v0.2.1 Preview is Live!
Hey everyone! I just put v0.2.1 up, which polishes up from v0.2.0. Both the Alpha and Default branches were updated. I moved v0.1.10a to a new "Previous" branch too.
v0.2.0 had some big changes:
Nutrients
I've replaced generic energy particles with three nutrient types: aminos, lipids and sugars. There is a new world creation slider, "Nutrient Diversity", which controls how evenly nutrients get distributed in each generated zone (setting the slider to 100 makes the distribution ~33% for every nutrient everywhere, setting it lower creates zones that are rich in one or two nutrients). Nutrients are denoted by color: aminos are green, lipids are yellow and sugars are blue.
The current nutrient system flows as follows: collectors (typed or generic) -> vacuole (untyped, can store only one nutrient type at a time) -> mitochondria (different efficiency per nutrient) -> cytosol. Cells release their nutrients on death, completing the cycle.
My intention for this overhaul is to create more evolutionary pressure and specialization, while also adding more player agency over the simulation. Ultimately, I want "nutrient supply chains" to be possible, such as a plasmodium carrying aminos from an amino rich area to an amino deficient area so that motile cells that depend on those aminos can survive.
Tooltip Overhaul
I split the tooltip up into zoom-aware layers:
* Species layer: while fully zoomed out, species are highlighted and a species overview is shown
* Cell layer: when zoomed in, individual cells can be inspected
* Organelle layer: when deeply zoomed in, time slows down and individual organelles can be inspected
I also am experimenting with a new style and flavor for the tooltip, so let me know what you think! I want it to feel really smooth and intuitive. You can now drag it to reposition it too, and I merged it with the simulation timer.
Species system
The simulation now quietly tracks cells and classifies them into species groups. I am still working on tuning the genome weights and masks, and I plan on exposing controls for players to tune the system for themselves, since in the real world of biology how we classify species changes depending on the context. I think that makes the most sense here too. This system doesn't replace the player's ability to save species by marking them, but it does enhance it. The main purpose of this system is to allow for better control over groups of cells, but it also means that now marking a new species should retroactively mark all living cells from the species with the new name. This isn't super consistent yet though, I am still working out the kinks.
v0.2.1 has a big UI update too and ironed out some of the balance blockers and other issues from v0.2.0.
Have fun testing and please share feedback :)