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Project HYDRA

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TheArchivist:
Well, Hello Everyone.
I suppose it's time for my introduction. *clears throat*
I was introduced to this game by a friend.
Seems quite interesting, but I didn't have any really good ideas to write...
Until recently.

Consider the following:

We have a single robot, the "egg". The egg contains genes for all the cells in the multi-cellular organism in question. The trick is that, given the default values, none of them work! When the egg feels that it should start growing (work with me here), it sets its first racial memory slot, and divides.

This is the clever part. When the next cell in line is produced, it stores the info in that first slot into a variable. (Make sure this slot is secure!) Now, for each gene that you want the new cell to use, each gene will check this variable to determine whether or not the gene should execute. Imagine - a single robot splitting into a diverse Organism!!! The possibilities are endless.

Coming next... Why I call it "HYDRA"

-TheArchivist
P.S. Feel free to add any comments, suggestions, etc. I'd like this to be a nice read for other Multi-Cellular programmers out there.

P.P.S. ARGH! I can't take it anymore!

My idea was that the egg would produce exactly one cell, the "head". The head then runs around, grabs a bite to eat, and then eventually creates a "tail" cell, which ties itself to the head. The head transfers energy to the tail, so that energy levels in the tail build up. When the tail gets enough energy, it creates another tail attached to it; at that point, the first tail stops trying to reproduce and simply passes energy, etc. down the line.
The brilliant part is this: if the tail realizes it's no longer getting energy - that is, if the connection to the head is severed - it switches behaviour. No longer is it a tail; it switches the variable mentioned in the first part of the post, and becomes for all purposes a HEAD!
In this manner the organism can "grow" and is rather difficult to eradicate.
How to reproduce? Let me get back to that later  

P.P.P.S.

On second thought, I'll go out and say it:

I'm having trouble understanding how robot programming works. That's why these ideas are still merely that. I'd appreciate help.

Numsgil:
The trick here is going to be, (aside from learning the DNA language which can take a little while) keeping the DNA organized.  As I see it, you'll have 3 groups:
 
 1.  DNA both types use
 2.  Head DNA
 3.  Tail DNA
 
 I would start programming just a simple head.  Once you have your head more or less done, you'd need to move on to all the tie controls.

Elite:
The thread name just gave me a great idea:

HYDRA Mk1
The more energy it has, the more heads it grows

TheArchivist:
Nice to see I've inspired a few minds out there.

Now, I recently thought of a novel use for the Hydra.

It's going to get complicated, so bear with me.

Now, a robot can only have four ties, and I hope everyone already is aware of that.
This is a limit, among other things, on the power that a battery bot can have.

So! What does that mean, you may ask? The Hydra may be able to find food, but if it finds a veggie, hopefully it will be able to 1) Tie the head to said veggie, and 2) pass the veggie down the line of tails. In this way, the hydra can store massive amounts of energy, and also gets a little passive defense as well

Of course, there are a few problems here. What if, for instance, the hydra cannot afford to stay close to the veggie for the twenty turns it takes for the ties to harden? (Once hardened, the head can change the angle of the veggie, so the veggie gets passed down one step.)

I've thought of a solution, but it seems overly complicated. Take a third "throwaway" cell, that doesn't take a lot of energy to produce. Deploy said cell to the plants once the head sees one, and then the "veggie scout" can find its way back to the head, which passes it down the line as before. Still, this does provide some unusual benefits (for instance, the scouts may be able, eventually, to relay information about the location of the plants).

Some thoughts to stew over! -The Archivist

P.S. Would this sort of thing be a Single Cell organism, or a MultiBot organism? Haven't quite worked that out yet.

TheArchivist:
Recently I thought of a final elaboration to the Hydra's structure.

The biggest problem a hydra is likely to run into is that it inadvertently consumes conspecific batteries. I think I've thought of a solution: I am under the impression that ties do not have any collision detection, so this should work. The scout is tied to the spine, but it pops out and moves the veggie it is attached to inwards so that a) the hydra can recognize conspecifics easily and  the hydra can easily defend itself from a side attack.

On another note, I've started experimenting with coding, and there's some problems with how eggs work that I'll have to work out before this is feasible. I already know that this project will probably be one of the more complicated ones.

Does anyone know how to get a multicellular organism to turn? I had some ideas, but they're pretty much unworkable.

-TheArchivist

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