You’re right, we should probably move this on over to Status and Ideas or make a new thread for macroscopic in particular. I’ll split it when I figure out how…
Certainly, though we’ll probably want to implement them in some form eventually. It makes the game much more interesting, allowing for more creative forms of life from the player and AI alike.
The transition should be pretty simple. As a newly macroscopic creature, microbial mattes will be plenty enough as food, and you would be able to simply absorb them as the basic organless worm you are. It would be a very inefficient process but you would have a very low metabolic need to begin with so it would be fine. The player will need to evolve structures and organs to mop up mattes faster or take advantage of new food sources to compete with rising competition from there, which in turn will raise their metabolic need. For example, a mouth would allow them to mop up mattes faster, and developing a proper skin would prevent them from absorbing food through it, but they would be much more protected from the elements. This would allow them to grow larger and begin eating other animals smaller than them.
I recall a thread detailing the metabolic needs of a macroscopic organism and how they can expand somewhere but I can’t quite recall where…
When I find it I’ll go ahead and write it down the basics in our GDD for safekeeping.