In the interest of creating a “minimally viable” proposal, here are some suggestions for two different multicellular parts. There’s been a lot written before and if anyone feels strongly to implement things a certain way or a more “complex” proposal isn’t actually that much work, we can discuss. Just want to create concepts that are straight-forward so that if things get too saucy, we have something agreed upon that is simple.
I think we should prioritize these functions, just since they transition pretty clearly to a macroscopic stage;
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Circulatory – Discussed below.
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Digestive – Discussed below.
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Nervous – Should basically be the “stage-progress” condition for motile life.
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Reproductive – Already implemented, just needs refinement.
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Musculature – Not discussed below, as Rathalos has good points that warrant a bigger discussion.
Minimally-Viable Multicellular Part Proposals
“Circulatory” Complex
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Universal 2% boost to all adjacency bonus effects in all cells.
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If adjacent to the same cell type, bonus becomes 5% for all connected cells instead. So if two signaling/circulatory cells are connected, instead of the total being 4% (2 x 2) total, it would be 10% (2 x 5).
I think this does a good job of both being a viable strategy, and having an affect of gradually encouraging the playerto change the way they structure their organism as stage progress goes on. This will gradually make it so that adjacency is more important.
Digestive Complex
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All vacuoles in cell type gain +10% storage. All digestive enzymes in cell type gain +10% efficiency. Pulling cilia gain strength.
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Regular adjacency bonuses of these parts isamplified, stacking with each adjacency.
The goal here is to encourage diversity of use with this item. A player could use this to make a cell part that is incredibly efficient at filter feeding, has great storage capacity, or great digestive efficiency. They can try to go with all three parts, but the adjacency bonus stacking effect is to be utilized.
Development Direction
The majority of players will want a macroscopic organism that is motile, or atleast capable of movement. There will be some weird sessile-esque playstyles that I think would be cool to represent atleast shortly with the “traditional” macroscopic experience – but in general, sessile life will likely need its own sessile gameplay mode that we’ve discussed previously.
Because of that, and in the interest of managing workload – should we accept moving on from the Multicellular Stage with accommodations for more sessile life delayed until we are ready for that? And then when that is ready, go back in the Multicellular Stage, add that progression, then flesh it out more once we’re more sure of that direction?