Microbe Prototype #2

Thank you sci, ill work on implementing bacterial colonies and things of that nature. It's good to know that i'm helping.

~sciocont wrote:

Doggit wrote:

NickTheNick wrote:

So Mike, what causes the cells to group together? What benefit do they get out of it?

Also, I really like the addition of water flow, it adds a lot to the gameplay.

I've put in my channel as version 0.1.0. Is that okay?

No, it's a prototype, not a release. The x.x.x nomenclature is only for official releases (the ones written in C++)

I've played this for a while, and there's a couple of things I want to discuss. First, it's a great simulation of competition, since limited resources mean that species get crowded out. I think with more species added initially there will be a much more interesting ecosystem, especially once you enable chloroplasts. I think your prototype and RodGame's prototype are excellent companions. Rod's is faithful to the compound system and will soon be simulating compounds pretty accurately. In terms of the dynamics of a single cell, that's what we're looking for. Your prototype is an excellent ecosystem simulator, and that's what we need to make the game environment interesting and dynamic.
I'd like to see more diverse resources in your prototype to increase realism. I'd put in bacterial colonies- you can implement these easily as clumps of sprites that have a fixed position. Keep up the good work.

Ok im back to programming, get ready for a barrage of questions:

.. the bacterial colonies should I make them grow? How should I treat them? only as food?
Any posts I can find that tell me about how we will implement them so I can make this as accurate as possible?
Should I add light spots and thermal spots?
Should I vary the bacteria, (ones that survive better in these different environments?)
What organelles should I add and where is a post I can read that details how species go about getting these (the eater part and thermal parts)?
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Ok, after you answer these, I will go to work on implementing it all
(I had school stuff (I'm in High school))

This thread contains all of the organelles, and on the last page I made a flowchart of their implementation.
I imagine the colonies as spreading like a moss. They should simply be food for whatever is around them right now. Later we can begin a food chain, where we have the lowest level as the bacterial film, the next level as the cells that feed on the film, and finally predatory cells that prey on other cells. This is whaere ecosystem modelling comes into play.
While you're at it, see if you can implement the new background, and make the bacteria stand out from it just slightly- perhaps make them a yellowish brown.

Thanks sci, Ill get to work

edit: wait.. the background, do you want me to make it smaller or actual size?
edit#2 : The background causes no lag what-so-ever (I will have to make the cells look different and less bright to fit the atmosphere though. :P) ) I already had a a background so changing it was easy as Belgium .)

untrustedlife wrote:

Thanks sci, Ill get to work

edit: wait.. the background, do you want me to make it smaller or actual size?
edit#2 : The background causes no lag what-so-ever (I will have to make the cells look different and less bright to fit the atmosphere though. :P) ) I already had a a background so changing it was easy as Belgium .)

I made it that big so that it didn't tile too obviously. Use it at full size.

Well, the AI may go weird when I start adding growing bacteria to it.. (they might just eat the entire colony) unless this is what you want, if so, tell me

untrustedlife wrote:

Well, the AI may go weird when I start adding growing bacteria to it.. (they might just eat the entire colony) unless this is what you want, if so, tell me

Grazing is a natural behavior- it's advantageous to stay in one spot where food is plentiful. We will eventually need to put a catch in it, so grazing isn't the absolute best behavior to do.

Expect a new release soon, i'm sorry it's taken so long, (I have school, homework, martial arts, work, etc.), I have to rewrite the AI and way atp's are taken away as I have implemented a very realistic new force(s) system, (objects can have different forces acting on them, (instead of a single force at a time), so it is much more realistic. If I cant get the AI to work very well, I will have to downgrade, (sorry guys). But i will most likely get it to work.

Ok people, I have gotten the AI working again and have started making newer balance changes.

A intro screen has been added and a new much more real physics system has been added, I changed the background and darkened up thr atmosphere a bit (I still have to fix the bubbles but that wont take too long) I have added little bacteria floating around (they don't do much yet, however I will make them reproduce like moss.)

I also had to do ALOT of code changes to make everything work on this new physics system.

