Viruses?

Current Game Microbe Stage
28

Wrong.

Viruses inject either RNA or DNA into a cell, which prompts the cell to reproduce the virus while destroying itself from the inside. The virus is more like a genetic hacker.

The parasite finds a host and lives inside it. It takes some or most nutrients that the host absorbs and might try to control its host.

Two complete different things.

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29

It is a parasite because the symbiotic relationship shared between the two is a one gained one harmed scenario. Also viruses hijacking the cell and the fact they need another organism to pass on kind of still makes it a host-parasite relationship. I’m not saying they are true parasites, but they definitely could be described as one, in my opinion at the very least.

30

Just looked up definition for parasite, and both of them include being alive as a requirement, and as viruses aren’t alive, instead they are just a viral DNA/RNA delivery mechanism, they can’t be a parasite as they aren’t alive.

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31

I wasn’t saying they are literal parasites, I said that in terms of relation ship of cell to virus, and the fact about parasites is hardly what my post was about.

32

I would really like to have viruses in the game eventually. They would presumably have a significant presence in pretty much all stages, and could make for some really cool mechanics.
An environmental hazard in the microbial stage, and something to be weary of if your eating things willy nilly.

However; I’m not sure being able to play as a virus would be realizable.
Viruses rely entirely on their environment and hosts in order to get anywhere. Otherwise, viruses are simply inert packages of rogue DNA that do nothing at all, it doesn’t really make for compelling gameplay.

What you described above, being a virus that actively seeks out it’s host, would be more realizable and realistic if you were a parasitic organism that infiltrates cells to either reproduce or simply feast on their resources or innards. That would likely get you similar gameplay, and be more realistic as well.

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33

Well you don’t initially control the virus at that point, the plan was you control the environment to move the virus i.e. controlling fluid currents and where you latch on to things. This idea is probably a dumb one though. Besides, it’ll be coding an entire stage nobody planned.

35

I’ll throw some ideas here. My knowledge on the subject is little, just some loose ideas, don’t take them too seriously. Maybe we could have something like a bacteriofage, that when close to a cell, will fly at it’s direction with very imprecise movement and maybe area damage. This could be advantageous or harmful; if your a weaker cell going for mobility and no weapons, and you are being chased and can’t defend yourself, you could use the bacteriofage as a missile to shoot at your direction and strategically aim at the enemy cells. Since you’re a fast moving cell and the bacteriofage is suposed to be slow, i’d go right past you and hit the other cells. Maybe some kind of lasting damage? Maybe you could get rid of it someway before it reproduces inside you?

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36

What about virus clouds that function like poison clouds, they have very high chances of killing you, but if you have a special organelle like CRISPR but with the original use of it to protect against viruses.

A permanent health debuff for 2-4 HP, defined as a probable array for the clouds saying the unique ID(id is the number of when it was discovered in the save, 1 is the first, 2 second, 3 third, ect.) of virus clouds and a random number saying when hit, what permanent debuff(the lasting damage) it will give and the immediate effect(the healable HP that it will take away from you)

37

Someone is way ahead of you:

(that has virus clouds)

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38

and that’s boring, why would you want to float around mindlessly doing your own thing uncontrollably, that’s the only play that is posssible.

MEME:

Plaque Inc. entered the chat
@The_Void entered the chat
@The_Void said “it’ll be coding an entire stage nobody planned.” (original post)
Plaque Inc. left the chat

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39

Hi all,
I stumbled upon this thread while thinking about this exact topic of viruses.
A few suggestions I’ll put out there based on what I’ve read on here:

  • Viruses could be mobs which use the player and other microorganisms to reproduce. They wouldn’t be present at the start of the game, but as the player progresses closer to multicellular, they could start to emerge and become more and more advanced themselves. Parts could be added to the creator to help the player defend against viruses and rid themselves of viruses if they become “infected”. This may stray from some scientific accuracy, but this is on different planet so this may just be life but not as we know it.
  • I also think the viral clouds idea is great, but they should be designed to be unique enough that they don’t just become “toxin cloud 2.0”. Perhaps if these clouds moved very slowly in the general direction of cells, as now the player must be actively aware of the threat rather than being safe in the knowledge that the clouds are stationary. Also, cells which have taken on too much virus could release a plume of viral cloud when they die. Other cells may move to engulf the remains but then also become infected. It should be made obvious which cells do and don’t have virus inside them, perhaps by showing a dense viral load inside the body of an infected cell (thus when it dies the dense viral load expands out as a plume of viral cloud).
  • I love the idea of a playstyle that is like a virus, but viruses are very basic and wouldn’t really work in the cell editor. How about the option of building your cell to be parasitic? Again, these are aliens so there can be some level of science fiction. In this parasitic playstyle you could attach to other cells and drain their resources. The parasite parts would have to work so that if you choose to add them to your cell, other organelles and some proteins become locked to keep the game balanced and to encourage you to adopt the parasite as a playstyle and not an optional extra for your creation. I think this idea would work well with viral clouds as this would provide an avenue for parasite players to also become infected if they attach to an infected cell. My issue with this parasite playstyle idea is how to defend against parasites or rid yourself of them if you’re playing as a normal cell. Maybe it could be a simple mechanic like bumping the parasite into rocks, or maybe a behavioural trait where other cells of your species can engulf a parasite which is attached to you (and they will put that as a high priority task should you simply approach them).
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40

let’s talk about
griuses are big viruses and strangely enough some of them have genes involved in glycolysis, TCA cycle, fermentation, and the cytoskeleton

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41

I remember seeing a Kurtzgesagt video talking about them. It definitely requestion the definition of a virus.

Here it is:

Obviously, I watched the video years after I posted what you replied to.

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42

But those genes aren’t really used. Giruses are just as inert as other types of viruses.

43

but it does raise questions about whether or not viruses existed before giruses or the other way around and if giruses first then where did they come from as it would have to be a cell. maybe they have a common ancestor with mitochondria.

44

Where are you getting that from? Mitochondria were (probably) originally prokaryotes. Giruses are completely different, and they are not genetically related.

It may be possible that Giruses came about independently from other viruses, though. But they could also have come about from a virus incorrectly infecting something and then being reproduced with that organism’s genome.

45

giruses have evidence that points to them being prokaryotic endoparasites that simplified so much that they could only do 1 thing: pass on their genes. and they simplified themselves so much that they only required an amount of genes in the order of 10s

46

What evidence? Also, even if that is true, how does it matter?

47

just search giant viruses and you will find at least 20 websites saying that mitochondria and viruses have a common ancestor

it means that there will have to be a mechanism to evolve viruses in the game whether it is as a reproduction method for a cell or not

48

You need to be the one to provide the evidence, not the contrary.

That would be like me saying “You are wrong” “why?” “Search it yourself why you are wrong” oh wait, you qctually did something like this before.

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