# Overview of Early Macroscopic Progression
**URL:** https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/overview-of-early-macroscopic-progression/1242
**Category:** Gameplay
**Created:** [March 10, 2026, 5:56pm UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/overview-of-early-macroscopic-progression/1242 "2026-03-10T17:56:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Deus](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/Deus)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2026, 5:56pm UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/overview-of-early-macroscopic-progression/1242/1 "2026-03-10T17:56:30Z")
This was something I’ve been writing in the background for a bit detailing some of the initial gameplay experiences of the macroscopic stage, and thus, what might be useful to focus on first. I think it could be useful for any work following the prototype seen in this thread: [The Macroscopic Stage Prototype](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/the-macroscopic-stage-prototype/1239)
The first section describes general “phases” of the macroscopic. The second section describes general trends across different areas of the macroscopic. And the last section focuses on some of the first functioning systems that will likely be needed when it comes to gameplay and the editor.
* * *
**“Eras” of Gameplay**
**Peaceful Beginnings, Primordial Eden**
Comparable to the Ediacarian on Earth.
- Food sources are widely available. Because resources are accessible, little incentive for intense competition, and not much of a need for organisms to resort to hostile measures.
- Structural capabilities of organisms are very limited. Lifeforms are rather bizarre, blobby, or extremely simple shapes.
- World as a whole appears to be very slow and somewhat peaceful. Oceans aren’t necessarily “empty”, as there are other organisms, but it isn’t busy at all. Calmest stage of all macroscopic stages.
This will serve as an orienting period for new players, and as a period of adjustment and strategy-making for more experienced players.
**The Substrate Revolution**
Comparable to the Early Cambrian on Earth.
- Freely available food sources start to dwindle. Organisms will have to specialize further, introducing elements of predation or more advanced metabolic strategies.
- With structure still limited, inefficient forms of predation emerge. Burrowing, stinging, and grasping via agents primary forms of offense, with appendages and extremities at their simplest showing up.
- Oceans start becoming a bit more crowded. Pelagic lifestyles become much more accessible, and movement as a whole is increased.
This represents the arrival of competition from other lifeforms, and the introduction of more complex editing tools, like extremities and appendages.
**Explosion**
Comparable to the Cambrian Explosion on Earth.
- Skeletons are unlocked. Exoskeletons allow immediate access to a wide variety of extremities, mouths, and limbs, whereas endoskeletons allow greater mobility but less immediately advanced parts.
- Freely available food-sources are very rare, making adaptations in consuming plants/other motile organisms extremely important. Competition is exploding, and predation becomes a constant threat.
- Organisms begin to appear more “animal-like”, more clearly displaying anatomy like limbs, fins, mouths, sensory parts, etc.
This represents a point at which the player is assumed to have a control over the basics, and a point at which they are thrown into a world that requires them to master the tools at their disposal.
* * *
**Gameplay Shifts**
**Controls**
Gameplay for the first couple of generations in the macroscopic will likely be somewhat simple, and comparable in some ways to the Microbe/Multicellular Stages:
- Food sources will be available either in the open water or on substrates (the ocean floor). Organisms, who at this point passively absorb food via their surface area, will locate these compounds and absorb them - either by swimming in the open ocean or by slithering on the ocean floor.
- Movement will be pretty slow, and the world will appear very large to the player. Structures will look ambiguous at a smaller scale.
After a while, organic compounds start dropping, so the incentive for specialization increases.
- Some organisms will be able to evolve mouths, available pretty early on. This will serve as an increase to the efficiency of gathering compounds - compensating for reducing resource availability, but still not solving the problem of reducing free compounds.
- Predation will start becoming an option. Mouths can’t “bite” yet, so combat will likely will be initiated via appendages and other adaptations at first. Mechanics like “touch other organism to damage them” or “press this button to activate X ability, holding/damaging/doing something to another organism”. Might not be very efficient at first with limited movement and function, but it starts somewhere.
- Herbivorous life will also appear in limited capabilities. The lack of many hard parts will keep certain biota off the menu, but certain adaptations will allow ingestion of plant matter.
- Around this time, certain abilities will also be arriving. Offensive/defensive options like stinging/grabbing/poison are covered above, but other strategies, like burrowing and faster movement, will become legitimate ways to avoid being eaten instead of novelties.
