Alternating Life and a close Life-like rule (not with HighLife, though, because sparks are greatly favoured for some reason) allows a brilliantly interesting rule to be conceived.
My example, called AltLife (alternating Life) alternates Life with B3/S238, and there are huge differences from both. For starters, the Herschel is a 10818-generation methuselah! However, I think that this rule does not explode indefinitely, which is useful. Either way, it is easily controlled.
Code: Select all
@RULE AltLife
@TABLE
n_states:3
neighborhood:Moore
symmetries:permute
var a={0,1,2}
var b=a
var c=a
var d=a
var e=a
var f=a
var g=a
var h=a
var i=a
# Life transitions
0,1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,2
1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,2
1,1,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,2
# B3/S238 transitions
0,2,2,2,0,0,0,0,0,1
2,2,2,0,0,0,0,0,0,1
2,2,2,2,0,0,0,0,0,1
2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,1
# default
a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,0
@COLORS
color=1 255 255 255
color=2 225 225 225
#colours can be changedObviously, it is fundamentally important that only one type of living cell is alive at a certain generation.
Just to note that my example may not be the most interesting one, so feel free to find more interesting rules with the same concept (or even some weird ones: LPLLP where L is Life and P is B3/S238).
Syntheses, oscillators and spaceships will also depend on which rule is the initial one, e.g. in AltLife, HWSS with the lower populated phase in Life will die, but if it has the higher one in CGoL, it is stable.
I propose the lower cell count in CGoL to be the standard form, with syntheses carried out by gliders in a CGoL starting point.
