Yeah this was the last discussion re Lock and Key.
You have it right, the idea was that each organelle has a lock code and each agent has a key code and the closer they match the greater the effect. And then you can alter your codes over time.
It’s nice I think because it’s an adaptive system which is somewhat close to real protein binding.
However it’s also quite complex to explain and feels very un-gamey. Putting things in slots that have obvious effects might have a better and more obvious feel to it. Slots are also nice because they help with balancing, even if everything is good you can only have a certain amount.
One thing I’ve always quite liked conceptually is “everything is a placeable hex”. The reason being it unifies it all under one drag and drop interface. Like in kerbal when you add control systems you do it the same way as you add tanks or engines.
There’s also been that concept floating around for like the nucleus, or a nucleoid, only letting you place some capped number of hexes before needing to add another nucleus. That is sort of similar to slots I guess. It would also make sense of multinucleates which I think could be cool to include as they really exist and really it’s just dropping in more nuclei which I imagine is not so bad from a code perspective.
Also yeah the eyespot is one of my favourite microbial structures, I’d love to see that, pun not intended but enjoyed.