Reduce player species spawn rate and make on stage radius bigger

simulation_parameters/Constants.cs

@@ -102,6 +102,30 @@ public static class Constants
 
     public const float MIN_DISTANCE_FROM_PLAYER_FOR_SPAWN = SPAWN_SECTOR_SIZE - 10;
 
+    /// <summary>
+    ///   Used to reduce how commonly the player species spawns to make it more likely for the player to encounter
+    ///   other species.
+    /// </summary>
+    public const float PLAYER_SPECIES_SPAWN_MULTIPLIER = 0.5f;
+
+    /// <summary>
+    ///   Smaller spawn penalty to make binding agents easier to use with better player species spawn rates.
+    /// </summary>
+    public const float PLAYER_SPECIES_SPAWN_MULTIPLIER_BINDING_AGENTS = 0.7f;
+
+    /// <summary>
+    ///   Cells farther than this are forced to move towards the player to get on screen to give better activity
+    ///   from our limited entity count. Lower values let farther away cells to just chill without having to move.
+    /// </summary>
+    public const float ON_STAGE_THRESHOLD_AROUND_PLAYER = 0.71f;
+
+    /// <summary>
+    ///   Sets much randomness is added on each axis (X and Z) for a cell's target to move to the player position to
+    ///   get "on stage"
+    ///   Larger values add more randomness to cells moving towards the player.
+    /// </summary>
+    public const float ON_STAGE_DESTINATION_RANDOMNESS = 20;
+
     /// <summary>
     ///   Scale factor for density of compound cloud spawns
     /// </summary>

src/microbe_stage/PatchManager.cs

@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ public void OnPropertiesLoaded()
     }
 
     /// <summary>
-    ///   Applies all patch related settings that are needed to be set. Like different spawners, despawning old
+    ///   Applies all patch-related settings that are needed to be set. Like different spawners, despawning old
     ///   entities if the patch changed etc.
     /// </summary>
     /// <param name="currentPatch">The patch to apply settings from</param>
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ public bool ApplyChangedPatchSettingsIfNeeded(Patch currentPatch, IMicrobeSpawnE
 
         GD.Print($"Applying patch ({currentPatch.Name}) settings");
 
-        // Update environment for process system
+        // Update environment for the process system
         processSystem.SetBiome(currentPatch.Biome);
 
         // Apply spawn system settings
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ public bool ApplyChangedPatchSettingsIfNeeded(Patch currentPatch, IMicrobeSpawnE
     }
 
     /// <summary>
-    ///   Updates spawn system settings for current patch
+    ///   Updates spawn system settings for the current patch
     /// </summary>
     public void UpdateSpawners(Patch currentPatch, IMicrobeSpawnEnvironment spawnEnvironment)
     {
@@ -253,6 +253,29 @@ private void HandleCellSpawns(Patch patch, IMicrobeSpawnEnvironment spawnEnviron
             var density = MathF.Max(MathF.Log(population / Constants.MICROBE_SPAWN_DENSITY_POPULATION_MULTIPLIER) *
                 Constants.MICROBE_SPAWN_DENSITY_SCALE_FACTOR, 0.0f);
 
+            if (entry.Key.PlayerSpecies)
+            {
+                // Adjust player species spawn rate as there have been too many complaints about the player just seeing
+                // their own species
+
+                // Except if the player is maybe looking for binding opportunities, then reduce the spawns much less
+                bool hasBinding = false;
+
+                if (entry.Key is MicrobeSpecies microbeSpecies)
+                {
+                    hasBinding = microbeSpecies.Organelles.Any(o => o.Definition.HasBindingFeature);
+                }
+
+                if (hasBinding)
+                {
+                    density *= Constants.PLAYER_SPECIES_SPAWN_MULTIPLIER_BINDING_AGENTS;
+                }
+                else
+                {
+                    density *= Constants.PLAYER_SPECIES_SPAWN_MULTIPLIER;
+                }
+            }
+
             var name = species.ID.ToString(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
 
             HandleSpawnHelper(microbeSpawners, name, density,

src/microbe_stage/systems/MicrobeAISystem.cs

@@ -456,11 +456,22 @@ private void ChooseActions(in Entity entity, ref MicrobeAI ai, ref CompoundAbsor
             if (potentiallyKnownPlayerPosition != null)
             {
                 // Only move if we aren't sessile
+                // The threshold is not too high so that not all cells are forced to move
                 if (position.Position.DistanceSquaredTo(potentiallyKnownPlayerPosition.Value) >
-                    Math.Pow(Constants.SPAWN_SECTOR_SIZE, 2) * 0.75f &&
+                    Math.Pow(Constants.SPAWN_SECTOR_SIZE, 2) * Constants.ON_STAGE_THRESHOLD_AROUND_PLAYER &&
                     !isSessile)
                 {
-                    ai.MoveToLocation(potentiallyKnownPlayerPosition.Value, ref control, entity);
+                    // And some randomness is added here so that each cell doesn't literally want to move to the exact
+                    // same position
+                    // TODO: this probably gets re-called for each cell quite often so this randomness may not be
+                    // very efficient as the values will average out over multiple calls
+                    var randomness =
+                        new Vector3(random.NextSingle() * Constants.ON_STAGE_DESTINATION_RANDOMNESS -
+                            Constants.ON_STAGE_DESTINATION_RANDOMNESS * 0.5f, 0,
+                            random.NextSingle() * Constants.ON_STAGE_DESTINATION_RANDOMNESS -
+                            Constants.ON_STAGE_DESTINATION_RANDOMNESS * 0.5f);
+
+                    ai.MoveToLocation(potentiallyKnownPlayerPosition.Value + randomness, ref control, entity);
                     return;
                 }
 
@@ -470,7 +481,7 @@ private void ChooseActions(in Entity entity, ref MicrobeAI ai, ref CompoundAbsor
 
         var isIronEater = organelles.IronBreakdownEfficiency > 0;
 
-        // Siderophore is experimental feature
+        // Siderophore is an experimental feature
         if (!gameWorld!.WorldSettings.ExperimentalFeatures)
             isIronEater = false;