Reproduction

The key to long-term survival of a species in a world with entropy is the ability to Reproduce. Evagents can also do so to prolong their solution to the problem of survival in an entropic world in two methods: Budding and Mating. The agents have both a genetic trait and an output, which when added together determine the agent's ability to perform one over the other. A Reproduction Counter (aka Repcounter) takes a portion of intake every tick according to Metabolism, and when it is full, it enables the miraculous action of reproduction!


All methods:

All methods of reproduction have some basic features. As mentioned, the Repcounter has to be filled, but this counter's max fill value is variable, depending on a couple factors:

  • It cannot be less than a minimum value, currently hardcoded at 8.

  • Each extra baby increases the amount by a configurable amount (REP_PER_BABY).

  • The sqrt(radius / MEANRADIUS) is further applied, so having lots of tiny agents is effective, as is having larger, but fewer children, but not both.

These settings come together so that agents which have 2 babies and are average in radius have no penalties, nor do Tiny Agents with ~4 babies, nor do oversized agents (2x MEANRADIUS) with ~1 babies.

Mother agents also must have a minimum health level, regardless of mode of reproduction. If they have less, they simply will not be able to reproduce.


Budding

Asexual reproduction via Budding is most common at the start of the simulation, in fact, it would be extraordinarily difficult to see a species which started sexually. Budding simply requires a Mother (with Sexual Projection total less than 0.5) to fill her Repcounter completely, and provided she has enough health, she will reproduce. Note however that "having enough health" does NOT guarantee that the mother will survive the reproduction, because notably there is a health penalty for large Radius when reproducing Asexually.


Mating

Agents in the world can also sexually reproduce with each other. The agents must meet multiple conditions in order to successfully reproduce this way:

  • There must be one "mother" and one "father" within the distance defined as "SEXTING_DISTANCE". A mother is an agent with a cumulative Sexual Projection value > 0.5 but < 1, and a father is an agent with cumulative Sexual Projection > 1.

  • Agents which are fathers cannot themselves reproduce; the act of reproducing is withheld for mothers. The father in this scenario only serves as a source of "genetic material"

  • The father must still have a repcounter < 0, indicating sexual maturity.

  • The agents must be within the mother's kin-range. If the mother's kin-range is 0 they must reproduce with other agents with exactly their species ID.

If all these conditions are met, the agent reproduces sexually, and the offspring are potentially advantageous mixtures of both parent's traits.