Civilization XLCVIII

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Aegis J Hyena
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Re: Civilization XLCVIII

Post by Aegis J Hyena » Fri Mar 24, 2017 6:43 pm

Next post Sunday. (I'm only rolling once per suggestion so try and be creative with more mutations.)

900,000,000 Years

Developing some Lures: 91
DNA Overdrive: 38
Nourishment from Heat: 2
Chemosynthesis: 29
Mental Lure: 79

To counter H. Feyet Zogiferium you've developed a lure that produces a "euphoric" or lethargic effect when said lure comes into contact with the chemics making up H. Feyet Zogiferium. You've crawled into the heat vents themselves to crowd out the rivals, and many of your descendants are spewed upward into the black depths of the ocean where they freeze within the colder layers. Most of the other bacteria of the area are having a field day with the "rain of bacterial corpses", and there are two in particular that are attracted to the great "wealth" on the sea floor.

The first is H. Slix Torimecium, a translucent two dimensional skull with a specialized jaw that is somehow building up a sonic "scream" attack to "vibrate" its targets to death. It doesn't seem to be working well on you, nor does it work well on H. Feyet Zogiferium (which is more resistant than you). Its cell wall is too thick to breach with stingers, and it seems to be immune to your Mentemo Toxins completely. The second is P. Glabrotheemii Zephyris, which is a constrictive earthworm of a bacteria that wraps itself around anything it can, with its hammer-shaped head utilizing a sonic attack as well. While the sonics have not much of an effect on you, its constriction is stronger than your cell walls and anything crawling out of the vents is ripe for being targeted. It is ignoring your heat pockets and superheated water, but it is also frying itself on the great heat of the vents. Its acid-immune body shrivels and dies just as often as you do when it decides to attack.

You've developed to the point where you can take your new lure, wrap it around the hook-stinger of H. Feyet Zogiferium and swing it around like a makeshift mace in order to disorient it, leaving it open for some others of your kind to blindside it and attack. The groupstomp is more effective than not and you use this to your advantage by pulling off its suction tendril, effectively tearing the bacteria's body wide open. It seems its weakest point on the body is there...

How do you evolve now?
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Arch Lich Burns
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Re: Civilization XLCVIII

Post by Arch Lich Burns » Fri Mar 24, 2017 6:52 pm

dna overdrive


I suggest some diggers, so we can get into the magma

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thinkslogically
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Re: Civilization XLCVIII

Post by thinkslogically » Fri Mar 24, 2017 7:08 pm

You know what, chemosynthesis it is.

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Re: Civilization XLCVIII

Post by twistedstraka » Fri Mar 24, 2017 7:47 pm

Evolve the abiltity to feed off sonic abilities

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Patdragon
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Re: Civilization XLCVIII

Post by Patdragon » Sat Mar 25, 2017 3:53 am

Lets grow and strengthen this "lure arm"
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BadgeAddict
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Re: Civilization XLCVIII

Post by BadgeAddict » Sat Mar 25, 2017 9:42 am

Strengthen blink travel distance.

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Aegis J Hyena
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Re: Civilization XLCVIII

Post by Aegis J Hyena » Sun Mar 26, 2017 7:59 pm

One Billion Years

Chemosynthesis: 90
Sonic Feeding: 98
Lure Arm Strengthening: 32
Improving Blink: 93
DNA Overdrive: 90

One billion years... where has the time gone? We've now adapted and evolved to something bigger and better, to what you might call a fish stage.

The further you get into the heat vents, the more wealth of food you discover. The extremeophiles living in here have NO defense against your attacks, and all your Mentemo toxins do is overwhelm them and short them out. This of course means you heavily advance your own species, enough to crowd out just about everyone and especially out-move H. Feyet Zogiferium.

You've completely claimed the heat vents for yourselves and are now the size of a fist. The rounded hourglass has become large, insect-like, and divided off into a series of sections all specialized in a given form or function. Your brain remains at the center of the body, surrounded by a thick knot of shell and bone, mostly constructed from the biological trash on the sea floor as well as bits of busted crystals from the departure of D. Shloopi Dorfis.

Your heat pockets have evolved into translucent "fangs" filled with superheated water and Mentemo toxins so that when you bite, they're put into a high and are unable to effectively fight back. The fangs are now located at the front of the body. You don't have eyes to see your world, instead having evolved electrical and heat sensors on your lure (which is now much like an anglerfish's, dangling in front of the two front fangs). You have not evolved legs; instead you "coast" on the hot currents and bend your bony exoskeleton's "plates" to steer.

