Swim bladders?

Hudston

Larva
I've just encountered a creature that genuinely resembles a fish and it made me realize something: They kind of swim like fish with a swim bladder disease. I have had a number of creatures that would have been practically graceful if it weren't for their complete inability to stay upright so I'm wondering if a creatures only control over its orientation is entirely down to its muscle movements? And if so, would it be a good idea to implement some means for them to evolve a swim bladder that would help them to right themselves like a real fish would have?
 

Tom Johnson

Queen
Developer of Ecosystem
Ecosystem Beta Tester
I've just encountered a creature that genuinely resembles a fish and it made me realize something: They kind of swim like fish with a swim bladder disease. I have had a number of creatures that would have been practically graceful if it weren't for their complete inability to stay upright so I'm wondering if a creatures only control over its orientation is entirely down to its muscle movements? And if so, would it be a good idea to implement some means for them to evolve a swim bladder that would help them to right themselves like a real fish would have?
I like that idea! Sometimes it is hard to tell exactly what is causing something to look 'wrong' overall. That could be a big part of it. I ran a test last year to correct creatures' orientations but ended up shelving it because for some reason it seemed to interfere with their steering ability. I will maybe come back to it, and see if I can make that work and if it helps the creatures look more natural. Thanks for the suggestion.
 

SJK

Larva
Music / Sound - Ecosystem
That’s a good observation. Balance is an important trait to have. I wonder if it would interfere with steering ability if the trait came in after a certain number of evolution cycles. When the brain develops more.
 

Serafine

Queen
Backer
Beta Tester
Ecosystem Beta Tester
You could have it as an optional trait, so there's two pathways to evolve (not all fish do have swim bladders, although most do).

Such optional traits might not be a bad idea in general, like the ability to stick to the ground or to latch onto things (this could open a patchway for parasites that attach to other fish and steal life energy from them at a slow rate) or the ability to dig (clip) into the ground (and of course the corresponding predator ability to drive these out of cover).
A whole pallete of these optional traits that can evolve at random would allow for a much greater variety in entity behavior and more specialized roles in the ecosystem - which is more interesting to watch for the player.
 

Tom Johnson

Queen
Developer of Ecosystem
Ecosystem Beta Tester
You could have it as an optional trait, so there's two pathways to evolve (not all fish do have swim bladders, although most do).

Such optional traits might not be a bad idea in general, like the ability to stick to the ground or to latch onto things (this could open a patchway for parasites that attach to other fish and steal life energy from them at a slow rate) or the ability to dig (clip) into the ground (and of course the corresponding predator ability to drive these out of cover).
A whole pallete of these optional traits that can evolve at random would allow for a much greater variety in entity behavior and more specialized roles in the ecosystem - which is more interesting to watch for the player.
That's a good idea, and I agree that the game seems a lot more enjoyable the closer it gets to being a real ecosystem with lots of different species and complex interactions between them. I think that a palette of optional traits like you mentioned are an important part of this and it's something that has been on my list for awhile. I'm hoping to be able to implement it soon, including even several of the specific cases you mentioned, as well as things like sharing information via bioluminescence. I would love if there was enough depth to the simulation that it could support, for example, cleaner fish that predators tolerate because they remove the types of parasites you mentioned. (Also, sorry I am not replying sooner! I took a few weeks to make some big changes to the game and got a bit of tunnel-vision with it, just coding all the time and forgetting to check the forums.)
 
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