I love your debate and both of you have some really valid points, put I’d like to tackle the cons, as I’m a big fan of this idea and I would like to see it implemented in some way since it provides much more unique and strategic gameplay.
- The new players, that are perhaps just getting familiar with the upgrading system might not be able to utilize the entire potential of all the organelles, but even the most basic forms of the organelles might be able to provide them with enough “strength” to keep them alive, even if it should be as a pitiful cell. Once they understand the system better, they slowly learn to engineer better and better cells, thus rewarding them for getting to know the game. (Which is a really neato game mechanic)
- Yes, the more complex the system is, the more mistakes might occur, but everything can be fixed sooner or later by bugfixes, patches and stuff.
- No doubt this would be very hard to implement, but in my opinion the effort/reward ratio of this feature would be in its favors, as it would feel much less like Spore’s placing of pre-made parts and more like actually experiencing a first-hand evolution of your species by mutations, either by tiny steps or by giant leaps.
- I cannot really address this, as I only speak Python, not even really well.
Thus, in my opinion, this would be a really difficult task requiring some incredibly hard work from our beloved devs, but would make the game feel so much more creative and diverse, while also diverging from Spore’s “too narrow” of an evolution. I also think this should be implemented before even the work on Multicellular starts, as it would make the Microbe stage feel more unique and more or less complete, giving the player a free hand over their lifeform’s design.