NESLife V

[SouthernKing]

Daft: one question, what's the atmosphere content right now?

 

[MoreEpicThanYou]

Virafilium: MoreEpicThanYou
Evolved from: Venefilium
Genes added: Digestion [Meat] x1, Eyesight x1
Description: Virafilium evolved to become a deadly predator. It uses its new eyes to swim across the sea in search of prey, which it can now eat thanks to its stronger digestive system. It attacks by bashing its spikes into its prey.

 

[Daftpanzer]

Aranofilium description is flawed it says photosynthesizing but it doesn't

Fixed! Thanks - There's probably a few more errors in the stats. I'll find them when updating next time

Daft: one question, what's the atmosphere content right now?

Lacking much in the way of land plants, I'd say we have quite a build up of CO2, some oxygen but probably not enough for a human to breath comfortably, and the equator is still very warm. (Guesstimates: any knowledgeable people feel free to step in here )

The atmosphere is always going to be a little thicker than Earth's, thus gas-floating creatures might be more reasonable here, eventually.

(I know I didn't add any genes for that, but I also never asked for the bright colors in the first place.)

@MoreEpicThanYou I see you are determined to make a predator out of that - it might not be as rewarding as you think! There can be genes for special camouflage, but otherwise I'm giving colour schemes that seem to make sense for lifestyle and etc. I saw it as more important for Venefilium to warn off attacks rather than die in a mutual struggle. Since your ideal prey (sister species drifting in the open water) is still blind at this point, it may be the same again.

 

[MoreEpicThanYou]

Good point, it can keep the bright colors.

 

[Daftpanzer]

A little work in progress:

Spoiler timeline! :

 

[SouthernKing]

Lacking much in the way of land plants, I'd say we have quite a build up of CO2, some oxygen but probably not enough for a human to breath comfortably, and the equator is still very warm. (Guesstimates: any knowledgeable people feel free to step in here )

The atmosphere is always going to be a little thicker than Earth's, thus gas-floating creatures might be more reasonable here, eventually.

What I was wondering is whether or not something analogous to this had happened yet.

 

[erez87]

What I was wondering is whether or not something analogous to this had happened yet.

It probably did considering we have multicellular life...

 

[qoou]

Reserving Alces Felis evolution with aggressive anti-predatory if I may.

 

[Terrance888]

Something else I would like to see/might make myself is a food chain/web. Let's burst some peoples bubbles by showing that their Meat+1 monsters are just tier 1 predators.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Lacking much in the way of land plants, I'd say we have quite a build up of CO2, some oxygen but probably not enough for a human to breath comfortably, and the equator is still very warm. (Guesstimates: any knowledgeable people feel free to step in here )

The Oxygen Catastrophe happened 2.4 billion years ago on Earth, with the advent of cyanobacteria (also known as 'blue-green algae') while the Cambrian began less than 0.6 billion years ago. If our planetary timelines are vaguely similar, then we're somewhere near the Cambrian/Precambrian boundary... while we have developed eyes and sensory organs which are more advanced than in OTL, we haven't yet developed the size and complex body plans that characterized the Cambrian explosion. My point is that the atmosphere has probably already oxygenated, although it is quite possible that things have gone differently in this timeline, and major photosynthesis didn't start up until an era of eukaryotic life.

Here is the Earth's general timeline.

Something else I would like to see/might make myself is a food chain/web. Let's burst some peoples bubbles by showing that their Meat+1 monsters are just tier 1 predators.

Sounds like a project for an ecologist.

 

[Daftpanzer]

horsehockytu: erez87
Mobile filter feeder
Surviving
*Genetic drift: +1 Gene bonus for evolving from this species*
Evolved from: Neofilium
Genes: Trapping Cilia x2, Digestion x1 [Plankton], Swimming x1, Burrowing x1
Description: a small creature that has both a larvae and an adult form. In its larvae form the horsehockytu looks very much like Neofilium (hinting at its evolution) and swims around feeding on bacteria and other small things. Once it finds an area with strong currents and rich water it goes through a small metamorphosis where its cilia specialize in sucking water (and food) in and become stronger, while out of the swimming muscles new back muscles grow that allow the creature to backward burrow into the sand, making it a small tube inside the sand filtering water.

Hydratta: Daftpanzer
Evolved from: horsehockytu
Genes added: Large Size x1, Drifting x1, Tough Skin x1 (yep that is three, this species is granting a bonus for any evolution)
Genes removed: Burrowing x1
Description: the Hydratta evolved as a twist on the horsehockytu's planktonic larval stage. Instead of burrowing into the sediment to become an adult, the Hydratta remains in open water, growing larger and protecting itself within layers of inert tissue sandwiched by mucus. Hydratta can actively swim, but have adapted to become efficient drifters, as they lack any dedicated circulatory system and their enlarged bodies can rapidly de-oxygenate with too much exertion.

