NESLife attempt #3

[marauder68]

Theres no flying fins in the cold, should I remove that gene?

Flying Fang: marauder68
Evolved from: Flying fin
Genes added: Flying +1, Jaws x1, Flesh eating x1
Genes (12): Plankton Eating x3, Swimming x3, Vibration Sense x1, Eyes x1, Cold Resistance x1, Flying x2, Jaws x1, flesh eating x1

The flying fin is already the fastest swimmer but they need more energy than they can get from just plankton. they evolved jaws and the abilty to eat flesh which improved their metabolosm. Their main food is still plankton, but they can feed on other fish when the opportunity arises. They also grew larger fins allowing them to glide for longer distances than before.

 

[Splime]

I decided to make a crude evolution chart of my species and their descendants:

Red X's indicate that the species was extinct the same turn it "evolved", and an orange X indicates that the species became extinct later on.

 

[cvlowe]

I started on a mind-map chart, but I'm only complete up to generation 2. I'll try and finish at least a generation a day. I decided to start from scratch because I wanted them layed out by generation.

 

[erez87]

yuo can use my older one for reference. I lack only the 2-3 last updates.

 

[cvlowe]

I started with one of the ones that was posted at generation 4, not sure if it was yours or another one. I'm spacing it out so each generation is in a column by itself, and I found a couple errors in it I fixed too.

 

[Niklas]

@Daftpanzer: Great update, as always. I just love those images.

EDIT: Though the honorary mention of Algaceae Dendrorethermis should instead be Dendrocovitis I presume? That's the one living in the cold waters. (re-thermis = return to the warmth; co-vitis = living together, the first version I did, in the cold)

@TerrisH: Well, if it's war you want... I don't mind grazers, they can never pose a serious threat in the long run since they are dependent on the plants that they graze. But grazing plants?? Oh no, time to draw the line...

Also I would like to add my voice to those offering others to evolve off of their critter. I would be nothing but delighted if someone wanted to evolve my algae further.

 

[cvlowe]

Why the offers, it's a given that anybody can evolve off any creature!

And if somebody can make a better hunter than me, please feel free

 

[Niklas]

Well, even if the rules say it's alright, there may be a hesitancy to do so still, by sheer politeness. Hence the offers.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

I'm too in love with my Scuterytes.

 

[cvlowe]

They're not as cool looking as my Hunters

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Give them some time to evolve...

 

[Daftpanzer]

thanks for all the input! replies and stuff in a bit

@Mauritania, i forgot your story! You should have a story bonus for +1 gene if you want to use it. I'll edit the update to add this.

There was another planet called 'Blue Moon' where giant insects hunted guargantuian sky whales.

I may have seen this program. IIRC it was a world with a denser atmosphere so it was easyier for stuff to float with hydrogen sacs etc.

 

[cvlowe]

I remember reading a book about an expedition to Jupiter, where they found giant flying creatures resembling sea life- able to fly due to the dense atmosphere. The surface was a single creature with mouths that ate the dead things that fell, but occasionally chunks of it would get blown up through the atmosphere due to some reason I can't remember- like a flying sheet with mouths all over the surface.

Can't for the life of me remember the name of the book though.

Edit:
Woot! 500th post!

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Sounds like something I read in an Asimov book a while back...

Congrats!

 

[cvlowe]

Could be, I remember the creatures all had 2 brains so at least one would always be awake.

 

[Mauritania]

I may have seen this program. IIRC it was a world with a denser atmosphere so it was easyier for stuff to float with hydrogen sacs etc.

Yeah that was right, I think the planet had a higher oxygen content because 'forest' fires were common place and spread quickly. New spores had to be burnt in order to germinate because the canopy was about a mile from the ground and light never made it through to the floor unless the trees were burnt.

 

[Daftpanzer]

@Disenfrancied, im still not ok with your creature having no swimming! It needs some kind of animal or plant stage in its life-cycle. I wont allow species that are just parasitical filaments… A large-medium sized insect is about as small as im willing to get in this game (except maybe hive species something like ants). Im assuming there’s all kinds of parasites and really tiny critters floating around already (all that stuff counts towards plankton I guess).

BTW, a kind of ‘plankton’ might appear on land later, tiny land insects and stuff that aren’t counted as species, but will count as a food source.

I decided to make a crude evolution chart of my species and their descendants:

That is really cool

EDIT: Though the honorary mention of Algaceae Dendrorethermis should instead be Dendrocovitis I presume? That's the one living in the cold waters. (re-thermis = return to the warmth; co-vitis = living together, the first version I did, in the cold)

That’s right of course, my mistake

Theres no flying fins in the cold, should I remove that gene?

Hmm, I should have shown one in the pic for the cold seas. I imagine some do live there. Its probably a good thing to have right now, but most of the plankton is in the warm sea. As the creature gets higher energy demands, fewer will be able to live in the cold (unless you start to feed more on animals instead of plankton).

BTW, something like ‘cartilage’ would be good for your creature, to help anchor the muscles in place for all that swimming and flying (‘skeleton’ might be too heavy!). Also it could probably do with Gills or Lungs at some point, to keep its metabolism going, and allow longer bursts of speed.

Is there a rule of thumb for how many energy genes are needed as a percentage of overall number of genes?

Without getting too complicated, all I can do is mention these problems in the update, whenever they become a problem . It all depends on what kind of things the animal does...

The problem is you had 11 genes, some of them more energy-taxing, like live birth, gills for faster metabolism etc, with just one gene for actually processing what it can catch and providing the energy. Flesh eating level 2 in your new evolution will make things better. Level 3 would be great for your creature. Level 4 would be really efficient!

I thought I had responded to this, but I don't see it...

Yes, that would help greatly!

Ive attached a ZIP with all the stats files (word .docs). Im afraid only the last couple are nicely ordered era-by-era. The rest have the NPC evolutions listed out of order.

 

[North King]

Hmm, I should have shown one in the pic for the cold seas. I imagine some do live there. Its probably a good thing to have right now, but most of the plankton is in the warm sea. As the creature gets higher energy demands, fewer will be able to live in the cold (unless you start to feed more on animals instead of plankton).

I would just like to point out quickly that on Earth, plankton generally are in greater numbers in the colder waters. Hence why the North Atlantic is gray (from life), whereas some tropical seas are perfectly clear (just plain old water).

 

[Daftpanzer]

forgot one reply:

Daft, how exactly does Cold Resistance work? Does it involve the development of hair/blubber/some form of insulator... or what?

The way i see it, only warm-blooded (high metabloism) creatures would need blubber/fur/feathers/insulation. Other creatures can just adapt their body chemistry to keep working at low temperatures. So its a mix of chemical tricks and insulation depending on the creature. Ill just count it all as 'cold resistance'.

 

[Daftpanzer]

I would just like to point out quickly that on Earth, plankton generally are in greater numbers in the colder waters. Hence why the North Atlantic is gray (from life), whereas some tropical seas are perfectly clear (just plain old water).

Looks like i'll have to get my facts straight. Id just assumed more plankton would exist in warmer and sunnier seas, if the sea currents and levels of nutrients etc were abstracted to some kind of global average.