in the long run. I agree about organelle descriptions, I’d like it to be really easy to know what everything is.

3 Likes

Cool diagram as a suggestion maybe related species should have similar colors (though they do branch out over time to create new species from one so my suggestion is kinda pointless)

pilli is also one i would be excited to have

1 Like

Audio controls and a pause button.
I don’t really know enough about microbes to suggest specific game features, but having a variety of builds you can go for seems like a good approach to replayability in this stage.

Modify controls.
I have AZERTY which makes the game pretty much unplayable unless I bother to change the keyboard layout in windows config.

2 Likes

A Creative Mode Or Free Build Mode


Faster Start Time or More Indication That The Game Started

2 Likes

Once we get an options menu we’ll also include key rebinding.

Could be funny to have a leading system?

I mean, cells can comunicate with a kind of chemical signal. With evolution could be great to have a cell, that can perform orders, communicate with other cell of same species, commands could be like:

  1. Follow me
    - level 1: following cell follow you at first stage of follow me
    -level 2: following cell follow you and shot to target that you shot too
    - level 3: following cell will perform all previus orders and will act as guard, killing enemy automatically that
    are near you.

The main idea of theese command is to give ability to conquer an area that we think is important for our evolution, maybe it will be a mistake, because giving this order cost a lot of compunds and atp or you might be loose battle against other cells, but if you conquer a good compounds area it definitively worth.

  1. Go find:
    - glucose
    - ammonia
    - other compunds…
    Depending on storage capacity command cells can bring a vacuole expell it and give you that compunds
    - environment specific area: you could ask to find area with particolar temperature, light ecc…

Theese kind of command are for apporach more passive, adaptive, less agressive of follow me order, can be risky to spend energy and compounds because maybe you will not find anything, but can be useful if you face a lot of enemy cells that cannot be killed, just emigrate and find new area, growth and evolve :slight_smile:

1 Like

The two main things I want are more for graphics and atmosphere then gameplay

  1. objects- I remember looking at some concept art where a cell attached to a sand particle or something and I thought that was neat, I would love to see these large objects floating around getting in your way, this would make the games atmosphere more interesting.

  2. cell turning- I know the game is in 2.5D but the cells feel flat making the game seem 2D, A good way of fixing this is by making it so when you turn your cell it tilts to the side (like in spore) giveing that feeling of a 3D world being looked down at.

Theses shouldn’t be too hard to implement and like how the camera lags behind these are little things to make the game fell natural and pleasing to the eye.

2 Likes