With the near-infinite bounty of the heat vents, you've learned to chemosynthesize energy from the raw heat coming from the depths of the planet as well as receiving energy from grinding dust to sand via a specialized grinding mouthpiece between your fangs. Your populations will be higher around the tectonic plate borders where one subducts into the others.

You have developed an energy store at the rear of your body that feeds off of sound, and it is separate from your method of nourishment -- sound (from death clicks of bacteria to clacking shells in combat or whatnot) fuels your ability to move, while actively killing stuff with your chemicals, fangs or lure feeds the body and the brain -- the energy for locomotion is different from keeping the body and internal organs alive.

All this additional energy is strengthening your ability to "believe" you're in a different location, and soon you're able to blink further than you've ever blinked before. By this point, your blink distance is ten feet (though the tunnels under the vents are very tight and it's difficult to sense a good location other than a place you've already been to -- if you blink into solid rock, that's all she wrote).

Finally, at the back of your body you've developed a real nasty stinger. When you strike someone with it, it injects an egg cell and a portion of your DNA, which slowly absorbs the DNA around it and begins to form a young member of your species that slowly eats its way through the parent predator. So even if you die, so do they and you end up reproducing an extra once or twice.

Next post, you meet the neighbors.

You can still suggest mutations but it's going to be harder to get them to stick. This time if I don't roll higher than 90+, it doesn't stick at all (high roll means nothing now). Mutations and changes will come from actions instead of actual suggestions. Mutations will slow down until about 2 Billion when all changes will be done via choices.

Finally, you get a Hallmark Mutation -- this will increase in power on its own as time goes on until we hit 3.2 Billion years. You'll get another one at 2 Billion years.

With that in mind, Will You...

A) Head into a higher layer of water, with stronger rivals but possibly more food?
B) Search for shelter, to evolve in safety and keep population numbers up?
C) Become aggressive and attack surrounding predators AND prey, aiming for Apex position early?


Oh, and suggest a name for your new species (this will change at 2 Billion).
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Arch Lich Burns
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Re: Civilization XLCVIII

Post by Arch Lich Burns » Sun Mar 26, 2017 8:15 pm

Hallmark Mutation: High Adapability
Regular mutation: diggers

D: a mixture between B and C, being ambush predators.

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M0rtimer
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Re: Civilization XLCVIII

Post by M0rtimer » Mon Mar 27, 2017 1:50 am

Hallmark mutation: mind control (When the chemicals alone aren't enough... Assume direct control)
Regular mutation: basic movement (In the current stage, that would probably be fins)

And since I assume we'll only be able to pick one of the options... I'll vote B.)

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Re: Civilization XLCVIII

Post by twistedstraka » Mon Mar 27, 2017 1:58 am

Halmark mutation: Super adrenal mode
Regular mutation: tentacles
B

As for species name I vote Forgobians

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M0rtimer
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Re: Civilization XLCVIII

Post by M0rtimer » Mon Mar 27, 2017 2:12 am

Ooh, I like tentacles too... But I suppose that's the random part in evolution, huh. ;)

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Patdragon
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Re: Civilization XLCVIII

Post by Patdragon » Mon Mar 27, 2017 3:03 am

Wow we got some lucky rolls there.

Mutation - Stinging spines
Hallmark - Our young possess and control the host they are injected into.
Option - C

Name - Echigoblinoid
Last edited by Patdragon on Mon Mar 27, 2017 9:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Civilization XLCVIII

Post by BadgeAddict » Mon Mar 27, 2017 5:09 am

Mutation: Internal Heat creation (Allows moving into colder waters without problems)
Hallmark: Internal engine/Mechanical creature. (internal parts of the fish body harden into a similar element of metal and become like mechanical parts within a complex machine. Cogs and gears begin to form until what looks like a fish on the outside, becomes a strange mechanical cyborg that is alive.
Option:Mix A/B

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Re: Civilization XLCVIII

Post by Arch Lich Burns » Mon Mar 27, 2017 5:20 am

I'd rather not mind control our young. Unless you mean predators that have been afflicted by our young. But someone also suggested mind control.

