I think Thrive would benefit from a good amount of unique abilities. I’m going to start listing out some cool adaptations that I find as I read more and more material here and provide a basic gamified version of them. I hopefully will find a good amount, so I would like to emphasize the fact that we don’t need to implement all of them. In fact, many adaptations heavily overlap in function, so we really wouldn’t benefit if we want to implement everything with little consideration of game design. So think of this more of a broad list which we sift through.
I of course encourage other developers to post unique cellular adaptations they find here and try to relate it to the archetype system described in the initial post for this thread. Ciliates seem to have the most unique abilities, it’s just difficult to parse through all of them.
Here are some preliminary ideas…
Haptocyst (Close-Quartered) - A bit difficult to research, but they are essentially tentacles that are able to drag prey closer to the organism. More specifically the organelle at the end of this tentacle-structure, haptocysts are able to attach to a prey item and perform hostile resource transfer before dragging the prey item towards its prey. Here is a video of an organism with haptocysts, them being the two long stalks with circular looking objects at the end of them: What is this microorganism? - YouTube
In game, they can be an ability with a shortish cooldown which damages another cell slightly and stuns another cell momentarily, essentially acting as a short-ranged surprise weapon. I am the most iffy about this one out of the organelles mentioned here, but who knows.
Mucocyst (Shield) - Essentially a vacuole containing a material - oftentimes a mineral or mucous substance - which can be rapidly expelled, coating the cell with a protective exterior. Most references to these organelles are brief, but here is one (Ctrl+F for mucocyst): Extrusome - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics
In game, this can be a toggle button which completely blocks the player from taking damage and being engulfed for a short period of time, but disables other abilities, slows down the player a lot, and has a noticeable cooldown so that it cannot be spammed. Essentially, an incredibly defensive adaptation.
Axopodia (Ranged-ish) - Long, hair-like rods which can rapidly contract upon contact with a food item, bringing the item closer to the organism. They require some time to set up, but can cover a decent area.
It happens very quickly (most specifically around 14 seconds into the video), but here is a video of an organism with axopodia consuming a flagellate:
In game, they can be a placeable external part. The player can press a button to make the axopodia retract or contract. If a cell bumps into this axopodia, it is pulled towards the player rapidly. In real life, organisms with axopodia tend to be slow because it’s hard to move well with such protrusions adorning the cell’s membrane, so we can attach a lot of mass or something to this external part to make the player slower. It can also be less effective for retrieving larger cells.
A possible upgrade involves changing the length of these axopodia. Longer axopodia have a greater area of effect, but have more mass and are slower to retract and contract. Shorter axopodia have less mass and are able to quickly contract and retract, but have a smaller area of effect. Considering these axopodia could accidentally hook to a predator or an undesirable prey item, this can be a nuanced organelle for the player to play with.
Cilia (Ranged) - Cilia are widely used and adapted, notably increasing agility and surface area. In terms of predation, they can generate suction, drawing prey items into a cell for consumption. Here, a Stentor coeruleus catches multiple prey item with this technique: Stentor Eats Arcella - YouTube
Concepts for this already exist, it’s just a matter of reworking currents. Once that happens, we’ll continue discussing cilia.
An offensively-minded cilia upgrade is already planned as mentioned above. I think axopodia and mucocysts are cool and worthwhile abilities to implement. Maybe someone else can come up with a better concept for haptocysts than me, but as of now, I don’t think they’d be necessary.
EDIT: On second thought, I think axopodia shouldn’t slow down a cell too much when contracted fully, but should slow down cells a good amount when extended. It would probably be too costly if the speed debuff was constant.
Also I think haptocysts could be meaningfully integrated into Thrive not as a specific part but as an upgrade, perhaps as one to axopodia. Perhaps it reduces the amount of pull exerted on a caught cell, but allows a bit of hostile resource transfer and deals a bit of damage. This can be a slightly less risky, but less rewarding strategy. We of course would have to confirm that it is reasonable that haptocysts evolved from a structure similar to axopodia, but considering the amount of convergence across external parts, this can be very feasible.