There has been some baseline discussion of macroscopic stage features, but not much about the Early Multicellular. As we approach the great crucible, it might be a good idea to have just a few ideas about what we will end up doing. Here is a first attempt of that.
EARLY-MULTICELLULAR: WHAT WILL IT LOOK LIKE?
I think the Early-Multicellular should be a cracked out send-off of Microbe Stage mechanics, allowing the greatest deal of experimentation before advancing to a new frontier. The environment will generally be much more stable, and players will have generally carved out their niche and strategies. It’s also likely to be a relatively short period of time in a Thrive playthrough - we still inherently group it together with the larger “Multicellular Stage” after all - so the introduction of entirely new mechanics would probably result in a crowded and bloated experience. So ultimately, the early-multicellular stage should be treated as an “end” of a certain line of progression rather than the advent of an entirely new experience.
In general, we can make these assumptions about the Early Multicellular Stage…
- The player will be more comfortable with Microbe Stage mechanics, having displayed competence through their prior performance.
- Environmental conditions are more stable now, with oxygenation and such generally progressing, and the climate generally stable.
- The player has generally established a niche and metabolic strategy. Their focus now is more on refinement and expansion over exploration of possibilities. This doesn’t meant that players are not willing to try new things out, but more likely than not, they will stick with what they have established.
What does this ultimately mean? We can give the player more advanced mechanics to work with to replicate some of the biological pressures and phenomena that emerge with multicellularity. We will still need to be mindful of introducing too much at once of course, but in general, the assumptions we make about the player at the beginning of the Microbe Stage are very different from the assumptions we make about a player at the beginning of the Multicellular Stage. For the latter, we know that the player is atleast oriented to the basics of Thrive, and we can now focus more on introducing mechanics without thinking about whether or not someone even knows what is going on.
Meta & Theory Considerations
- The Early Multicellular represents a very specific moment in evolutionary history where eukaryotes developed the ability to bind to each other. This is a moment of time where theory could be really hard to understand for lay people, so consideration from the Theory Team would be very helpful.
- Legacy concepts of this stage called for a continuous and completely smooth transition between the 2D microbial stage to the 3D macroscopic stage, with this portion of the game being the crux of said transition. Perhaps we’ll find a way to induce this with further development, but as of now, our standard for “smooth” transition is a bit lower than perhaps was originally thought. It would require an immense amount of art assets and effort to portray this transition, and would probably require the introduction of intensive yet short-lived mechanics for this stage only that wouldn’t carry over much. As such, the transition between the microscopic and macroscopic will probably end up being our most abrupt and jarring transition. Current concepts have a jump to a 1 cm scale for the Macroscopic Stage in mind.
- Considering the above technical and theoretical considerations, gameplay might be the most abstracted at this stage of Thrive. There might be room for introducing mechanics which serve as a proxy for biological phenomena seen in life at a larger scale than several cells bound together, such as the scale of tardigrades and certain algae formations, since the transition between the microscopic and macroscopic could be very abrupt. Though, again, immersion and realism is priority.
FEATURE DISCUSSIONS
Adjacency
A concept a while ago briefly proposed adding a sort of adjacency bonus to the Microbe Editor, allowing parts closer to the edge of the cell to be more powerful. I don’t think that mechanic is appropriate to apply to individual cells, but the Multicellular Stage could be a great way to introduce adjacency bonuses. Though, in a different, more traditional way.
In essence: cells will interact with each other, providing bonuses to certain attributes depending on the nature of said interaction. Placing a cell with vacuoles in it next to a toxin cell for example could provide more storage for toxin, putting it close to a chloroplast-bearing cell could provide more storage for glucose, etc. The bonuses could scale higher depending on the number of interacting parts in each cell, promoting specialization.
This provides some more macroscopic attributes for the player to contend with, adding another layer of decision-making and strategy besides place x part to improve y stat, done.
Surface Area & Volume
I have made a concept focused on surface area and volume for the Microbe Editor. I still advocate for its inclusion in the Microbe Stage itself, especially after playing around with Thim’s prototype he generously offered, but I see the concept becoming more influential and powerful for the early multicellular stage.
Essentially, making that stat even more important could further encourage players to specialize their cells, with higher surface area and higher volume parts offering different benefits. The feature could be influential yet slightly less important in the Microbe Stage, then dialed up a bit as the player gets binding agents.
Surface area serves as a very important characteristic for soft-bodied organisms, and metazoans as a whole, so this mechanic would be a representation of a familiar mechanic that the player will encounter in all of Thrive’s biological stages.
Enhanced Abilities
Upon meeting certain criteria or perhaps through upgrades to parts only offered after becoming multicellular, new abilities pop-up which essentially represent pre-existing behaviors on steroids. I can think of a few currently:
- Enhanced Filter Feeding - Unlocked when placing four cells with suction cilia, the current generated when phagocytosing is increased. This serves as a proxy to choanoflagellate flagellar pumping, a real behavior seen in the closest relatives to metazoans today.
- Toxin/Agent Emission - Unlocked when placing four cells with toxins or slime jets. Upon pressing an ability key, rapidly replenish and fire toxin projectiles, or exude slime.
- Enhanced Chemoreception - Unlocked when placing four cells with chemoreceptors on them. Able to scroll the screen out more.
Further Refinements to Microscopic Gameplay
Gameplay between the Microbe and Early Multicellular Stages are largely shared, so improvements to the Microbe Stage are technically ending up to be improvements to the Early Multicellular Stage as well. This doesn’t mean that we should just focus on adding even more features to the Microbe Stage. Rather, I think we will end up tweaking a couple of things to make the Multicellular Stage more robust. It also does give more time for volunteer-driven features to be implemented.
Other Considerations
There are other things I can think of currently that should be looked at, but I don’t have an immediate answer to them:
- Binding Agent Revamp - Progression will definitely need to be controlled with binding agents so that players can’t just shoot straight for 20 cells, forcing some more interaction with cell differentiation.
- General Balancing - Balancing will no doubt have to be a major focus of the Early Multicellular Stage.
- Offensive Capabilities - Besides super-charged upgrades to existing parts and abilities, we might have to introduce one or two new combat mechanics unique to the Early Multicellular. For example, one of Thim’s prototypes had the ability to slice off parts of a cell with a pilus. Perhaps that could be interesting in the Early Multicellular Stage.
- Diversified Reproduction - We could shoot for representing two asexual reproduction methods, and two sexual reproduction methods.
I will also link Thim’s thread about potential representation of soft-bodied organisms since it could be something we investigate: Proposal for Simulating Early Multicellular Organisms as Soft Bodies
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
So, there we have it; some sort of concept about the Early Multicellular Stage! Do I think there will end up being more features than just this handy list that we should implement? Maybe a bit, yes; but I do think the underlying assumption - the Early Multicellular as a climax of Microbial mechanics - is correct.
It would probably be a good idea to have a discussion with the community at some point regarding what things they want the Early-Multicellular Stage to include as the roadmap finishes. I am sure a lot of replies will be requests to implement completely new mechanics or features that don’t harmonize well with existing game design ideals in Thrive. But I do think it will help us understand general expectations for this interesting portion of Thrive’s development.
And ultimately, our community does deserve to be heard. They’ve stuck with us through the completion of Thrive’s first stage, which many people honestly dismissed as impossible in the past. That deserves much more praise and reward than we could be capable of giving currently, but we can show some appreciation and lend an ear.