Most appropriate way to add Methuselah lifeforms

[ahoward-cf]

@ljvmiranda921 suggested a new issue for this would be appropriate.

I would like to add a couple of Methuselah lifeforms (namely Thunderbird and Century) but their nature makes it difficult to decide where best to place them.

• Unlike oscillators, Methuselahs do not return to their initial state - thus they are unsuited to the oscillator class.
• They decay into many smaller lifeforms, often mixtures of still life, oscillators, and spaceships - thus they are not still life lifeforms.
• They generally require large canvases, and long integration times before they stabilize. This may require some thought as to how best to instantiate them.

As such, a new class/sub-class may be best. But in addition to the above, they are rarely used in combination with other lifeforms (as other lifeforms will disrupt the evolution towards the steady state). Would they be better as examples? Or as something entirely new?

[ljvmiranda921]

Hi @ahoward-cf ! I think they should belong to another module entirely, similar to how we treated Oscillators and what-not.
You can follow how we did the other classes and setup a new file that includes it! Just note that this time:

• Create a new python file / module (methuselah.py)
• Implement atleast 1 Lifeform under that family
• Update the imports in lifeforms/init.py

Update docstrings in the following files:

• lifeforms/init.py (include the new module)
• Check if docs were thoroughly updated

I may have missed something, but I think that's a comprehensive list for implementing the module!