# Multicellular timed reproduction
**URL:** https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/multicellular-timed-reproduction/1254
**Category:** Gameplay
**Created:** [May 5, 2026, 12:28pm UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/multicellular-timed-reproduction/1254 "2026-05-05T12:28:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@hhyyrylainen](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/hhyyrylainen)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2026, 12:28pm UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/multicellular-timed-reproduction/1254/1 "2026-05-05T12:28:02Z")
In multicellular there is a static max growth speed limit as well as passive reproduction compound gain. After noticing and fixing the bug where the amount was not increased, those limits are now 4x in multicellular compared to the microbe stage limits. However those are likely not enough to keep all of the multicellular stage fast. So we need to do at least one more tweak to those. Before starting on that, I thought I’d first ask how it should be done before coding either approach.
So I think we need to pick between:
- Growth speed dynamically scales by the number of cells in the players colony currently (with a tweak constant so it might be like 0.6 \* (cells - 1))
- Growth speed is scaled based on the total cell body plan size immediately
Obviously the first choice starts the gameplay cycle slowly but then speeds up exponentially towards the end of life. Whereas the second choice makes growth speed averaged over the entire life, but it will also mean that the second colony cell will grow in very fast.
So which choice should we make? Once that is known I’ll code up this feature for gameplay testing.
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### Author:  [@Rathalos](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/Rathalos)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2026, 12:53pm UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/multicellular-timed-reproduction/1254/2 "2026-05-05T12:53:12Z")
I think one thing to keep in mind is that most iterations of the advanced reproduction types ([this](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/reproduction-modes-including-sexual-reproduction/1249) and others) have the assumption that you will be able to start the next generations with several cells instead of just one. And personally, in that case to compensate I would recommend increasing the total amount of “growth required” for reproduction to unlock after growing all cells.
In that scenario:
> [@hhyyrylainen](#):
>
> - Growth speed dynamically scales by the number of cells in the players colony currently (with a tweak constant so it might be like 0.6 \* (cells - 1))
Starting with more cells would shorten the overall lifecycle by skipping the “slowest” part of the growth cycle.
> [@hhyyrylainen](#):
>
> - Growth speed is scaled based on the total cell body plan size immediately
This on the other hand would keep the gameplay generation time more consistent if you change the number of cells you start with.
* * *
With that I am slightly leaning towards option 1 for being more _interesting_, but I could easily see the argument for 2 if we want to keep generation times more consistent. (For example to compare with how long auto-evo takes).
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### Author:  [@Deus](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/Deus)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2026, 6:26pm UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/multicellular-timed-reproduction/1254/3 "2026-05-05T18:26:50Z")
One thing I will also bring up is that we probably want to make sure the player is able to experience their fully-grown build for a decent amount of time. Multicellular is different from the Microbe Stage in that you start full grown as a Microbe, whereas growth will be a large component of the Multicellular.
I do think the first option will give some interesting gameplay for really having the first stages of a growth cycle be important. But I’d have concerns if it really shrinks full-grown gameplay. Though another thing to keep in mind is that sexual reproduction will likely lengthen the end of a playthrough.
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### Author:  [@hhyyrylainen](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/hhyyrylainen)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2026, 6:29pm UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/multicellular-timed-reproduction/1254/4 "2026-05-05T18:29:34Z")
So a secret third game design first option: starting at max growth speed but each additional cell slows down growth?
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### Author:  [@Rathalos](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/Rathalos)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2026, 8:27pm UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/multicellular-timed-reproduction/1254/5 "2026-05-05T20:27:44Z")
> [@Deus](#):
>
> Though another thing to keep in mind is that sexual reproduction will likely lengthen the end of a playthrough.
Yeah, this is what I was referring to with advanced reproduction option probably “shifting the balance” towards playing more time as the fully-grown organism. So we could take that shift as part of the intended feeling of progression of the Stage. In which case initially not spending much time as an adult would not be so odd?
> [@hhyyrylainen](#):
>
> So a secret third game design first option: starting at max growth speed but each additional cell slows down growth?
Could work. Or only extending the last step of the reproduction cost without having the reverse scaling?
There would be a reasonable biological explanation for that, because IRL the species would probably have many offspring, thus needing more than the resources for just one cell.
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### Author:  [@hhyyrylainen](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/hhyyrylainen)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2026, 9:01pm UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/multicellular-timed-reproduction/1254/6 "2026-05-05T21:01:47Z")
> [@Rathalos](#):
>
> Or only extending the last step of the reproduction cost without having the reverse scaling?
I suppose it is possible to also tweak the constant cost at the end before being able to reproduce, but if I remember right it might be right now set to be basically the “bud cost” (I’ll have to check). So arbitrarily increasing that would need a bit of code changing to the end portion of the multicellular growth.
> [@Rathalos](#):
>
> There would be a reasonable biological explanation for that, because IRL the species would probably have many offspring, thus needing more than the resources for just one cell.
I was thinking I would insert a new step: growing all cells → new step (basically a fixed cost that is quite high) → cost of the bud cell (this could be repeatable in like the gamete case to make it not totally punishing if you fail the reproduction so that you can try again quite soon rather than needing to go through all the fixed costs again).
So that way the player needs to play some time as the fully grown colony before moving onto the reproduction step.
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### Author:  [@Rathalos](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/Rathalos)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2026, 10:12pm UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/multicellular-timed-reproduction/1254/7 "2026-05-05T22:12:14Z")
> [@hhyyrylainen](#):
>
> I was thinking I would insert a new step: growing all cells → new step (basically a fixed cost that is quite high) → cost of the bud cell (this could be repeatable in like the gamete case to make it not totally punishing if you fail the reproduction so that you can try again quite soon rather than needing to go through all the fixed costs again).
>
> So that way the player needs to play some time as the fully grown colony before moving onto the reproduction step.
This or directly multiplying the bud cost by X without the fixed cost both seem reasonable to me. But a fixed additional cost as you said is probably more stable.
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### Author:  [@hhyyrylainen](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/hhyyrylainen)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2026, 9:11am UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/multicellular-timed-reproduction/1254/8 "2026-05-06T09:11:18Z")
Turns out the code was basically already in there, so I just tweaked things (and fixed one bug) :
>
>
> \*\*Brief Description of What This PR Does\*\*
>
> So that reproduction speed increas…es with more cells, but to balance that the base cost at the end is also increased so that the end of the life is not super quick while speeding up the cells growing part of life
>
> \*\*Related Issues\*\*
>
>
> closes #3654
>
> \*\*Progress Checklist\*\*
>
> Note: before starting this checklist the PR should be marked as non-draft.
>
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> \- \[\] Initial code review passed (this and further items should not be checked by the PR author)
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I didn’t make the rest of the life ridiculously long (which is now easy to do by just changing a few constants from 1.6 to like 5+) but growth speed now increases as more cells grow and I increased the base cost which is taken before the bud cost to compensate the rest of the life after fully grown to still be somewhat long even with the increased growth speed.
But I expect that further balancing will be needed (after that PR is merged) as I didn’t spend super long tweaking the numbers yet so larger colonies than 6 cells might not be tuned very well.