I think that’s a very excellent idea actually. It could be confusing if every organ system is just an ATP drain when the nervous system itself would probably be a huge energy cost, as well as the part’s own energy demands. So instead of it just being a question of “you’re going to be super-duper over your energy budget now”, it will be “I guess you can place this part, but why? It requires a lot of energy and you won’t even get its full benefits”.
Muling on things more, here’s a more fleshed out proposal:
Organ Systems
For now, I am mentally classifying organ systems into two groups:
- Structural - These have a dramatic influence on the form of your organism, and relate more directly/actionably to the way your organism moves and interacts with the world. They are more conveniently “sculpted”, or atleast, more directly attributable to a structure.
- Functional - These organ systems are more “internal”, altering various internal functions in your organism dramatically while not always directly altering the way your organism interacts with the world. These are harder to “sculpt”, and instead represent complex internal processes.
Note that these categories aren’t exactly from a science textbook or perfect - all organ systems are “functional” and all have some effect on an organism’s structure. I just think this would be a convenient way for us to think of the organ systems. We’ll see if it remains convenient the more we conceptualize.
What I consider to be functional organ systems:
- Nervous System - Responsible for organ system capacity.
- Digestive System - Responsible for turning ingested matter into nutrients.
- Respiratory System - Responsible for turning nutrients into energy/ATP.
- Circulatory System - Augments respiratory and digestive functions in response to demands put on by scale.
- Reproductive System - Determines your reproductive strategy and reproductive costs.
What I consider to be structural organ systems:
- Muscular System - Most relevant to movement and performance functions: movement, striking, interaction with the world, etc.
- Skeletal System - Dramatically influences the shape and capacity of your organism, as well as how the editor functions in many cases.
- Integumentary System - Represented via its own tab and own system, similar to the Membrane System in the microscopic stages (has a dedicated section in the master macroscopic editor concept).
- Sensory Systems - Alters how your organism perceives the world, which might be better represented on a part-by-part basis.
Notable organ systems that I am not including as of now:
- Endocrine System - I think it can be simplified enough to be a function of the circulatory system. Part of this is also my own lack of awareness, but I do think it would be pretty difficult to represent in Thrive. Perhaps there is some room for it later on in the macroscopic stages, in the Aware Stage?
- Excretory System - In my opinion, it might be a bit too much to treat this as an individual system. It’s probably best to represent any detail here through the digestive system.
Structural v. Functional Organ System Interactions
Not to say that structural organ systems are “easier”, but I think they are more directly related to larger mechanics related to the macroscopic editor in comparison to the functional organ systems.
- Structural organ systems are more directly represented by visuals and your shape, and as such, will generally be represented either through sculpting tools, or affect the nature of sculpting itself.
In that regard, I think progress is more well-defined here:
- I covered the skeletal system to some extent in the larger editor concept, though exact details on unlocks and progression are scant.
- I think the Integumentary System is pretty decently conceptualized in the Macroscopic Editor concept.
- Muscular & Sensory doesn’t have much attributed to it currently.
Functional
Functional organ system components are much interdependent than structural components. If you place an arm or an eye on an organism with no other features, that arm or eye will have an obvious function - the arm will grab, the eye will see. If you place a stomach or a heart on an organism with no other features, it will make much less sense - what will the heart pump with no vessels? What will the stomach digest without a mouth, or tract, and where would it go from there?
This necessitates organ systems being handled in a more systematic way - the system itself being the primary focus rather than the component. You place an arm down with the reasonable expectation of it functioning like an arm without any respect to how your legs work, but you place a stomach down with an understanding of how it interacts with the system as a whole. To ask the player to deal with a system via a piece-by-piece perspective is confusing and complicated, so the tools to edit these components will be rooted in that systematic perspective.
- Functional organ systems are evolved as a whole. You don’t place a mouth, then place a piece of digestive tract, then place a stomach, then place an anus. You evolve an organ system with a baseline, then add components onto that baseline.
- With a direct example: you’d evolve a closed digestive system, which gives you mouth and a tract. You can then add a dedicated tract, a simple stomach, etc., but these are less “drag and place” akin to an organelle, and are rather developed on that underlying structure.
For now, I will go with two levels of customization/categorization with functional organ system parts:
- System State (name recommendations desired): Describes the over-arching structure of the organ system. Largely representative of the complexity of the structure, with latter states being more specialized than prior states. Determines which components are available to be placed.
- System Components: Individual parts of the overarching system which enhance system functions.
Below are some examples of these “states” and components. They aren’t fully fleshed out, but put together quickly just to demonstrate the method of organization.
Nervous System
States
- Diffused Nerve Net
- Bilateral Nervous System
- Cephalized Nervous System
Components
- Nerve Ring - Available to organisms with a diffused nerve net. Adds a small amount of neural capacity to your organism.
- Nerve Ganglion - Available to organisms with a bilateral nervous system onwards. Adds a larger amount of neural capacity to your organism, and slightly reduces local neural demands.
Digestive System
States
- None
- Closed Digestive System
- Complete Digestive System
Components
- Gastrovascular Branch - Available to organisms with a closed digestive system. Slight increase to digestion efficiency.
- Stomach - Increases ingested storage capacity and digestion efficiency/speed. Greater capacity in regulating digestive enzymes, allowing greater diet options.
- Intestine Tracts - Increases digestion efficiency. Effect stacks when adjacent to intestine tracts, increasing with length.
- Folded Intestine Tracts - Reduces the neural demand of intestine tracts, allowing stronger adjacency accumulation.
Progression?
Two limiting factors are:
- Energy Demands. You need to have enough energy to fuel your organ systems, along with your other structures.
- Neural Capacity Demands. You need enough neural capacity to support more complex parts.
In my head, the ideal progression looks like this:
- The nervous system represents a sizable energy drain.
- Players work within the confines of their current neural capacity - slightly adjustable boosting both energy generation and ability to successfully interact with the world in a desired way.
- Player generates enough energy capacity eventually within this neural capacity to progress their nervous system to the next state. Unlocking a next state dramatically boosts baseline neural capacity, allowing placement and evolution of more complex parts.
- Process repeats until you reach a certain level of sentience, and progress to the next stage.
So basically: You have neural capacity. Work within that to get enough energy to succeed. Eventually, you have enough energy to proceed to the next nervous system state. Repeat X number of times in the macroscopic stages until your organism is smart enough to smash rocks together.
Forgive me - I know the details of how the player actually place/tweak things isn’t very detailed right now. But I do think that will be easier define if we have a strong underlying concept for how organ systems and progression will work in the first place, and why they should work that way.