Heatbug thoughts...

[bleydorf]

All (who are interested),

I have started thinking of a radically different way of doing the
heatbugs birth/death/lifespan...

At the simulation start, create the maximum number of bugs allowed in
this population, (in the default world, 80 by 80 -> 6400 bugs), but you
might set it lower than that.  Then have status flags, (ie. limbo, baby,
mature, dead), where that is the order that the lifespan follows.  You
could even had different behaviour for the various life stages, (ie.
baby bugs move randomly, mature bugs follow "normal" movement rules,
dead bugs absorb heat, instead of create heat, bugs in limbo don't do
anything.)

You could implement a Age variable, or just make changes in its
happiness level control the stage it's in.

The only problems this presents, is that after the initial creation,
would each bug have static aspects, ie. output heat, comfort level.  And
if they did, how could aspects be passed down from generation to
generation...  I have figured out how to create my own pixmaps, I
re-created the mature heatbug pixmap, and also a baby pixmap and a dead
pixmap (with the bug on its back, could pixmaps be controled by a flag
or once a heatbug's pixmap is set, would it be set in stone?  Would I
have to re-create a bug to re-set its pixmap?

I fear that many of these changes would require heatbugs to be
re-written greatly, not just minor changes and tweaks.

What do you think?

Brad.

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