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Aegis J Hyena
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Re: Civilization XLCVIII

Post by Aegis J Hyena » Mon Mar 27, 2017 5:36 pm

1.1 Billion Years:

Hallmark Mutation: High Adaptability (52), Mind Control (90), Super Adrenaline (5), Possession (53), Mechanization (2),

Diggers: 17
Fins for Movement: 60
Tentacles: 5
Stinging Spines: 47
Internal Heat Generation: 43

Forgobians (24)
Echigoblinoid (97)

Searching for Shelter: 83 (Very successful)

Both Badge's and Burns' votes were ignored, I'm not doing mixtures for right now :P

No mutations made it in this round. Highest roll no longer sticks. You can still suggest, though.

The Echigoblinoids (which I will shorten to Echis) have climbed into their heat vents to seek out shelter from the predators living on the sea floor now. While the layers of water above are ripe with prey, hiding and gathering your strength seems like the best course of action. You've moved the best specimens of your species to the tectonic plates of the world, and can sense the planet heaving and groaning with every "hearbeat" from the ley lines coming up from its core to snake through the waters to the surface far above.

You've learned to control your own "thoughts" (such as they are) down here to the point that you can channel that "belief of thought" and superimpose it on others' brains. Right now nothing is sufficiently developed as to be affected by such a thing, but when your species hits sentience, you will have an innate method of controlling others' minds. Likely through the Mentemo Toxins, but anything is possible. This control will increase at set intervals until we hit 3.2 billion years.

Today we simply deal with your neighbors down here, as there is very little going on in this layer of the earth besides your constant scuttling around, using the vents as an access point to the ocean floor. You're going further and further underground with each turn, and will breach mantle caverns in about 4 turns unless you decide you're happy at the current level. You've got three predators, and three potential prey species.

First we deal with the prey. First is the Hausen, which looks like a closed fist covered in spikes on the ocean floor. The "fingers" open to reveal suctioning lamprey mouths, and it grips rocks and stones with lichen and plankton on them and sucks them dry. A thin layer of acid eats away at the stone, making places where they've fed shiny and smooth. Mostly a herbivore but it will eat meat matter that falls into its open "palm."

The second prey species is the Naloo, which looks like a translucent cross between a starfish and a jellyfish. This thing has no natural defenses, and seems to eat bacteria that stick to it by absorbing them much as an earthworm does when it breathes through its skin. Very gelatinous. Not toxic right now, but it's sure to evolve in that direction...

The last prey is the Heated Scarab, a charred black aquatic beetle that shares your tunnels. It tries to protect itself by releasing both a poison cloud and an inky cloud, but neither is effective against both your fangs or your Mentemo Toxins. If you focus that prey down, it's sure to go extinct later.

Your first predator is the Diamondback Vibrator, a narrow shelled thing that shoots forth a vibrating tendril that breaks your shell and can burst your fangs. If it manages to somehow strike your lure, it will short the lure out and stun you then it worms its way either under your shell or pierces an unprotected spot.

Your second predator is the Entangler, a snarled-up blob of whispy tendrils that seem to have no central nervous system or "center point." On the plus side, it has almost no armor so it's prone to being eaten. On the minus side, there's nowhere it can't go and its tendrils get EVERYWHERE and interfere with basic body functions. If the sticky tendrils wrap around something it instinctively tries to pull it apart.

The final predator is the Sneezer, named since it looks like an upside down nose. Its nostrils fire a jet of water to move (the right nostril) or a vicious "punch" (think a boxing glove on the end of a spring) to stun prey or crack shells to get at the meat inside. The "punch" is enough to vibrate the ocean floor enough to drive you from your vents, and might evolve into something strong enough to -collapse- them.

Will You...

A) Try to aggressively outcrowd your opponents in pursuit of *all* the food?
B) Fade away and stay out of trouble, going further into the earth and focusing on letting your predators fight each other?
C) Attempt to dine on the crystals buried in the planet's crust that -don't- have D. Shloopi Dorfis ("Gemcrabs") crawling all over them / and linking them together in crystal reefs?
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Arch Lich Burns
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Re: Civilization XLCVIII

Post by Arch Lich Burns » Mon Mar 27, 2017 5:46 pm

C

And enhanced Intelligence.

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spiderwrangler
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Re: Civilization XLCVIII

Post by spiderwrangler » Mon Mar 27, 2017 6:18 pm

C

Secrete vibration dampening substance that coats tunnels and our bodies, providing protection against Vibrators and Sneezers.
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Re: Civilization XLCVIII

Post by twistedstraka » Mon Mar 27, 2017 8:36 pm

C
And evolve the ability to survive in lava

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Patdragon
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Re: Civilization XLCVIII

Post by Patdragon » Tue Mar 28, 2017 3:34 am

All the vote options seems good this time so I'll vote B incase others want to swing it that way.