Once some threshold - in my opinion, the evolution of hard parts/skeletons - is crossed, the game takes the handling gloves off and begins to really give the player some options. Freely available resources will also start to deplete, meaning actually “eating” something will start to become the only option (unless you’re an extremely low-energy autotroph).
- Shelling will become available after a while, making certain organisms impervious over most of their body to basic attacks seen until then. Shells will negate damage received to certain portions of the body. Until skeletons and other hard parts catch up, shells will be an extremely powerful defensive option.
- Skeletons - exoskeletons at first, with quite a headstart on endoskeletons - will begin to offer strong bonuses and capabilities with immediate access to certain advanced extremities. Basic mandibles, fins, and other limbs will be available, uncorking major offensive capabilities. Swimming/movement speed as a whole will become faster, and grappling, biting, stinging, etc. will become accessible to many organisms.
**Constraints as a Whole**
Because of how simple the tools at their disposal would be, players will at first largely be focused on sculpting controls to alter their constraints as opposed to extremities, mouths, appendages, etc.
- Surface area will be very important early on, as initial respiratory, motile, and digestive functions will be highly dependent on surface area. As the macroscopic stages go on, surface area will remain influential, but will become much less important as skin thickens and other organ systems evolve to supplant functions.
- Mass will be a constraint early on in the Macroscopic as respiratory organ systems are less capable, so energy-generation doesn’t scale as proportionately with size as costs do. As respiratory structures strengthen, mass will become more of a “design choice”.
- Center of Mass won’t be very important early on since no organism will be very massive. This will help with onboarding.
- Streamline measure will inherently be lower early on because of a focus on surface area; as such, organisms will likely be somewhat slow. Players will also be less capable of taking advantage of a streamline measure without limbs, so it won’t be a very important or manageable constraint early on. The streamline measure will become more important once limbs are evolved.
**Movement**
Movement in the animal kingdom is highly dependent on structures such as limbs. The earliest organisms will not have access to motile extremities or limbs, so movement will be entirely dependent on constraints at first. This means torso and appendage sculpting will be very important early on.
Once limbs and motile appendages are evolved, constraints will continue to be important in influencing movement stats - but players will be able to dramatically alter function based on appendage structures.
**Pelagic vs. Benthic Lifestyles**
I think it’s a safe bet to say that all organisms should start out as benthic. It is largely believed that all macroscopic pelagic organisms evolved from organisms that are benthic, as benthic food sources were likely to have been much more reliable for organisms growing in scale. The ability to become pelagic should be available pretty soon, however, probably through some form of adaptation akin to mesoglea.
_Benthic_ - Benthic organisms will likely rely on simple muscular contractions to move across the sea-floor, similar to flatworms or hypothesized movement for creatures like Dickinsonia. Movement will scale with surface area, with flatter organisms generally more motile.
- After a while, benthic organisms will be able to burrow. Burrowing speed/capability is enhanced with a better Streamline measure, so this requires a shift away from the high-surface-area structure of previous organisms.
- Unlocking limbs - particularly, “feet” extremities” - allows for crawling along the ocean floor, greatly increasing speed while slightly reducing the importance of body structure. Limbs require much more energy to maintain.
_Pelagic_ - The earliest pelagic organisms likely would rely on buoyancy, showing adaptations similar to comb jellies and jellyfish. Early pelagic movement will rely on an adaptation to make the organism’s surface area impactful to buoyancy. This will clash a bit with the Streamline constraint, so movement will be pretty slow and highly influenced by currents.
- Fins as an extremity can be placed on non-jointed appendages. Stiffer fins increase speed relative to Streamline measure of the part, while looser fins increase maneuverability based on surface area.
- Once jointed limbs are unlocked, finned extremities provide a baseline boost to speed unaffected by constraints.
* * *
**Controls Needed At Stage Start**
Based on this general description of progression: what can we infer will be needed for gameplay purposes first?
- **Basic Sculpting of Torso, Including Scaling, Widening, Flattening, Adding Metaballs** - To the point of allowing creations that look like Dickinsonia, a worm, a blob like a comb-jelly/jellyfish, etc.
- **Constraints Calculations for Initial Purposes** - Mass positively correlated to size of metaballs on torso, and SA:V negatively correlated. Basic SA:V calculation implemented based on how flat/thick an object is. Streamline is a tougher measure, so it’s okay if it’s simple or not-present at first; same with CoM.
