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Talk:Base Genome

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So... there's clearly still a ton that needs to be done with this, so here's a list of wishes/concerns/thoughts/considerations:

  • Should the comparison chart be its own page split off from the base genome article? It's clear this is a bigger project than I initially realized.
  • I feel like this chart could be organized/ordered better but I'm not entirely sure how to section it. Like it could be split into categories like brain/behavioral/metabolism/immune system/ etc but even categorizing those is sometimes hard to divide with how much things intersect. It might also be organized by things like "literal bugfixes" vs "small tweaks" vs "entire system overhauls", I dunno.
  • I'd also like to somehow address things like recommended/required additional patches and cosfiles for breeds to function optimally, like how CFE+ creatures benefit from an updated breeding script, and some breed functions rely on the sensorimotor script for the input to function.
  • I'm not entirely sure if abusing the reference tag is the best way to handle all the individual notes about each feature/implementation but I'm not sure of a better way to do it other than making them literal separate pages which makes sense for some things, but not all things.
    • Maybe there should be a page specifically for "common genetic changes/enhancements" with separate sections for each change and a little about how they are implemented in different breeds and then the links could point to those sections.
    • Or maybe common changes should be added as subsections of existing pages (like common instinct changes might be added to the page about instincts, and so on)
    • There's also the issue that I haven't found a wiki-markup-converter that leaves the ref tags intact so it's just a lot of work to edit the chart with them. Anyone know of one that works?
  • I'm also kind of struggling to find a good balance between putting literally every change here and keeping it more general while also not losing too much informative detail. Like maybe rather than listing three different types of drowning response it would be better to list "Drowning response" and then in the boxes something like "Yes - Fear" and "Yes - Up Drive" and "Yes - Emergency 'Go Home' Tract".
    • Similarly though I still want to focus a lot on implementation details rather than general concepts-- things like "Instincts Based On Real Animals" might technically apply to several breeds but their implementations might vary greatly. I'd like to see things like that broken down into more specific implementation details but I'm not sure how to do that without overwhelming the list with itemized stuff like "Instinct to eat leaf"/"No instinct to push buttons"/"Less instinct to push doors"/etc, though maybe that is ultimately still the better solution, maybe it's just inevitable that this becomes huge and unwieldy, lol.
    • This is also why this chart is still missing things like the TWB immune system overhauls and metabolism overhauls, I'm just not sure exactly how to break them down into useful points of information that will help people in making a decision.
  • Maybe this whole chart is terrible and maybe instead of doing a yes/no/maybe* for a hundred or so features should be greatly simplified it should be broken into things like "Brain/Social Interactions/Metabolism/Immune System/Instincts/Environmental Needs/Etc" and then each box for each base breed contains a synopsis of how each of those systems function. I feel like that would lose a lot of information and nuance but might make direct comparisons easier. I dunno. Maybe something in between.


All in all this probably isn't ever going to be perfect or all-encompassing but I'd like it to at least be useful, via whatever solutions or overhauls we might come up with.

-- Aiko

My main thoughts are:
  • The reference notes are really hard to read for me due to them being in multiple, narrow columns and relatively far from the original reference. This would get even worse if we added C1/C2 genomes.
  • The table has too many rows to easily read and understand, especially when many of them have the same no/?/yes pattern. The Gizmos only appear to have two fixes that are shared with CFE and derivative breeds, and enhanced ChiChis only one, so between that and how much explanation some of the rows need, I'm not sure a table is the best way to go.
  • I will also note that I have the above issues on my large laptop screen; the table becomes difficult to read on mobile or in a smaller window because of how much space it requires. I don't know if there's a way to make it more mobile-friendly.
It may be easier to read if the changes are described in text or with bulleted lists. We could describe the changes in the 'base' base genomes (Gizmo/enhanced ChiChi/CFE/maybe add Amanora's?), and then describe the additional changes in genomes based on previous genomes (CFE > Colortrue & CFF, CFF > 2017 & TWB).
If you want to keep the table, I think it should be split up or at least organized into subsections to be less overwhelming, and explanations either put directly under each section or in the first column itself so they are easier to read. Maybe the sections could be mutation changes, bugfixes, behavioral changes, and metabolic changes? As you note, tweaks often overlap categories, but I think the existing rows could be put in one of those without too much confusion. Noting some common changes like the instincts on other pages would probably be a good idea as well. Allekha 02:44, 20 May 2022 (UTC)