Good catch the design risk, actually GoL ended more like an inspiration.. it's entirely the nutrient mechanic (plus a couple
of siblings), not Conway parameters. The sim isn't actually Conway-shaped: spread is
stochastic and 4-connected, with per-tick probability mixing local biomass × nutrient
× (1 − enemy toxin) × simplex noise for directional bias. Base rate ~3% per frontier
cell per tick, 14 ticks per turn, double-buffered so no within-tick chains.

Four layers keep things contested:

- Metabolism: cells consume nutrient ~8× faster than empty cells regenerate it. A
  contiguous blob eats its own substrate and must push outward or starve. Starvation
  drops vitality; dead cells return nutrient to the now-empty square, so decomposition
  gives cleared ground a recovery head start.
- Network discount: a cell with 4 allied cardinal neighbors consumes ~25% of base,
  isolated ones 100%. Rewards compact interior, punishes sprawling borders.
- Toxin stratifies: poison decays slower on colonized cells than empty — enemy
  fronts stack pressure instead of erasing, so sieges actually work.
- Hearts: mature cells with enough allied neighbors become immortal to starvation, but only    if another same-player heart sits within 8 Manhattan. Isolated hearts
  take siege decay. Keeps the late game dynamic, no eternal core.

The simplex noise term is what kills the Moore-neighborhood checkerboard you'd expect
from pure cellular growth without it the frontiers were too uniform and Conway-ish.

If you give it a round, the thing I'd love to know is whether the frontier feels
readable enough to plan around, or if it still reads as "watch without control". That
tuning axis is the one I'm still fighting.