You know I actually like the idea of kind of combining the two methods, membrane and part, by making the membrane type effect the part’s stats. It gives players more freedom, and the later membrane types more strategic value by amplifying the abilities of the part. It’s probably quite a puzzle to implement though…
We would need to allow the part to be placable on the cell regardless of type because they could just switch membrane types on the fly, rendering it a moot point if it was exclusive. Wouldn’t be very fun to omit parts because you can no longer qualify to use them right?
My biggest concern with that method however is that it would kind of suffer from the problem membranes themselves have right now, in being generic and samey. It would feel way more impactful if it was specific to certain membrane types, making it a more appealing tradeoff instead of just a stat boost. But how would we lock the shields behind a membrane as parts without being… janky?
I’m still pretty partial to the shields being a membrane thing, but that has it’s own problems such as how exactly we would automatically slap plates on a cell in a presentable manner.