Okay, so I’ll try to implement new reproduction system when I have time. This is what I understood from the above discussion, correct me if I’m wrong:
G1
- Every organelle has a set compound cost; a bin of fatty acids and protein that the cell is unable to access.
a. When the cell is “birthed” into the environment this bin is half full.
b. When the cell takes damage, the affected organelles bin is partially emptied. If the bin is completely empty, the organelle is shut off.
c. When the cell has an excess amount of fatty acids and protein and has full health, the organelle bins are filled up. - The rate/proper functioning of the organelle is proportional to the bin fullness.
a. If the bin is half empty, the organelle functions as expected.
b. If the bin is completely full, the organelle functions at double efficiency (e.g. twice the storage for vacuoles, twice the rate of photosynthesis for chloroplasts)
c. If the bin is less than half empty, the organelle must have been damaged, so it doesn’t work as well. 1/4 the bin is 1/2 the processing efficiency. - Organelles change visually proportionally to the fullness of the bin.
a. If the bin is half empty, organelles are normal size.
b. If the organelle has been damage (less than half full), it starts to turn red, and if the bin is completely empty the organelle becomes black.
c. If it is more than half empty, the organelle is scaled, so it looks bigger.
d. If the bin gets filled up completely, the organelle divides into two different smaller organelles of normal size. These organelles stay at half-empty bins (unless they are damaged by toxins) and never go above half empty, so once an organelle divides in half, it will stay like that.
S, G2, M
Once the player passes the G1 phase (all organelles have divided) and has enough compounds for the next phases, the “divide” button pops up. In real life, the cell spends most of its time in G1 and if it enters the S phase, it usually goes all the way through mitosis, so I think it’s okay to mush these into one stage.
Pressing the button will take some more nucleic acids, fatty acids, and protein from the cell’s storage, and the cell will divide.
Editor
We will completely ignore any organelles that are added in the editor, and will assume they cost nothing. Alternatively, if this poses a problem for CPA, we can just add it to the reproductive cost from the S phase.
Pressing Finish
Finishing takes you back to the environment. You have half the number of organelles as the big cell you broke off from (which doubled in size during the G1 phase). In other words, the cycle repeats itself.