Yeah it is. We’re pretty far along with it.
In answer to your questions you can counter slime by either changing the code for your engulfing edge (depending on exactly how that works out) or by creating an agent which shuts down their agent gland. Same with destroying the membrane, it’s all modulated by codes and not by specific effects.
Whether or not to grow is a delicate question, it’s really about predicting the future. I agree it is possibly better to automate it however I think giving the player control really isn’t that complicated, especially if it is just turned on or off. So if you have a store of glucose what do you want to do with it? Burn it all for ATP or convert it all into growth or some balance? That’s a hard question to answer. It’s about how long you think it will be before you get more. Basically are you about to start a long period of starvation (in which case you should save it for energy) or are you about to get more?
Another issue with automation is how to know if you are low on something. Like maybe you just ate a cell and have loads of Protein and no glucose. Surely you want to lock that protein away as growth? It’s hard to know the state of your microbe because it depends on all compounds. You could burn down all your Protein to get energy from it. In fact almost any compound can go towards energy or growth and it’s hard to know which.
In the CPA prototype growth is locked on and it takes 10% of the available compounds per timestep. That way it takes less when you are low which kind of satisfies the control requirement. However I still think it’s a nice idea to let people control it.
Also there is the problem of how plant gameplay is going to work. Being able to control something inside your cell is pretty important (as often you won’t be able to move). That might need finer leverls of control.