 

[filli_noctus]

viridi grabattum: filli_noctus
Evolved from: Pioneer
Genes added: Roots x1, Cold resistance x1, Colonial x1 (symbiosis +1)
Description: The pioneer species colonised rivers, lakes and ponds across many landmasses thanks to its' unique (for the time) aerodynamic ability. However the inland water bodies lacked the practically unlimited space for reproduction that the ocean provided. In response the viridi grabattum developed.
A lineage of pioneers had developed primitive roots that allowed them more efficient water and nutrient uptake. As the smaller pools became filled and eventually choked with pioneers some of these proto-v. grabattum were forced onto the shore where their roots allowed them to maintain water uptake. The evolution that made v. grabattum a distinct species came when they developed the ability to join together via their roots and share water and nutrients. This allowed the v. grabattum in a pool to provide water to an extended network of their species stretching potentially a couple of metres from the pool. In exchange those on land would supply the richer soil nutrients to those in the water. In areas with many pools in close proximity the entire land could be covered in a green carpet with land and water practically indistinguishable.
To cope with dropping temperatures v. grabattum developed the ability to create sorbitol in response to low temperatures, allowing water and nutrient flow to continue even in freezing conditions.

 

[Daftpanzer]

As the Deepgnu settled into life as the scavenger of deep sea based scavenging, it became apparent that this lifestyle wasn't productive. They would have to wait until they saw a dead corpse or the rare patch of Algae to eat, and with the darkness it was a literal shot in the dark to find those two things.

Just want to point out, scavenging works just fine for a lot of real-world, deep sea creatures (check it!). What you probably need is a good sense of smell to sniff out the free food that you don't have to kill / wrestle with.

I think Iggy and Erez would agree with me, getting one position up of the food chain usually means having a smaller population. Its not how I'm judging 'success' in this game. Creatures like Polychende and Photofilium are totally pwning right now, not to mention the humble plants!

 

[erez87]

It's not exactly true. There can be very few fast reproducing plants that constantly get eaten so they never build up a constant biomass.

Also some predators are smaller than their prey so there can be more of them than their prey.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

But more specifically in response to Daft's statement, scavenging is a very rich niche. You don't need as much mechanical digestion because bacteria have already done half the work, and you don't need fancy hunting tools to catch and kill a prey-item. Any way that your species can avoid having to invest into something energy-intensive is an opportunity to gain a powerful competitive edge.

But yeah, the 'higher in the food chain, less population' thing would be better described as 'higher-level predator, less biomass' to account for differences in predator size.

Another relevant point would be that contemporary aquatic ecosystems on Earth have a lot more of their biomass stored in predators, because the primary producers (predominately single-celled algae) reproduce like crazy but don't accumulate. By comparison, modern terrestrial ecosystems have most of their material locked up in large plants, who need to make far more indigestible structural material than their tiny aquatic counterparts.

Essentially, the point I'm getting at is that relative populations and biomasses of different species, from producers to predators to scavengers to decomposers can vary in fairly predictable manners depending on the overall structure of the ecosystem- for example, if Earth had large lifeforms capable of breaking down cellulose in an energy-efficient manner, then you would expect a lot more wood-eating macrofauna, and a corresponding reduction in the share of terrestrial biomass held by plants.

 

[TerrisH]

And you've just given me an evil idea for next turn.

 

[qoou]

Alces Felidae: qoou
Evolved From: Alces Felix
Genes Added: Toxic/Acidic emissions X1, Photosynthesis X1
Description:

As the Alces Felix continued experimenting with its pheromone system, its Danger reflex gradually evolved from emission of a cocktail of random chemicals, to a cocktail of slightly "bad-smelling" chemicals, to a cocktail of veritably toxic chemicals. Finally it reached a cocktail of chemicals, some of them toxic, some acidic, that would serve as an excellent deterrent towards possible predators.
With the Danger cocktail becoming more and more effective, the reflex switched from one of "spray and flee" to one of "spray and charge," with Alces Felidae individuals now acting much more aggressively around predators, bunching up and co-operating to ward them off.
The other pheromonal functions of the Alces Felix also improved, but none nearly as significantly as the Danger reflex.

Summary:
Chemicals used to co-ordinate flight from predators evolve into toxins->acids used to co-ordinate charge towards predators.

 

[Daftpanzer]

@qoou, you'd need to evolve some Digestion before you can begin to think about smothering and eating things. Passive Nutrient Feeding?

You could have some kind of toxic / repellent gene separate from your pheremones, and basic Digestion. Don't expect much at once, though.

Everyone's obsession with inappropriate carnivores this turn :/

 

[qoou]

@qoou, you'd need to evolve some Digestion before you can begin to think about smothering and eating things. Passive Nutrient Feeding?

You could have some kind of toxic / repellent gene separate from your pheremones, and basic Digestion. Don't expect much at once, though.

Everyone's obsession with inappropriate carnivores this turn :/

"Passive Nutrient Feeding": Er. You know, the way my people ate before they evolved photosynthesis.

Right about the stuffing too many things in too few slots. Edited. Better?

To clarify: I was going for the "accidentally eats but doesn't get much value out of" angle; something like an organism with nothing but Acid X 1 + Swimming X 1 would do. That wasn't nearly clear enough, rereading it.

Edit: Definitely wasn't going for the carnivore angle .

 

[Terrance888]

@qoou, you'd need to evolve some Digestion before you can begin to think about smothering and eating things. Passive Nutrient Feeding?

You could have some kind of toxic / repellent gene separate from your pheremones, and basic Digestion. Don't expect much at once, though.

Everyone's obsession with inappropriate carnivores this turn :/

Swarming colonial drifting mass reproducing herbivores reporting for duty!