If it was enabled to work for ties and faster, it would be easier. Possibly allow it to only work for the birth tie to prevent abuse.
Well', I'd rather do the opposite: that is, unify birth ties and normal ties. Say that birth ties last forever, and robots have to actively delete them if they want to detach from the parent/son. Yes, this could lead - in case of mutations- to huge agglomerates of cells; but if ties are well managed (read: if the program don't crash) those agglomerates should be rapidly defeated by unmutated bots, more efficient.
Hmm. abuse... abuse... but, isn't it worse, to allow robots to shoot genes, instead of pumping them through ties? I mean, shooting viruses around is much more dangerous, viruses can spread much more easily. So maybe I'd rather kill the ability to shoot genes, and leave it all to ties.
Probably viruses are not yet mutated, but they should. It would be very interesting, and become necessary if they become a reproduction method.
Carlo