How can I include the effect of patches age in netlogo? - netlogo

Question

How can I accomplish the following in the code below:
patches change color reflective of their distance from the row "min-pycor"
For example, colors alternate from yellow to red and then to black (signifying death).
But this should take into account that the production of yellow patches > red > black.
turtles-own
[
stem? ;; true for stem cells, false for transitory cells
age ;; age of cell. changes color with age
metastatic? ;; false for progeny of stem cell 0, true for progeny of stem cell 1
]
globals
[
cell-count
]
to setup
clear-all
set-default-shape turtles "square"
ask patches[
if pycor = min-pycor [
ifelse random 10 <= 2
[set pcolor white]
[sprout 1 [set shape "square" set color blue] ]
]
]
evaluate-params
reset-ticks
end
to go
ask patches with [pcolor = yellow]
[if count neighbors with [pcolor = black] > 0
[ask one-of neighbors with [pcolor = black][set pcolor yellow]
]
]
ask patches with [pcolor = white]
[if count neighbors with [pcolor = black] > 0
[ask one-of neighbors with [pcolor = black][set pcolor yellow]
]
]
tick
end
;;transitional cells move and hatch more. Turtle proc.
to move-transitional-cells
if (not stem?)
[
set color ( red + 0.25 * age )
fd 1
if (age < 6)
[
hatch 1
[ ;amplification
rt random-float 360
fd 1
]
]
]
end
to mitosis ;; turtle proc. - stem cells only
if stem?
[
hatch 1
[
fd 1
set color red
set stem? false
ifelse (who = 1)
[ set age 16 ]
[ set age 0 ]
]
]
end
to death ;; turtle proc.
if (not stem?) and (not metastatic?) and (age > 20)
[ die ]
if (not stem?) and metastatic? and (age > 4)
[ die ]
end
to evaluate-params
set cell-count count turtles ;cell count
if (cell-count <= 0)
[ stop ]
end
to kill-original-stem-cell
ask turtle 0
[ die ]
end
to kill-moving-stem-cell
ask turtle 1
[ die ]
end
to kill-transitory-cells
ask turtles with [ age < 10 and not stem? ]
[ die ]
end

Answer 1

You seem to have two conflicting requirements, the color change based on proximity in your code, and the color change based on PYCOR that you ask about.
Ignoring the code for a moment, we can set color based on PYCOR in many ways. For example, we can create bands of color, we can create dithered interminglings of color, or we can create a "smooth" transition between colors.
The first is easy. We can use an IFELSE structure. This example creates even bands, but you can change the "divide" variables to create bands of any height.
let color1 red
let color2 yellow
let color3 black
let divide1 (min-pycor + world-height * 0.33)
let divide2 (min-pycor + world-height * 0.66)
ask patches
[ ifelse pycor < divide1 [ set pcolor color1 ][
ifelse pycor < divide2 [ set pcolor color2 ][
set pcolor color3
]]
]
We can also do it in a mathy way. This example creates even bands.
let colors [ red yellow black ]
let bands length colors
let band-height floor ( world-height / bands + .5 )
;; pycor - min-pycor shifts the range from 0 to world-height
ask patches [ set pcolor item ( floor ( ( pycor - min-pycor ) / band-height ) ) colors ]
We can create dithered bands by introducing a random element to the pycor. we also have to add some tests to keep the random numbers in range.
let colors [ red yellow black ]
let bands length colors
let band-height floor (world-height / bands + .5)
let dither band-height * .5 ;; adjust this to change dithery-ness
ask patches
[ let py pycor - min-pycor + dither - random-float ( dither * 2 )
;; you might want to really study the above line to fully grok what's happening there
if py < 0 [ set py 0 ]
if py > world-height [ set py world-height ]
set pcolor item ( floor ( py / band-height ) ) colors
]
Graduated (gradiant) bands are tougher, because the NetLogo color space doesn't do gradual shifts in hue, only tint and shade, so there's really no way to get from red to yellow that way. So we would have to use RGB (three value list)colors, instead of NetLogo (single value) colors. And that's beyond what I'm willing to type out at the moment, so there you go--left as an exersize.