- **Stats Defined, Constraints Influence Stats** - Health, speed, digestive stats are some first picks.
- **Constraints Influenced By Certain Sculpting Actions** - Flattening creates a higher SA:V and less mass, fattening creates less SA:V and more mass. Scaling up a metaball creates more mass, less SA:V, and scaling down a metaball creates more SA:V, less mass.
- **Free-Floating Compound Clouds, Compound “Texture” on Ground** - These will serve as the first food sources, representing free organic material available for digestion.
- **Gameplay Begins Attached on Ground** - Representing benthic lifestyle as likely basal movement style.
- **Skin Type/Attribute System, Likely Connected with Introduction of Pelagic Movement** - The skin type and attribute system will likely have to be defined by the time pelagic gameplay is introduced, as the initial route to becoming pelagic will be based on a skin attribute.
- **Appendages First Introduced In Relation to Constraints/Sculpting** - Appendages will first serve as sculpting extensions to the torso, with their function as roots for extremities coming later.
---
### Author:  [@Rathalos](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/Rathalos)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2026, 10:02am UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/overview-of-early-macroscopic-progression/1242/2 "2026-03-11T10:02:29Z")
Good post overall! I agree with most of what you say, so as usual I will just quote the parts I have comments/additions on:
> [@Deus](#):
>
> Organisms, who at this point passively absorb food via their surface area, will locate these compounds and absorb them - either by swimming in the open ocean or by slithering on the ocean floor.
Depending on exactly how far we go with development of the Mutlicellular stage, in theory it could be possible to enter Macroscopic as something very close to a simple bilaterian with a type of mouth. (Think [Kimberella](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberella)) Especially if you’re comparing this to the Ediacaran: I think there should be a possibility of “absorbing compounds through surface area”, but those would be (near-)sessile organisms, almost equivalent to autotrophs. The more obvious “active food-gathering playstyle” would be eating micro-organisms from the seafloor or water. (again, Kimberella)
> [@Deus](#):
>
> After a while, organic compounds start dropping, so the incentive for specialization increases.
I think we already tell the story of freely available organic compounds dropping at the start of the Microbe Stage? As stated above, I think it is better to think of this as “easily edible large amounts of micro-organisms” start droppping, rather than “organic compounds”. Especially if you’re thinking of the Substrate revolution here, as that is exactly what it was.
Again I think the Multicellular-Macroscopic transition is the perfect time to merge everything “gathering compounds” with true autotrophs into flora: not getting enough energy to move and just being sessile. The “fauna” would mostly be eating micro-organisms (via mouth or not) at the start, then macroscopic “flora” and finally macroscopic “fauna”. (in overall timeline, some might skip the middle step for example)
> [@Deus](#):
>
> - Around this time, certain abilities will also be arriving. Offensive/defensive options like stinging/grabbing/poison are covered above, but other strategies, like burrowing and faster movement, will become legitimate ways to avoid being eaten instead of novelties.
I think it is important to remember that we want as many things as possible to carry on from the Multicellular stage, so things like poisons should be remembered as part of the design from the start in my opinion.
> [@Deus](#):
>
> **Explosion**
>
> Comparable to the Cambrian Explosion on Earth.
>
> - Skeletons are unlocked. Exoskeletons allow immediate access to a wide variety of extremities, mouths, and limbs, whereas endoskeletons allow greater mobility but less immediately advanced parts.
> - Freely available food-sources are very rare, making adaptations in consuming plants/other motile organisms extremely important. Competition is exploding, and predation becomes a constant threat.
> - Organisms begin to appear more “animal-like”, more clearly displaying anatomy like limbs, fins, mouths, sensory parts, etc.
>
> …
>
> Once some threshold - in my opinion, the evolution of hard parts/skeletons - is crossed, the game takes the handling gloves off and begins to really give the player some options. Freely available resources will also start to deplete, meaning actually “eating” something will start to become the only option (unless you’re an extremely low-energy autotroph).
>
> ```
> Shelling will become available after a while, making certain organisms impervious over most of their body to basic attacks seen until then. Shells will negate damage received to certain portions of the body. Until skeletons and other hard parts catch up, shells will be an extremely powerful defensive option.
