With our prototype development now reaching into the macroscopic stages, I have decided to take a shot at iterating on the basics of nutrition and how it will be acquired at the beginning of the stage. I will first go over how the player will consume resources, and potential changes in how they do so based on adaptation.
Nutritional Sources
I have decided to iterate on potential sources of energy available at the beginning of the stage. These sources can act as both a primary source of nutrition, and as a transitional diet before players are able to adapt to consume larger prey.
Environmental:
Environmental sources are ever-present and often tied more to geological processes than biological. Dependent organisms can take advantage of these sources even in the utter absence of other life in an area.
Sunlight:
Works exactly as it does in the earlier stages, not much else to say.
At the macroscopic stage, sunlight might not provide enough energy to sustain an organism on it’s own unless they are sessile and efficient. This is because the availability of sunlight never really increases.
Meaningful adaptations would include high surface area parts with large amounts of chloroplasts, substantial storage for when sunlight is not available, and a means of more passive nutrient acquisition.
Black smokers/Vented Gas:
In the previous stages, hydrogen sulfide is found in varying degrees of concentration as compound clouds for the player to locate and consume. This is not quite the same in the macroscopic scale, as hydrogen sulfide is a highly reactive compound that can quickly transition into less available states.
Players will need to locate hydrogen sulfide at it’s source in order to obtain adequate amounts for synthesis. The compound can be found in aquatic environments via hydrothermal vents, or perhaps even as swamp gas. On land, hydrogen sulfide may be found spewing from fissures in volcanic regions, or possibly areas rife with biological decay.
Adaptations could include organic vents to easily take in local environmental gases, or perhaps specialized gut biomes used to cultivate sulfide releasing bacteria within the organism.
Thermal Radiators:
Thermosynthesis is already largely theoretical for microbes, and may very well be impossible for macroscopic life. Still, it’s worth puzzling out how it may work for larger organisms.
As a macroscopic organism, players will no longer be able to rely on slight shifts in temperature to maintain their thermal gradient. Instead, players will need to locate increasingly larger extremes of temperature as they grow in size such as proximity to molten terrain or hot springs.
Perhaps for smaller or very efficient organisms, alternating between intense sunlight and shade may provide some energy.
Iron Ore:
Much like in the microbe stage, iron could be found in chunks throughout the environment. However, large intact chunks may be quite rare, or otherwise largely mixed with other mineral impurities that makes processing difficult. Organisms may need to sift through substrate in order to ingest traces of ferrous materials. Passively absorbing iron leeching from larger chunks may still be possible for very simple organisms, or organisms possessing roots.
Adaptations might include digging apparatus to dig up chunks of iron, or orifices specialized in sifting substrate.
Biological:
These sources of nutrition are provided by lifeforms in various ways, most often by the presence of microbes.
Microbial Mattes:
Sessile microbes such as algae that blanket surfaces in aquatic environments, and perfect sources of nutrition for early macroscopic life. Mattes can easily be grazed on by early life by simple absorption, but more specialized organisms may find difficulty doing so unless specifically adapted.
Microbial mattes could be represented as brown sludge-like substance coating underwater surfaces.
Adaptations would include mouths capable of raking up the mattes from substrate in large swathes, think like a snail’s radula.
Oceanic Plankton:
A broad grouping of free-floating microbes, and anything else small enough to blend in. Plankton provide a significant source of nutrition through sheer amount of biomass alone. Plankton can act as a substantial food source for smaller organisms, or organisms that have adapted to consume large amounts at once.
Plankton could be represented by a brown-tinted cloud, akin to compound clouds.
Adaptations would include filter-feeding apparatus, and/or very large mouths.
Marine Snow:
A familiar source of nutrition much like what is found in the microbe stage. Marine snow is formed by the descent of decaying biological matter from surface biomes. Marine snow provides a constant nutrition source for organisms capable of filtering it out of the water in bulk.
Marine snow could be represented by the presence of sparkling white detritus falling from above.
Roughly the same as plankton as a food source, but may require a more passive lifestyle on the seafloor to sustain an organism with.
Rich Soil:
Substrate that has been enriched by the presence of microbes and decaying matter. Rich soil can be taken advantage of by specialized organisms such as rooted plants or detrivorous worms in various ways, but most other organisms may not be able to utilize this source easily.
Rich soil could be represented by a dark, almost black, brown tint to the earth.
In the beginning, the player would likely be little more than a silly looking worm with no mouth or any specialized organs. Depending on what they evolved to subsist on in prior stages only the most basic and simple forms of sustenance would be achievable such as mattes, sunlight, etc. Predating on other macroscopic organisms at this point will be very difficult without specialized organs, only being limited to toxins and nematocysts to kill competitors.
Players won’t be able to remain comfortable in such a simple lifestyle forever, as rising competition will increasingly pressure the player into seeking out less competitive sources of sustenance and eventually carve out their own unique niche in the world. In what is almost a 1:1 rehash of the microscopic stage, the player will need to evolve to more efficiently gather food in larger quantities and grow to dominate. The eventual goal being to master their environment; Not with an adaptable body, but adaptable mind. (Unless they want to be a plant, I won’t judge.)