Beginners Challenges

[bwisialo]

I was already thinking that Lipocyte eggs are one of the most important principles that needs a good illustration -- something more illustrative than Seed, but perhaps a bit easier than Overpopulate, just to get the principle, and possibly more multi-cellular. But those aren't easy factors to combine in a Lipocyte use challenge.

Yeah, I maxed out the substrate, and there at least three ways you can use Lipocytes here -- I'm not sure if third is intended

[Alast]

I agree that it would be nice to have something easier than this. But even though the Liposeed is a very important concept it's also an advanced one difficult to address in an easy way. At least I couldn't come up with an easier idea yet because whenever you enable Lipocytes as seeds you also enable Lipodumping.

So yeah, I'd prefer a challenge in the medium difficulty range for this. If you have an idea, please go for it

Also, can you PM me the three ways you're using? I think my 2 are clear now

[bwisialo]

Oh, I just meant increasing initial population, eggs, and dumping. You can max out Overpopulate having 900+ Lipocytes just sitting on the plate.

It's true that Lipocyte eggs aren't something you use until more advanced challenges. But the principle is simple if you see it, whereas it can remain elusive for a very long time if you're searching for it and trying to figure it out on your own.

I haven't come up with an easy or moderate challenge though. It could simply be a Photocyte near a Lipocyte that needs more mass to split, then turns into a multi-cellular organism with Lipocyte eggs. But that’s just seeing the principle rather than using it -- which might be fine. Because it's something that, ideally, people should know about, one way or another, before going into challenges where they're crucial or necessary.

[Alast]

Hehe, the start boost wasn't even on my radar for this as that only makes a difference when you're under time constraints. Like me trying to solve Scarce III under 50h My Overpopulate solution dumps Lipos that then also split once

I think that it's a better learning experience using Liposeed rather than just seeing it. Only then you really see the impact it has.

[bwisialo]

I also dumped a splitting Lipocyte. A higher number of seed cells can help some species get higher peaks (or get closer to whatever the objective is), not just peak faster. When I first read the challenge I thought you might be referring to a start boost rather than dumping, but yeah, I don't see that helping here.

You're right about using vs seeing and realizing the impact. With Overpopulate, I was mostly working with dumping and figuring how to do right. It would be nice to have something more egg-focused, even if the door to dumping is somewhat open. Still thinking...

[Alast]

Name: Kickstart

Description: In this challenge time is of the essence. Use Lipocytes for quick development of your species.

Substrate: https://www.dropbox.com/s/f0ecl5i5k0p2s ... trate?dl=0

Objective (easy): Get 250 cells within 20h

Max Cells inserted: 1

Cell Type allowed: Lipocytes, Photocytes

[bwisialo]

I suppose it could be a challenge with a high cell count Objective and a rule that only x number (perhaps 0) of the cells on the plate can be Lipocytes. If any of the existing challenges had a counter by cell type, that wouldn't seem so odd as it might at first.

[Alast]

I was thinking about counting the Phagocytes or Flagellocytes to get an indicator for the number of swimmers But as we don't have that for user created challenges I wouldn't want to put that on the user

[bwisialo]

This might work. Test it out... after the other one

Name: Macrophages VI -- Scarcity

Description: The substrate is similar to Scarce Conditions, but it has just enough nutrients for a non-smart swimmer to live on. Can you figure out how to convert so little food into enough reproductive mass / swimmers to meet the cell count Objective?

Substrate:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z7l60nybx9v8y ... trate?dl=0

Objective (Difficult): Reach 350 cells

Max Cells inserted: 1

Cell Type allowed: Phagocytes, Flagellocytes, Lipocytes

[Alast]

Not a bad one. But again Lipodropping is very strong here. Got me over 600 together with Liposeeds.

Ok, but without Liposeeds it seems very hard to not possiboe. I managed 300 without but that looked like a very fortunate run.