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[Spreggo]

Levi: The pixels are food

Turning the lights on and off is just for visibility, but the light gradient actually represents a light gradient. Example: photosynthetic cells produce energy at full speed in the brightest light, and slower in a shadow, and not at all in the dark.

The orbit is from the 'flow' option, which can be toggled on and off. It helps mix things up and adds another evolutionary pressure to the environment.

The cells pass on their genetic code when they reproduce. Their code is a 512 bit bitset. When they pass it on, there is a chance that one of these bits will be flipped. Everything about the cell depends on the genetic code.

I would also like a larger environment with more creatures, but alas I can't seem to get a handle on the efficiency problem this represents.

Adding food should be an easy addition so I will add it to the To Do list.

Normandy: Predatory cells can do well so long as they fit their niche well. Often if a predator is too successful, they will destroy their food supply too quickly. I think they often perform better in aquarium mode where buoyancy will keep them apart from their food source.

[Svarte Troner]

Can the cells be anything other than asexual?

[Spreggo]

Can the cells be anything other than asexual?

Not currently. I found that the requirements for sexual reproduction when implemented were species breaking, so I've left it out to mull over exactly how that sort of thing should be implemented.

It might be possible to do it by magic spores.

[Svarte Troner]

It might be possible to do it by magic spores.

That's how it's done in DF 

[Dsarker]

My one has two major species, with a third hanging on.

First is clumping large predators. Other is clumping plant, with symbiosis with a predator.

[Siquo]

I got a bumper-farmer-symbiosis. It bumps smaller plantcells upwards into the light so they can reproduce, and eats them when they decay. Thanks, Spreggo, this is fun

[Spreggo]

Is anyone getting a crash when messing with the "flow" option???

[Levi]

The cells pass on their genetic code when they reproduce. Their code is a 512 bit bitset. When they pass it on, there is a chance that one of these bits will be flipped. Everything about the cell depends on the genetic code.

Hmm.  I haven't seen any new species happening, but maybe I'd need to leave it overnight or something to see a new species appear.

One of the main reasons I mentioned a mutation rate is because I work in lab that does research on HIV.  HIV is a little unusual in that it has a ridiculously high mutation rate compared to most things.  I think it would be pretty interesting to see what would happen if some cells had a higher mutation rate in this. 

The downside to having a high mutation rate would be that you might often waste energy creating a cell that is useless.

[Virex]

The cells pass on their genetic code when they reproduce. Their code is a 512 bit bitset. When they pass it on, there is a chance that one of these bits will be flipped. Everything about the cell depends on the genetic code.

Hmm.  I haven't seen any new species happening, but maybe I'd need to leave it overnight or something to see a new species appear.

One of the main reasons I mentioned a mutation rate is because I work in lab that does research on HIV.  HIV is a little unusual in that it has a ridiculously high mutation rate compared to most things.  I think it would be pretty interesting to see what would happen if some cells had a higher mutation rate in this. 

The downside to having a high mutation rate would be that you might often waste energy creating a cell that is useless.

Maybe mutation rate itself should be genetically determined? Often a high mutation rate is a reaction to high selection pressure combined with wildly varying measures of fitness, which means it doesn't matter if you lose a few because they most likely wouldn't have made it anyway. If the pressure and variance drops, the mutation rate of the species also returns to normal.

[Spreggo]

The cells pass on their genetic code when they reproduce. Their code is a 512 bit bitset. When they pass it on, there is a chance that one of these bits will be flipped. Everything about the cell depends on the genetic code.

Hmm.  I haven't seen any new species happening, but maybe I'd need to leave it overnight or something to see a new species appear.

One of the main reasons I mentioned a mutation rate is because I work in lab that does research on HIV.  HIV is a little unusual in that it has a ridiculously high mutation rate compared to most things.  I think it would be pretty interesting to see what would happen if some cells had a higher mutation rate in this. 

The downside to having a high mutation rate would be that you might often waste energy creating a cell that is useless.

I think the current rate is one bit of code getting flipped every time it is copied. However, not all portions of code are being expressed at any given time. It may be expressed later, and then the mutations will become apparent.

I'm not sure how this compares to real life genetic mutations, since the metric is a bit different. It should be pretty simple to add a toggle to up the mutation rate - I'll put this on the todo list.

[Dsarker]

I can confirm that, Spreggo. Just got my plant (which started out defenceless) to suddenly pop one with three weapons.

[Levi]

Experiment time!

I've added a single cell to a blank ecosystem and will leave it overnight to see if anything cool comes out.  My first 20 or so tries I didn't get a viable cell, but now I've got some crazy link forming bouncing pink abomination of a cell now that its splitting like crazy.

Edit:  They are all still linky and pink, but they do have some variation in size and some of them flipped over to eating food.  Neat.

[Spreggo]

New Version!

Added sexual reproduction and made everything faster, as well as other tweaks.

Get details and download HERE.

[Dsarker]

You may have this as an intended feature anyway, but would it be possible to have it add a randomised cell at a random empty location every, say, twenty seconds or so?

[Spreggo]

You may have this as an intended feature anyway, but would it be possible to have it add a randomised cell at a random empty location every, say, twenty seconds or so?

Seems possible, I'll add it to the todo list as an option.