> Skeletons - exoskeletons at first, with quite a headstart on endoskeletons - will begin to offer strong bonuses and capabilities with immediate access to certain advanced extremities. Basic mandibles, fins, and other limbs will be available, uncorking major offensive capabilities. Swimming/movement speed as a whole will become faster, and grappling, biting, stinging, etc. will become accessible to many organisms.
>
> ```
I think here it is important to think of where _exactly_ we want the transition from Macroscopic to Aware be. In my opinion, with some of the things you mention here, we’ve already crossed over.
- Fish with skeletons swimming around, probably using eyes to detect prey and then hunt them down are definitely “aware” in any conventional sense of the word. The animals you are describing would definitely have complex enough brains.
- If the Macroscopic stage already has advanced mouths, sense, skeleton, limbs and appendages, there isn’t actually much more complexity for the Aware stage to introduce, is there? At least for the editor side.
Ultimately I don’t particularly think this is a _problem_, there isn’t as much of a fundamental disconnect in mechanics between Macroscopic/Aware. We would just be declaring the Macroscopic Stage finished a bit earlier than you would expect from your concept here.
> [@Deus](#):
>
> - **Basic Sculpting of Torso, Including Scaling, Widening, Flattening, Adding Metaballs** - To the point of allowing creations that look like Dickinsonia, a worm, a blob like a comb-jelly/jellyfish, etc.
Here I would like to note that it would be very nice if “shaping” of metaballs could be quite extreme, for example being able to make a flatworm or Dickinsonia purely through flattening and different sizing of one “line” of metaballs, rather than needing to use metaballs for width. I have a feeling that would be much easier to work with, and more likely to perform better with auto-evo.
> [@Deus](#):
>
> Controls Needed At Stage Start
Another thing that I think would be _very_ nice to have: symmetry and other forms of repetition. Arthropods of course have segments, but also chordates and simpler bilateria have _some_ form of repeating patterns across there length. So some controls for that would be bettter to have sooner rather than later, in my opinion.
---
### Author:  [@Deus](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/Deus)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2026, 5:19pm UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/overview-of-early-macroscopic-progression/1242/3 "2026-03-11T17:19:53Z")
> [@Rathalos](#):
>
> I think we already tell the story of freely available organic compounds dropping at the start of the Microbe Stage?
I could have been more clear with the vocabulary instead of using “compounds”, as I was primarily referring to algaes, cyanobacteria, stromatolites, etc. that would compose the microbial mats that were ubiquitous at the time. Though using compounds was more inclusive of players who maintained metabolisms like the consumption of iron (likely consuming dissolved iron) or sulfur (likely consuming dissolved sulfur). I think a “normal” Thrive playthrough would have such bizarre diets fadeaway within a few generations of the macroscopic, but there will likely be some players who maintained metabolisms these functions.
> [@Rathalos](#):
>
> I think it is important to remember that we want as many things as possible to carry on from the Multicellular stage, so things like poisons should be remembered as part of the design from the start in my opinion.
Fair point, but I would think it still would likely be a few generations before such tools can be utilized in the context of predation, as advanced musculature or harder structures would take a bit of time to show up. Even if we had some ability immediately unlocked to make physical contact or something damaging because of toxins, there would probably also have to be some other investment needed to get a mouth or something to consume larger structures.
> [@Rathalos](#):
>
> Especially if you’re comparing this to the Ediacaran: I think there should be a possibility of “absorbing compounds through surface area”, but those would be (near-)sessile organisms, almost equivalent to autotrophs. The more obvious “active food-gathering playstyle” would be eating micro-organisms from the seafloor or water. (again, Kimberella)
I was thinking of absorption here just because Dickinsonia itself was likely a motile species without a mouth. Organisms like this appeared to be scraping and consuming microbial mats off the floor with its entire underside, so I think consumption without a mouth should be possible and probably relatively common among motile organisms at first - likely via a skin type/attribute setting.
Mouths I think would then add an additional benefit - maybe an ingestion percentage increase, and the ability to eat larger organisms which could allow more active predation?
In terms of filtering as we are more familiar with, I agree that it should be something seen in basically sessile organisms.
> [@Rathalos](#):
>
> I think here it is important to think of where _exactly_ we want the transition from Macroscopic to Aware be. In my opinion, with some of the things you mention here, we’ve already crossed over.
