We’ve gotten a decent amount of progress in this topic, with discussion of a patch movement logic revamp in another thread (Player migration - #7 by Deus from this post downwards), I think we should start actually discussing how players will be able to adapt to different conditions. We’ll go environmental factor by environmental factor to make sure not too much information is being thrown out at a given time, starting with a general idea of how tolerances should act and a discussion of how organisms can adapt to Pressure.
How Will Organisms Adapt to Different Conditions?
There will largely be two ways…
- Specialized Parts/Upgrades. Most things will probably be upgrades, but some unique parts will exist to make it easier for players to adapt.
- Morphology. Different membranes can have different tolerance effects. More rigid membranes will be better at tolerating crushing atmospheric pressure, for example.
It is important to note that shifting your organism’s tolerances should be easy and straightforward. Environmental tolerance ranges serve as a constraint on the player, so we don’t want this constraint to be incredibly difficult to deal with.
Tolerance to extreme environments will reduce as organisms get more complex. This might occur either through the nucleus shifting ranges due to the introduction of more complex and selective enzymes or will occur naturally with increasing size.
Pressure
Membrane Type & Rigidity - More rigid membranes will universally allow greater tolerances to higher pressure environments. They won’t dramatically decrease tolerance to normal pressure environments, though the effect won’t be enough to make an organism tolerate the deepest layers of the ocean in larger organisms. Max rigidity in most organisms will allow tolerance to surface level patches and medium-level pressure zones.
Sulfur-Metabolism Adaptation/Slider - A common metabolism in deep-sea bacteria, changes in amino acid and protein structures can make enzymes more barotolerant. This will be a pretty significant boost to prokaryotic organism’s ability to survive high pressure environments, and in combination with rigidity should allow simple prokaryotes to survive in even the most demanding environments.
Contractile Vacoule - A eukaryotic unlocked variant of the vacuole which will allow a greater tolerance level for larger, more complex organisms.