Migration
Another post while the issue is fresh on my mind - didn’t want to combine it with the prior post since the topic is different:
Constant migration at the beginning of the game can be a pretty dry experience which the player can unintentionally fall into. By zooming to the surface uninhibited, players can unintentionally avoid other cells, running away from competition and minimizing exposure to competition early on. It also generally encourages the rush straight to photosynthesis.
We thought environmental tolerances would be more impactful here, but if a player really wanted to, they could just dash and quickly adjust their sliders. Right now, environmental constraints generally act to require more initial investment to a patch and increase MP spending rather than constraining movement.
The solution can be pretty easy to manage: have a minimum amount of generations in a patch you migrated to before you move. It doesn’t have to be very high, just high enough to make sure you need to survive, I don’t know, atleast two or three generations in the patch you’re in? This can hypothetically be a population minimum, but smaller organisms naturally have larger populations, so that doesn’t really balance anything.
This will nerf the “run-straight-to-surface” meta, encourage adaptations to more patches, makes players interact with other lifeforms more, and generally improves the pacing of the Microbe Stage; movement to the surface in a normal start is more of a journey than a dash.