Good point, and I do agree with something like the Cambrian Explosion representing the beginning of the Aware Stage.
I agree with you there on defining the end stage of the Macroscopic. The issue is that traditionally, the Aware Stage began with the creation of a nervous system under the assumption that the transition between 2D and 3D would be smooth. Now that we are going with a more definitive jump in scale - to a point where some sort of extremely simple nervous system will almost be assumed to exist - that’s a bit less of an applicable endpoint.
I guess a good cut-off would be the centralization of the nervous system (having some sort of “command center”, whether it’s a bit more decentralized as in octopi or a bit more centralized in arthropods and vertebrates).
---
### Author:  [@Rathalos](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/Rathalos)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2026, 10:33pm UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/overview-of-early-macroscopic-progression/1242/4 "2026-03-11T22:33:29Z")
> [@Deus](#):
>
> Though using compounds was more inclusive of players who maintained metabolisms like the consumption of iron (likely consuming dissolved iron) or sulfur (likely consuming dissolved sulfur).
The reason I kind of lumped these together with photosynthesis (not enough energy for motility) is that I don’t think we want to go through the effort of making “compound clouds” for these for the Macroscopic environment? Seems more like something that will just be “present” in a certain area, if you look at tube worms near hydrothermal vents, for example. Hence, much more like plants.
And then I would like any “clouds” you see to just be microbes.
> [@Deus](#):
>
> I was thinking of absorption here just because Dickinsonia itself was likely a motile species without a mouth. Organisms like this appeared to be scraping and consuming microbial mats off the floor with its entire underside, so I think consumption without a mouth should be possible and probably relatively common among motile organisms at first - likely via a skin type/attribute setting.
Good point! Yes, this would be eating microbes instead of loose compounds, but still not through a mouth. Though I would still argue this is probably “eating” through an organ for that purpose rather than just “absorption”. I don’t think Dickinsonia would be eating microbes through its back, for example. The bottom is probably more like the inside of a gut without the internalisation that makes it a gut.
> [@Deus](#):
>
> I guess a good cut-off would be the centralization of the nervous system (having some sort of “command center”, whether it’s a bit more decentralized as in octopi or a bit more centralized in arthropods and vertebrates).
Yeah, I would say “have at least one centralised nerve cluster that in reality could take in information from senses, create an “awareness” and then make decisions based on that, giving orders to the body” would make sense as the threshold for Aware.
---
### Author:  [@Kashnox](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/Kashnox)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2026, 11:55pm UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/overview-of-early-macroscopic-progression/1242/5 "2026-09-13T23:55:20Z")
> [@Rathalos](#):
>
> Yeah, I would say “have at least one centralised nerve cluster that in reality could take in information from senses, create an “awareness” and then make decisions based on that, giving orders to the body” would make sense as the threshold for Aware.
In my opinion, I think a good place to start for defining the threshold for Aware is deciding what the gameplay differences will be between Macroscopic and Aware, then figuring out what the player’s species needs to interact with the Aware mechanics.
For example, we don’t want to say “congratulations, you’ve become aware! Now, keep doing the exact same thing you were already doing because your species doesn’t have hands, so they can’t use any of the cool, hand-based mechanics of the Aware stage.”
---
### Author:  [@Rathalos](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/Rathalos)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2026, 8:50am UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/overview-of-early-macroscopic-progression/1242/6 "2026-09-14T08:50:04Z")
I think you can compare the Macroscopic to Aware transition almost to adding a nucleus in the Microbe Stage: The gameplay does not change fundamentally, but a lot more options become available. For example, the latest thought I have about “what is Aware” is that [lancelets](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancelet) are not there yet (notably, much later than the example I gave earlier in this thread). So that could suggest things like real “limbs” being unlocked in the Aware Stage. For what it’s worth, my exploration of [Ecdysozoa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecdysozoa) (arthropods and related) also suggest the same: real limbs consciously used are directly connected to sentience. I think we can also connect sentience to more advanced senses, but that needs more research still I think.
I would also say the “behaviour” side of editing should get a big expansion when going to Aware, but I’m not sure yet how that should translate to the _player’s_ experience. For some reason the first thing that comes to mind is the organism you are controlling giving you advice like Clippy.
