So I decided to have another look at automata-type behaviour - this time we observe these little swimming creatures and how they try to convert every other creature they come across to their way of thinking.
- Each swimmer can be of the “Circular” or “Squarified” species - Circles turn quicker and lose their speed slower.
- If a swimmer finds another creature directly in front of it, the target swimmer mutates into the species of the attacker. It also adopts their colour and direction.
- If there are multiple creatures within the attacker’s area of influence, the attacker will go for the closest one.
- The faster the creature swims, the smaller its area of influence is… which generally means that slower creatures will win a head-to-head confrontation.
- Colours take about one second to change - which can result in colours becoming “muddied” if a series of quick mutations occurs with others that are mutating at the same time.
- If a swimmer loses all of its boost, it becomes bored and will spontaneously mutate to the alternate species, change to a random colour and swim off in a semi-random direction.
- Darwinism is alive and well as those at the back of the pack will drop off and wont last long.
- They don’t like the mouse!
It’s interesting watching the dynamics when one species and colour seems to dominate the screen.
If you’ve got any ideas on how this can be improved, please let me know. Click here to check out my previous investigation into automata.
