Lately, I had been fixated on finding a way to properly simulate differentiation between herbivores and carnivores in Thrive. The trouble being that nothing would stop carnivores from eating plants, or herbivores from eating animals.
Originally I had focused on the implementation of two types of storage compounds, glycogen and starch, to differentiate plant from animal and define these diets. However; After a pleasant discussion with Untrustedlife who had presented the idea of a cell wall-based diet, we decided that creatures will need to adapt to consume different wall types.
Bear in mind that this is a rough concept right now.
Main Idea:
In order to provide a more refined distinction in heterotrophic diets, engulfment will be reworked to require different enzyme types that contribute to a total “efficacy” rating. The more efficient a cell is at consuming a wall-type, the more resources it will obtain from it’s prey. (For example, a cell with 40% lipase efficacy would receive 40% of it’s compounds upon successful engulfment. Should the cell have 0% efficacy for the required enzyme it will be unable to damage the target cell via engulfment.
As a result; All cell walls will become completely invulnerable to engulfment from predators, until they adapt the proper enzymes to bypass this resistance.
Engulfment Resistance:
Different cell wall types will now be resistant to engulfment from predators lacking the prerequisite enzymes.
Single and double membranes will remain vulnerable. All cells will have an initial 20% lipase efficacy, allowing them to consume these types of membranes at all times.
Cellulose and Chitin can only be engulfed by cells possessing cellulase and chitinase respectively.
Calcium carbonate and silica wall resistance will be effected by lipase until more information on predation of coccolithophores and diatoms is provided. Their high health will still render them resistant.
Lysosomes and Enzymes:
In order to prey on walled cells, organisms will need to obtain a lysosome, the initial lysosome part is a single-hex vesicle containing lipase. From there, it can be upgraded to instead provide the host cell with different enzymes such as chitinase or cellulase. Each lysosome can only utilize one enzyme at a time.
Lipase: The initial enzyme, cells in Thrive will always have a minimum 20% lipase efficacy. lysosomes containing lipase will further increase this efficacy by 20%.
Cellulase: Lysosomes can be upgraded to provide 20% efficacy for cellulase, enabling the cell to engulf and digest cellulose walls.
Chitinase: Lysosomes can be upgraded to provide 20% efficacy for chitinase, enabling the cell to engulf and digest chitin walls.
The hope is that in addition to differentiating heterotrophic diets, this feature will also provide cell walls with additional benefits by further decreasing the amount of potential predators.
As always, feedback is appreciated, and please let me know if anything is particularly incoherent.