For an extra mutation -- Lets start to be able to eat rocks and other inorganic matter ;)
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Re: Civilization XLCVIII

Post by BadgeAddict » Tue Mar 28, 2017 3:38 am

Mechanized creature. As before.

B - Rule the planet
Last edited by BadgeAddict on Tue Mar 28, 2017 6:22 am, edited 1 time in total.

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thinkslogically
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Re: Civilization XLCVIII

Post by thinkslogically » Tue Mar 28, 2017 6:08 am

I'll go with C since it might lead to a weird form if surface agriculture. Let's keep going deep too though - magma pockets should get us loads of energy, right?

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Aegis J Hyena
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Re: Civilization XLCVIII

Post by Aegis J Hyena » Tue Mar 28, 2017 7:53 pm

1.2 Billion Years

Survival Rate: 25% (To start) +0 (0 bonus mutations) -3 (Poor Success on Choice) + -3 (3 Predators) +3 (3 Food Sources) = 28%
C) Attempt to dine on the crystals buried in the planet's crust that -don't- have Gemcrabs crawling all over them / and linking them together in crystal reefs?: 38 (Not very Successful)

Enhanced Intel: 62
Vibration Dampers: 79
Magma Immunity: 39
Silicate Consumption: 88
Mechanization: 16

No bonus mutations. Super Mutation to come at 1.5 Billion Years.

I'm adding something called the Survival Rate. This starts at 25% and increases or decreases based on actions and rolls. At the end of 1 Billion Years I will roll to see if the species survives (evolution and species does have a luck aspect!) -- if it fails, the creature is extinct even through the best of intentions, and we start from scratch again. They can't all be lucky critters...

The deeper you go, the less tasty the crystals get. It seems that whatever nutrition and power the crystals had fades when they're broken off of the ley lines far above; the further the shards, the less power and nutrition they have. You've stayed close to the heat vents yet have also have ventured further into the planet's crust, mostly to get away from Sneezers. The Entanglers have followed you down, but the loose soil/silt here is beginning to make problems for its sticky tendrils. You haven't managed to escape them yet but the further you go, the easier it will be.

Most of your food these days comes from the Heated Scarab as the Hausens don't go below ocean floor and the Naloo often just get themselves stuck to the heat vents, where they either fry or are consumed alive by the Echis. The Sneezers on the other hand are beginning to be an annoyance, as their "boxing glove" is beginning to break apart parts of the heat vents. Sometimes these chunks seal the vents and other times it opens wide holes in them, allowing other predators to get in and bite at you.

On the other hand, the Gemcrabs have been taking the crystals growing on the ley lines and have begun to spiral them down to the ocean floor where they form -huge- hives and mounds of magic crystal. This is a field day for the Diamondback Vibrators as well as other species that aim for them, and multiple times their "hives" are left with huge holes in them ripe for any predator to get in and start searching for food. They have countered by turning very aggressive, attacking anything that attacks their hives and swarming almost like bees.

The swarming has just made it worse for them, as your back stinger pierces them rather easily if you aim for their electrical tendrils. They could become an easy food source if they stick to their hives, as it seems they're trying to route the ley lines back to the ocean floor (or maybe that's just the lines branching off through the tunnels naturally). Your blinking manages to cut them off when they try to escape.

Will You...

A) Ignore the ocean floor and go below, looking for extremophile bacteria to feast upon instead? Nothing else is down there...
B) Focus on the Gemcrabs and their crystal homes, who seem to be weak against you for the moment?
C) Work on constructing "hives" of your own at the top of the heat vents, stronger than the Sneezers?
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Arch Lich Burns
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Re: Civilization XLCVIII

Post by Arch Lich Burns » Tue Mar 28, 2017 10:30 pm

A

Lavavores more intellegence


I hate the fact we'd have to start over again if we get unlucky.

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Patdragon
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Re: Civilization XLCVIII

Post by Patdragon » Wed Mar 29, 2017 4:20 am

I'll vote A as well less predators and prey down there might even out.

As for a mutation i'm going to say geovore which if we ever go back to a surface will be more readily available than lava.
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Re: Civilization XLCVIII

Post by BadgeAddict » Wed Mar 29, 2017 4:27 am

A

Mechanization.

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