But it would prove more worthwile then specializations would.
Instead of having:
'Alga Minimalis UPDATED
spec
5 photo spec
stop
cond
*.nrg 6000 >
start
50 .repro store
15 .aimdx store
stop
end
We could have:
'Alga Minimalis UPDATED
body
1 .photo build
1 .wharvest build
1 .wrecycle build
stop
cond
*.nrg 6000 >
start
50 .repro store
15 .aimdx store
stop
cond
start
50 *.sunlight div .photo store
50 .wharvest store
50 .wrecycle store
stop
end
To explain, .sunlight is how much light the bot is getting, .photo is pretty much how I described it in the first post, .wharvest is something that allows you to gather waste from the enviroment easily, and .wrecycle turns waste into energy.
To further explain the mechanics of the latter system, body is what starts a one-time running system that builds the bot's mechanics. It can be affected by mutation as well. It can use the stacking system as it pleases, and any memory locations that exist.
Build takes the last item from the stack, and builds it. If there's a second last item on the stack, it'll build it by that many times.
To see, you would need to build an .eye, as well as any features you want from it (without any special features, it'd tell you simple stuff like .refbody, but not stuff like .refshoot).
What's the advantage of building a mechanic multiple times? It allows more energy to be used.
Why not simply build everything that exists? Because each mechanic you build will cost energy, and generate waste.
If the user set the energy cost to 1 per mechanic, and the waste gain to 0.2 per mechanic, that Alga Minimalis would lose 3 energy per turn, and gain 0.6 waste per turn.
Waste will sooner or later become permanent waste with any particularily efficient robots, which will build up, and give it mortality.
Energy costs mean making a good energy efficient bot will become slightly more complicated.
(Note: Certain mechanics could have unusual functions when building more then one. One eye, for example, could allow the maximum to become 25, or 50. Two would double it. Of course, there'd be a limit to such things, such as 5-10 eyes being built (even though in reality, the bot would only have one, that's 5-10 times as good!))