Finally have a chance to respond to this thread. I’ll try to keep my answers concise since there are so many topics covered.
Re: Lack of Goal Oriented Gameplay
Very true, but I think it’s mostly a lack of implementation of features we have designed rather than bad design of those features. The game is too easy right now, and so goals are too easy to reach. I think the biggest step towards achieving fun, goal-oriented gameplay will be coding in competitive AI that truly makes you compete to stay alive. Auto-Evo will also add to the fun, since other species will evolve to react to you and other changes in the environment.
Re: Nucleus Imbalance
I agree, I do think the Nucleus is not rewarding enough at the moment. I find it much harder to survive with a nucleus than without. I think the reason is because it makes your cell suddenly much slower but also much more ATP intensive. There are a few ways to rebalance this, such as reducing its passive ATP cost, increasing the energy generation of eukaryotic organelles, or increasing the speed given by flagella.
Re: Empty World and Similar Patches
The empty world is due to a bug with the new spawn system, which should be fixed for the next public release. I think once fixed the world should be brimming with cells, because it will add far more fun and interactivity to the gameplay.
Patches have yet to be differentiated, so at the moment they are different only in visuals. The plan is to make environmental variables vary per patch and to require cells to evolve adaptations to survive the different environments otherwise they will receive penalties to their cell. We discuss the topic more here and here.
Re: Game Progression
Yes, totally agreed, which is why I started those discussions on how to add progression. This week I have more free time to I will try to round off the discussions and see what conclusions we can reach on the design.
Re: The Timeline vs Ocean Feel of the Game
I don’t think we necessarily need to aim for one of these feels whilst sacrificing the other. I think either feel should be available depending on the time and place in-game. For example, some patches may be brimming with food and species, and so competition there is very intense. All the species in this patch are rapidly evolving, and one or two bad evolutions could be all that it takes to go extinct in this patch. However, there may also be patches with far less food and competitor species. There the species have evolved for a long time alongside each other and have created a stable ecosystem. Playing in one of these patches will be much more relaxing, but perhaps won’t have excitement and opportunity for massive population growth that the competitive patches could offer. The competitiveness of patches would itself change over time. A very stable patch could have a major natural disaster or a major climactic shift and suddenly many species go extinct, and the patch devolves into a wild west of competition. Meanwhile, a very competitive patch could, over several generations, weed out all the weakest species and evolve into a stable ecosystem where only the strongest species remain and live in equilibrium.