0.4.1 Features Discussion Thread

[Oliveriver]

@tjwhale

Starting the player as a single hex of cytoplasm, I think this is not so hard but adds quite a lot more gameplay.

Well, I think we should at least add a nucleus. But otherwise I’m for early game reductionism to stop the player getting overwhelmed by a load of organelles when they first enter the game.

@tjwhale

Decrease compound availability over time: I think this was nicks idea originally, to have free floating glucose be common at the start of the game and get more rare over time. I think this is relatively easy but will make the game harder over time in a good way, forcing you to find new ways of getting glucose, from predation to autotrophy.

Good idea. It can be the start of balance tuning.

@hhyyrylainen

Interactible particles like bubbles or rocks even (this one is probably less likely, but it would be nice to see)

This is a nice one. More variety is always good. Maybe we could have their spawn increase over time so players get used to dealing with cells first and then, once comfortable with that, are confronted with new objects in the environment. They also open the door for new organelles like lamellipodia which allow surface attachment and crawling.

I had a glance back through the GDD and found a few things small enough to implement in the near future.

1. Foreground texturing. Like the background, a few translucent layers above the layer of microbes and compounds.

2. More active differences between biomes. Right now the only difference is the background, but I assume it’s not too difficult to change individual compound spawn rates for each biome. This should make the game more tactical as players can choose to stick with a biome or change to a new one, even if this switching system is overhauled by a patch-based system in future.

3. Persistant light spots. Chloroplasts in these light spots would work more quickly. Could also be tied to the above as they’d be more common in lighter biomes.

4. Bioluminescent organelles. We already have the editor icon for them, and while they don’t serve a gameplay purpose yet, it would be a cool visual addition to cells.

5. Bump up the role of cell inertia and change how fast cells can move with and without flagella. At the moment there’s little advantage to adding flagella as the speed difference isn’t considerable. I would like to see it so that flagella-less cells are more or less stationary, at least at some point. Until currents are added this wouldn’t be fun at all, so for now cells should still move at some rate without flagella, but only with flagella will they actually be able to turn and move effectively.

6. More readability of reproduction and health. There’s very little going on to tell me how close I am to entering the editor unless I watch all my organelles closely.

There are two major things I want to see at some point soon, though I recognise they’re difficult to include for 0.4.1.

1. Currents carrying cells and detritus around. Wiring the fluid simulation controlling compound clouds into momentum of cells would in my opinion add a lot to the realism and game feel.

2. A revamped health system involving osmoregulation. More info here: Microbe Stage - Thrive