I noticed that one of the niches has disappeared (only the filterers and flagella cells seem to evolve now. (I suppose that is realistic (it is harder for microbes to swim in the new system so flagella are more helpful.)

I am in the process of re balancing ATP production.

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Looks good. How far do you see this going in the next few weeks? We're going to release it to fans either next week or the week after that, so an update would be great by maybe around next Friday. No pressure though. if you don't want it released, we can use the other gameplay prototype.

Looks great, but please put photo in spoiler.

I think i will at least have chloroplast and bacterial colonies implemented (and used) in the next few days.

In a couple weeks I will probably have heat and light spots all nice and set up,and eaters, etc.

I like your progress. Wish you luck.

All right in the current version I am seeing these form:

At first it looks like chaos but after a while it settles down and you see different thing happening


Every run of the sim I get these:
Flagella guys (you know who they are)
and Filter feeders (they seem to appear far less), but since I added light and heat spots they came back (food in single location )
and other variations and mixes of the two.
Supercells (cells that have many mitochondria and a couple flagella, these guys survive extremely well.. (and will usually become dominant after about 20/30 or so minutes.. (if you are in fast mode the entire time)) (until they can't find food)

Every once in a while you see
aggressive flagella guys (these guys run after everything)
(common)
every once in a while you see flagella cells stopping on a light spot and just eating all the chloroplast that grow there (GRAZING!!)

Grazing colonies:
Groups of flagella guys, think the filter colonies from a long time ago except with flagella and all of them are on a light spot (eating all the chloroplast)

I will get the download out soon

Can't wait!

Klous, when are you going to start making videos? (I'm curious because i want to record what happens (the different behaviors/niches you get.

I'll likely have everything recorded by tomorrow, and probably up on youtube after some editing either late tomorrow or monday.

untrustedlife wrote:

All right in the current version I am seeing these form:

At first it looks like chaos but after a while it settles down and you see different thing happening


Every run of the sim I get these:
Flagella guys (you know who they are)
and Filter feeders (they seem to appear far less), but since I added light and heat spots they came back (food in single location )
and other variations and mixes of the two.
Supercells (cells that have many mitochondria and a couple flagella, these guys survive extremely well.. (and will usually become dominant after about 20/30 or so minutes.. (if you are in fast mode the entire time)) (until they can't find food)

Every once in a while you see
aggressive flagella guys (these guys run after everything)
(common)
every once in a while you see flagella cells stopping on a light spot and just eating all the chloroplast that grow there (GRAZING!!)

Grazing colonies:
Groups of flagella guys, think the filter colonies from a long time ago except with flagella and all of them are on a light spot (eating all the chloroplast)

I will get the download out soon

When you're ready I'll do the video, this time longer.

All right guys I will be on at about 4:00 (US central time ), I will release my prototype then, sorry for the long wait, I will probably release an even better one tonight as-well because there is something I want to add. (thermoplasts and chloroplasts need to do something.)

This really interests me, looking forward to see your next version!

untrustedlife wrote:

All right guys I will be on at about 4:00 (US central time ), I will release my prototype then, sorry for the long wait, I will probably release an even better one tonight as-well because there is something I want to add. (thermoplasts and chloroplasts need to do something.)

In that case I won't be able to add it to the website before tomorrow as it will be too late for me here in England (16:00 CST = 22:00 UTC). I might as well add the later version tomorrow, rather than putting one up which will only be the latest version for a couple of hours as well as having to work on something at 10pm on a Sunday night.

untrustedlife wrote:

All right guys I will be on at about 4:00 (US central time ), I will release my prototype then, sorry for the long wait, I will probably release an even better one tonight as-well because there is something I want to add. (thermoplasts and chloroplasts need to do something.)

Awesome. This will be next week's update. I'm excited to see this in action!

The new version is taking forever to upload to rapid-share (it is also a .rar file, sorry for the delay)

Great, a new version is getting released.

By the way, since this prototype actually includes evolution to some scale, does this mean that the whole concept of having pre-set cells obsolete?

Is the download link the one on the first post? If so, you should be able to put the real link instead of that disguised link. It would make it easier to locate the link.