TWEAKING THE ECOLOGY



You can fiddle with the delicate ecology of Darwin Pond using the Tweak Ecology feature.  The things you can change here affect the overall behavior of the swimmers and food as a whole system.  The Tweak Ecology Feature allows you to alter the following:



Food Growth Switch

This turns on or off the capacity for food to regenerate itself.  When this is "off", no new food will grow in the pond.  When it is "on", existing food bits (if there are any) will send off seeds which land somewhere in the pond and appear as new bits.  



Food Growth Rate  

This affects the rate at which new food bits are regenerated.  A lower setting causes food to regenerate slowly.  A higher setting causes food to regenerate quickly.  



Food Spread

This affects the distance that new food seeds are spread across the pond as they regenerate.  If this is set low, then new food bits will appear close to pre-existing food bits, creating tight clusters.  If it is set high, then new food bits will spread larger distances across the pond and eventually fill the whole pond.  



Energy Transferred From Mating


When two swimmers mate, they each give up a certain amount  of energy which is transferred to their offspring.  Under normal conditions, the offspring get just enough energy to get to food before starving, but are born hungry.  The parents usually are hungry after mating because of the energy they have given up for their offspring.  Changing this value can cause major differences in the way a population grows.  If it is set to the lowest setting, parents contribute nothing to their offspring and so their children die immediately.  If it is set to the highest setting, the parents take a big hit, and sometimes die as a result.  What's the ideal amount a parent should give its offspring?  It probably depends on many other factors.  Explore.  



Energy From Food

This affects the amount of energy a swimmer gets when it eats a food bit.  If this is set at the lowest setting, the swimmer gets no energy.  If it is set high, the swimmer gets lots of energy and its proboscis thickens to show it.  



Hunger Level

This affects the amount of energy swimmers can stand to have before they get hungry and start looking for food.  If this is set at the lowest setting, swimmers will continue the mating game up to the moment they are starved.  If hunger limit is set high, swimmers will find themselves hungry almost all the time, and will gorge most of their lives.  Disgusting.  



Maximum Life Span

This determines the maximum age swimmers can live to before they die of old age.  If this is set at the lowest setting, swimmers will all immediately die.  If it is set at the highest setting, swimmers have the potential to live for 80,000 ticks.  