The surface-area czar has softened his stance.
Hh had a previous suggestion related to the concept, asking to attach the introduction of this concept to the nucleus rather than straight off the rip. I am starting to think that is the best approach to this concept for various reasons besides those he mentioned:
- Bacteria inherently are smaller, so there is very little they can do when it comes to increasing volume. They’d have no choice but to be high surface-area, which essentially means this would be an unimportant stat for new players.
- Prokaryote parts are much smaller, so there is little ability to differentiate shape in an efficient way as a prokaryote. Eukaryotic parts are much better for influencing size.
- Balancing would be much easier, as besides the above points, we’d understand atleast a minimum size at which to balance for the feature.
- The mechanic could be made to be a bit more impactful than it would be when balancing with completely new players in mind.
- Considering the above, that should hopefully make it easier for auto-evo to deal with the feature.
I previously was worried that this would be a very short-lived mechanic if limited to eukaryotes, but the early multicellular stage, and the eventual progression to surface area for the macroscopic stage, mitigates this.
So ultimately, I’d recommend this concept, if worked on, to be relevant starting with the nucleus. This in combination with size-related costs would result in very solid editor fundamentals.