My thoughts on metabolism

[Elite]

My thoughts on metabolism:

(1) DNA acess to metabolism:

I think that there should be two DNA files for each bot
 - behavioral DNA
 - mitochondrial/structural DNA

The behavioral DNA is what we've got already - controls behavior. It should have little or no control over the metabolism apart from:
 - metabolic rates
 - triggering the production of certain useful chemicals

Combat bots should all use a preset league-metabolism DNA file that alows them to make shell, slime etc. and maybe some other chemicals.

So you can design your own metabolism/structure if:
 - you really want to want to
 - you posess the ability to understand it

But the behavioral DNA (think of it as a nanobot's programming) and the mitochondrial/structural DNA (more like real DNA) are seperate. The mitochondrial/structural DNA will be complex, but you have the option of avoiding it and keeping all the metabolism 'under the hood' if you so desire.

(2) To emulate or not to emulate?

I don't think we should try to accurately model real biological processes too accurately - rather create some of our own unique processes

(3) The actual system

What Shvarz has got at the moment is great and I love Nums' enzyme system. Here's some thoughts of my own:

There should be a mitochondrial DNA that you can program that controls the metabolism

There should be enzymes that perform different tasks than just facilitating reactions

There should be:

 - Chemicals (just that)

ie. 10100101

 - Enzymes (facilitate reactions)

ie. 564A6D

Shell, slime etc. would be covered by chemicals under Shvarz' system, presumably using enzymes to produce them from raw chemicals. I agree with this 'chemical properties' approach

Maybe enzymes could interact with other enzymes, ie. increasing or decreasing their efficiency or shutting them off completely?

Question: Can we use enzymes to break down the cell walls of enemy bots?


Comments?

[Numsgil]

That's more or less what I'm thinking.  Part of the problem comes in splitting it up into managable chunks to actually get somewhere.

What I mean is that the finished product, if we tried to code it all at once, could easily take months.  I'd definately like to split it into managable mini projects that each take maybe a few weeks to get working.

The only downside is that it really eliminates the possibility for balancing explicitly.  Like the relative cost for shell and slime, things like that, because those properties then become emergent.

Metabolic DNA is going to have an interesting structure I think.  I'm not sure the best way to go about it.  The problem can be thought of like this:

Given a series of vats, each containing various volumes of water, and hoses connecting those vats, find the most cost effective way to achieve a desired volume level in certain vats.

Should the program automatically decide how best to distribute the vats given the bot's desired levels?  Or should the bot have to figure out for itself exactly how to redistribute the vats?

[Elite]

Yeah, definately going to be interesting ...

Probably need the whole system planned out first, then it can be implemented without too much of a fragmented feel to it

The problem is that metabolism is also linked very closely to the env grid and cell specialisation

As for your vat problem - I think I understand what you're trying to say:
 - Should the program control metabloism and the metabolic DNA just list enzymes
 - Or should the metabolic DNA have to go through the whole process

I can see arguments for both. How about a poll  :D

[Numsgil]

Poll away :D