Had a quick concept for the behavior editor which might be worth thinking about.
In my opinion and personal experience, the tab is barely utilized because it doesn’t directly mean much to the player. Sure, they might see their organism change behavior, but you’re not concerned about other individuals of your own species most of the time - you’re focused on your own, and you act the way you want to act.
There also isn’t much potential for interaction with the AI in my opinion because the average species isn’t around for very long, so you don’t really get much of a sense of another organism besides “oh, this one runs away from me” or “this one chases me down”. I don’t see much of an issue with behavior diversity in the AI because, besides a lack of sessile organisms, I do think it can be pretty diverse and cool - I find the “genocidal pack-hunting toxin cells” that the community sometimes encounters on their playthroughs really cool - but I’m just saying it doesn’t really incentivize you yourself to engage with your own editor sliders.
Benefits from Behavior
@Buckly brought up an interesting idea related to stress on the Discord, where your organism receives debuffs and penalties if you behaves in a way that doesn’t reflect your behavior sliders, similar to a game called Beasts of Bermuda. That’s worthy of a discussion in itself, especially for the macroscopic stages, but I do wonder if it would have an issue fitting with the microscopic stage considering how short the lifespans are.
That suggestion did make me think that we should generally provide players an actual benefit for engaging with the behavior editor instead of it being just another busy tab we barely touch. I think if we attach actual alterations to gameplay and bonuses and the such to the sliders based on their alignment, then we can end up with a system that naturally incentivizes players to act in certain ways, and makes engagement with other cells more diverse and unique.
Social v. Solitary
- Solitary players have friendly fire enabled, but receive a general MP discount. Less solitary animals inflict less damage on its own kind, while more solitary animals inflict same damage to its own as it does on others while having more of a discount. Maximal solitude enables engulfment towards your own, enabling cannibalism.
- Social players by default have something like the “Follow Me” command enabled. The more the slider is near social, the longer a cell you encounter stays with you. Cells following you will mirror your actions; spraying mucilage or toxins or the such means your friends will do the same, enabling coordination.
Slider in the middle indicates an organism which has no preferences in proximity to another of its species, and has no friendly fire enabled. A maximized social slider indicates an organism which lives its entire life in the presence of others of its kind, while solitary indicates an organism which seeks distance from its own and makes no distinction between your own and other species. Social behavior represents social structures, while solitary behavior represents intraspecific competition.
Note that preference towards solitude doesn’t indicate aggression towards your own species. Solitary cells that aren’t very aggressive will generally defend themselves more than anything else. In general, solitary non-aggressive players more generally want to stay out of the way of others of their own kind rather than be actively fearful of them, unless otherwise designated via aggressiveness.
Evasive v. Aggressive
- Evasive players have boosted base agility. Because of this, very evasive organisms are elusive and slippery to catch.
- Hostile players have less of a mobility debuff when engulfing. Because of this, very hostile organisms will chase you down relentlessly.
- No tradeoff between the two; hostile players don’t necessarily lose base agility, while evasive players don’t necessarily lose engulfment speed.
Evasive organisms are much more likely to flee, while aggressive animals are much more likely to be predatory and brave. Slider in the middle indicates an organism that isn’t necessarily aggressive, but will defend itself or run based on the situation. Slider tilting more towards aggressiveness indicates an organism that is more likely to fight rather than fly, while slider tilting more towards evasiveness indicates an organism more likely to fly rather than fight.
Note that the agility bonus isn’t so strong as to completely negate cilia - it’s just an added bonus.
Sessile v. Motile
- Sessile players slightly reduce base osmoregulation costs when not moving, but have more expensive movement costs.
- Motile players have greater base speed and develop strain less quickly when sprinting, but must be more energy efficient because they don’t have cuts to their osmoregulation costs.
Maximally sessile organisms rarely or never move, while maximally motile organisms constantly move. Slider in the middle indicates an organism which naturally reacts to stimuli around it - clouds, food, prey, predators, etc. - but will otherwise reduce mobility if there is nothing near it.
These bonuses should hopefully attach legitimate reasons for the player to behave a certain way and actually engage with the editor tab instead of just having this section of the editor collect dust. It could also perhaps be better for the AI - players will know something is hostile by how threatening it is while trying to engulf, will know something is skittish by how agile it is, sessile organisms will starve a lot less staying still if a buff is attached, etc.