I wanted to bring up this topic before we wrap up the microbe stage: we’ve seen multiple players trying a strategy of having enough toxin to kill an engulfing cell, only to be disappointed that it isn’t possible due to a hard kill timer when engulfed (to my understanding; I haven’t directly investigated this code). Do we want to do something to allow this, such as disabling the timer when the player still has enough toxin or something?
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Another point to consider: should cells that are about to die due to engulfed poisonous matter, expel that matter?
A player would, but I feel like it might lead to a bad experience unless we also make sure it leaves the expelled prey alone afterwards.
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I think this is another of those features that someone came up with, and someone implemented it. However, the microbe AI was never updated to be aware of these new game mechanics.
I’ve seen a few players recently wonder why the AI is not smart enough to not die to poisonous food. So it would probably be fair if the AI was able to use the same game mechanic as the player, but as this is an AI feature, it seems unlikely that anyone would program it anytime soon.
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Good point to bring up, completely slipped my mind somehow. If someone is willing to implement the necessary legwork for this feature, I am 100% in favor of it, and think it would be a very tangible gameplay experience that visibly rewards players for adopting an evolutionary strategy.
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This actually reminds me: As far as I can tell from the auto-evo code, it also doesn’t really take toxins into account as a defensive measure, unlike slime jets and mucocysts.
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