Is there a Colour Gene?

[Boris of Quirm]

Is it possible to change the colour of a cell by using a gene?

The reason I am asking is, if you have a cell that may have several types, e.g. head, body, tail, etc., is it possible to change it's colour so you can see which type that cell is even though they are all derived from the same dna?

If not, is there another way I can visibly tag/mark a cell so I can quickly see what type it is?

Hope that made sense.

Thanks.

[Boris of Quirm]

Just to clarify the reason for the question.  I am not using mutations.  I just want to check that each cell of a multibot is acting correctly.

I know I could check the cells properties using the open console but as I am still new to this I was wondering if there was another quicker, more visual method.

Thanks again.

[Numsgil]

Colour is not registered by bots, it's only a little helpful way for the user to identify which bot is which.

So, no, bots can't change their colour via DNA.  Likewise with skins.

For identifying body parts, I suppose you could have them fire shots at certain intervals.  That's a little silly, but that's the only thing I can think of.

[Boris of Quirm]

As well as firing shots I could get them to move their heads a certain way, I.e. some may be stationary, some may spin, others may 'waggle' left to right.

Was thinking of applying this to my multibot veggie, so shooting may have to be a last resort.

Is there any other action I could exploit in order to identify a cell type as well as direction and shooting?

For example, if a cell is tied, is it possible to increase/decrease it's tie length?

[PurpleYouko]

Visibly?

No not really. Sorry.

From the console you should be able to figure them out with the program frozen. I use tags. memory locations that have different values for each part of a multi-bot.

You can read these memory locations directly from the console

We have had many discussions about color and the ability for bots to see and make them. It's one of the things that I would like to add but we have been strangely unable to reach any general agreements.
Carlo (The DB Godfather) is absolutely dead against it. Num and I are for it in some way and others want to use wavelengths instead of RGB code.

Design by comitte is a kind of difficult way to program. :(

[Numsgil]

in 2.37, bots can adjust the length of their ties.  Less so in 2.4 (tie physics are really, really complicated, so they still need a bit of work).

You could have bots point in specific directions.  That would work too.  .setaim would be the command to use.