I can handle making a ‘clear gel’ emitter if that’s what we really want. Probably easier than the Thermal Shader since it’s just Alpha and Gloss. Thing is, do we have a solid idea of how it should look like?
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Well there’s been an idea since 2014 to allow the player to pause specific organelles:
Later with the process panel, putting the pause buttons there would make sense as well:
Awesome! I can look for some reference photos later, off of the top of my head mucilage should be a viscous clear liquid, like hand sanitizer with the consistency of honey. For a long time scientists did not know that cells using mucilage jets were doing so because mucilage has no color, which is why I’m thinking it’s better to make it something that is more noticeable via its texture then by its color.
EDIT: Reference photos:
What mucilage looks like macroscopically:
Microscopically, here are clusters of algae suspended in mucilage:
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Seems at the microscopic scale it has much more noticable refraction at the edges (easy) and that’s about it.
I can handle it.
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Sorry for just now getting to this.
I think it was a stroke of genius to add some propulsive force to the slime ejector, one that I hadn’t thought of. I remember playing a flash game heavily inspired by Spore’s cell stage when I was a kid that had spiked enemy cells who would suddenly propel themselves at the player. The game was pretty shallow but that mechanic in itself made it incredibly fun, so I’m glad a similar function is finding itself in Thrive.
Skimming through and adding some thoughts, I can see this organelle being a prime candidate for the Modify function. We can include a slider similar to those seen in the chemoreceptor tab. Sliding it one way reduces the decay time and spread of a slime jet stream but increases the speed bonus received from ejecting slime, whereas sliding it the other way increases the spread and lengthens the time it takes for the slime to decay. The former has more aggressive uses, while the latter has more defensive uses.
I would think that the ejector of the slime should be less effected by their slime than surrounding cells. This can open up unique predatory behavior akin to a spider spinning its web, and from a gameplay perspective, I can imagine players not seeing the point of using slime if they themselves are trapped as well.
I’m going to try and finish the implementation of this over the next few days now that I have time again.
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