Hey everyone! I am very excited to share another Alpha build, this time built around territorial domination! A lot has changed, and some things will be a bit rough while I patch the holes.
The biggest challenge that I have been facing is that the game is confusing. Previously, I thought this was just an issue with the tutorial and onboarding, but over time I have realized that the tutorial is confusing because the game is pretty disjointed right now. I have been trying out lots of different ideas, and that means that there hasn't been a single coherent direction. I am changing that now. I have pushed back the Early Access release date to September 17th since I want to take my time getting these changes right.
The Substrate is rich in precious trophin. Cells spread zone to zone to extract it. Feed your cells trophin and they will rapidly mutate.
Territorial domination helps focus the game around a simple loop: grow cells, spread them out to get trophin, use the trophin to grow more cells, and as you succeed, your cells become more valuable.
It is important to me that players have a sense of agency over their cells, so I am emphasizing the compound system and local environments as a way to influence the cell's development. Compounds and the environment are really the same thing, just in different forms. They can bias mutations or directly act on your cells, and react with each other. The compounds are meant to be experimented with, and I will be adding more reactions and effects over time.
Another way I want to emphasize player agency is by including direct gene splicing/gene editing. Splicing is rough, but it works, and it can be accessed through the Cryobank. It lets you destroy cells to harvest their genes, and inject them into other cells.
I have big plans for the BioNet, but for now I just wanted to get the core loop in place of dropping cells into nodes, growing them, claiming the node, and then recovering your evolved cells. Eventually, I want BioNet nodes to correspond to alien organ systems, and the adversaries will be their immune systems.
I hope the new build can give everyone a taste of what is to come. I am excited to hear your feedback as I continue working on the game! I especially would like to know what everyone thinks of the new game mode, where you get confused, and any other features you'd want to see added.
Full(ish) Changelog: v0.4.3:
NEW FEATURES:
* Bionet: New competitive territory strategy layer
- Nodes are areas with specific environmental conditions, configurations, etc (WIP)
- Select zones on the node preview to deploy cryobank
- Harvest trophin to claim nodes
- Preserve cells back from claimed nodes
* F to directly dose cells. This is an important new control.
- Can arm with other compounds too by selecting them
- Working on improving controls (WIP)
* RMB vacuums when no cells are selected
* Trophin: Growth hormone
- Normal growth hormone, makes cells divide and mutate faster
- F directly doses selected cells with trophin, causes immediate replication
- Get more trophin by extracting it from zones with your cells, or extracting it from cells directly
* Chemistry and compounds: Reactive particles
- All particles are compounds which are identified by a prefix and suffix. There are 5 prefixes, 8 suffixes currently. More will be added. Zones have compounds indicated by a code in parentheses.
- Prefix indicates pH:
Strong acid: perchlor- (PCL)
Acid: sulfon- (SUL)
Neutral: none (NEU)
Base: alkal- (ALK)
Strong base: hydroxy- (HYD)
- Suffix indicates effect:
Bioactive (cells respond directly):
Trophin: special case, see above (1)
Mycin: Antibiotic. Toxic to bacteria (41)
Azide: Antimicrobial. Toxic to all life (88)
Lysin: Weak antimicrobial. Mutates lysocysts (8)
Mutagenic (mutates offspring during replication):
Zymogen-I: Digestive enzymes. Cells mutate a digestive spray (114)
Zymogen-II: Digestive enzyme modifier. Digestive spray mutates different chemistries (118)
Globulin: Antibody production. Antibodies inherit genetic signature from stored blue gene fragments (207)
Saponin: Mutates flagella/cilia to dissolve nutrients from the substrate (132)
Oxalate: Mutates flagella/cilia to damage other cells (156)
- Compounds with differences in pH react, sometimes explosively. Energy released is proportional to difference in pH
* Maps: The BioNet will have authored maps (WIP)
- For now there are only 3 test maps, I plan to add many more
- Console command: 'mapedit' opens a WIP map editor, eventually this will be a full map editor
* Gene splicing: A rough gene splicer has been added, accessed via the cryobank on the BioNet
- Extract genes by destroying specimens
- Splice genes into your other specimens
* Enhanced viral mechanics: viral load drives cell death, infected cells burst into viral particles on death
CHANGES:
* Tutorial rebuilt around new game loops (WIP)
* BioMarket renamed to BioExchange, valuation reworked:
- Strain value is derived from how many nodes your lineages are winning on the BioNet. Winning more nodes increases the value of your strain. This is called market value
- Gene value is now a function of strain value; strains with higher value, have higher value genes
- Strains without a proven value yet (not played on the BioNet) inherit their value from their genes. This is called appraisal value
* Movement economy changes: movement is now free, 'sprint' speed boost costs resources
* Increase crowding penalty for replication
* Visual tweaks, UI adjustments:
- Added symbols to HUD for improved readability
REMOVED:
* Colony maintenance/upkeep completely removed. No more population taxes!
Known issues:
* Some features in creative mode haven't been updated yet
* UI legibility and navigation is clunky
* Reactions are hard to see
* Antibody production is hard to see
* Gene fragments all look the same
* Amoeba are unfinished and look strange
* The BioNet currently only has 3 test maps