---
### Author:  [@MirrorMonkey2](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/MirrorMonkey2)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2026, 6:28pm UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/overview-of-early-macroscopic-progression/1242/7 "2026-09-15T18:28:53Z")
> [@Deus](#):
>
> - Scaling up a metaball creates more mass, less SA:V, and scaling down a metaball creates more SA:V, less mass.
While this undoubtedly is one way of adding or subtracting mass, there should also be a slider which scales the organism up or down as a whole. Surely it‘s impractical to get from 1cm up to blue whale size by continuously scaling metaballs? It sounds like a pain to have to individually scale each part again and again if you want to grow a lot with your overall proportions staying roughly the same?
In context of this feature of scale which I love to rant about, maybe a solid LOD system for both distance and scale would also be a medium-term feature needed for the 3D stages? It would surely be a comparatively hard to implement one…
> [@Rathalos](#):
>
> I would also say the “behaviour” side of editing should get a big expansion when going to Aware, but I’m not sure yet how that should translate to the _player’s_ experience. For some reason the first thing that comes to mind is the organism you are controlling giving you advice like Clippy.
In my view, the more complex behaviour of the aware stage could express itself in gameplay through increasingly complex and important interactions with other specimens of you own species. Territoriality, herd and pack behaviour, guarding and teaching your offspring, courtship behaviour (from elaborate nest-building to fighting for mates), seasonal migration, pack hunting, various degrees of eusociality… At some point the discussion becomes where to draw the line between aware and awakening, but the way I see it aware-stage equivalent organisms IRL exhibit already quiet complex and very exiting intra-species interactions which I see as a great feature to distinguish aware from macroscopic gameplay.
---
### Author:  [@Rathalos](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/Rathalos)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2026, 8:22pm UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/overview-of-early-macroscopic-progression/1242/8 "2026-09-15T20:22:11Z")
> [@MirrorMonkey2](#):
>
> > [@Deus](#):
> >
> > - Scaling up a metaball creates more mass, less SA:V, and scaling down a metaball creates more SA:V, less mass.
>
> While this undoubtedly is one way of adding or subtracting mass, there should also be a slider which scales the organism up or down as a whole.
I believe there was a provision for that already in the [editor concept](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/a-comprehensive-concept-for-the-macroscopic-editor/1192/2).
> [@MirrorMonkey2](#):
>
> In context of this feature of scale which I love to rant about, maybe a solid LOD system for both distance and scale would also be a medium-term feature needed for the 3D stages? It would surely be a comparatively hard to implement one…
I believe HyperbolicHadrion has thought a lot on [LOD systems](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/the-world-generator-a-dynamically-generated-gis/1015). [For plants also](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/flora-generation-constraints/1148), for example.
But yes, being able to, for example, turn any organism that is too small in comparison to you into just “a cloud” or cullling them entirely would be very helpful.
---
### Author:  [@Deus](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/u/Deus)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2026, 2:20am UTC](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/overview-of-early-macroscopic-progression/1242/9 "2026-09-16T02:20:41Z")
> [@Rathalos](#):
>
> > [@MirrorMonkey2](#):
> >
> > > [@Deus](#):
> > >
> > > - Scaling up a metaball creates more mass, less SA:V, and scaling down a metaball creates more SA:V, less mass.
> >
> > While this undoubtedly is one way of adding or subtracting mass, there should also be a slider which scales the organism up or down as a whole.
>
> I believe there was a provision for that already in the [editor concept](https://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/t/a-comprehensive-concept-for-the-macroscopic-editor/1192/2).
You’re telling me you didn’t read page 608 of my 7,000 long concept? Shame. /s
On a more serious note, I should begin creating condensed, implementation focused versions of that document to make it more legible.
> [@Kashnox](#):
>
> In my opinion, I think a good place to start for defining the threshold for Aware is deciding what the gameplay differences will be between Macroscopic and Aware, then figuring out what the player’s species needs to interact with the Aware mechanics.
I do think the maxim of having stage transitions be as smooth as possible should still be observed even though we do make such a large jump in the Multicellular-Macroscopic change. But I do think you raise a point in understanding exactly what makes the later portion of the stage different from the beginning. There will obviously/hopefully continue to be a ton of structural changes and differences made throughout the stage, but where is the cut-off?