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[Naryar]

Science has been done, armor using can indeed be powerleveled by pitting a wild GCS against a dwarf fully protected by iron.

Enjoy building a complicated mechanism to separe the dwarf and GCS and trap back the GCS though.

[Rude]

High pressurized water through a cage trapped corridor.

[rtg593]

..which poses a problem from an evolutionary standpoint...

Evolution? BAH! Surely even you know all things were created in perfection by Armok in 250 frames!

[Rude]

I'm not an evolutionist, but the observations about simplicity stand even from a creationist point of view. Everything has a niche, unnecessary or inefficient species go extinct.

[rtg593]

I'm not an evolutionist, but the observations about simplicity stand even from a creationist point of view. Everything has a niche, unnecessary or inefficient species go extinct.

While true of either POV... I was basically just making a joke :-P

But yes, survival of the fittest is a basic fact of life, no matter how you believe/think it came to be :-D

The weak perish; the strong dwarven survive.

[Naryar]

The weak elven and kobold perish; the strong dwarven survive.

ftfy

[Loud Whispers]

... 2.5 pages. 2. Point 5. Pages. And you ruined it.

They call me El Doúblé Yêo, rerailer of worlds.

I didn't think it was to do with metabolism, I was under the impression that large insects and arachnids simply can't breathe the insufficient oxygen content that we have here on earth at present.

Spiders don't breathe, got no lungs! They absorb oxygen through their body, much like amphibians, and eeyup, not enough oxygen content to maintain a big size.

So caverns are technically jars of oxygen, just waiting to be exploited by hairy midgets...

[WillowLuman]

I've got a dwarf with an imported longsword who, for some reason, chopped off every single leg of a GCS before impaling it. Of course, that must have been a fluke. Whatever your tactic, do not engage a GCS solo. Send a whole squad, or the permawebbed dwarf with a helmet will die of starvation/thirst

[Loud Whispers]

I've got a dwarf with an imported longsword who, for some reason, chopped off every single leg of a GCS before impaling it. Of course, that must have been a fluke. Whatever your tactic, do not engage a GCS solo. Send a whole squad, or the permawebbed dwarf with a helmet will die of starvation/thirst

+1 that Dwarfs are sadistic and will maim before they kill

[Rude]

... 2.5 pages. 2. Point 5. Pages. And you ruined it.

They call me El Doúblé Yêo, rerailer of worlds.

I didn't think it was to do with metabolism, I was under the impression that large insects and arachnids simply can't breathe the insufficient oxygen content that we have here on earth at present.

Spiders don't breathe, got no lungs! They absorb oxygen through their body, much like amphibians, and eeyup, not enough oxygen content to maintain a big size.

So caverns are technically jars of oxygen, just waiting to be exploited by hairy midgets...

You're technically right, but overly general: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_lung
Almost any organism human sized is going to need a pretty impressive O₂ collector. So rather than trying to create a complex explaination for how so much Oxygen is in the caves and not elsewhere, I'd theorize that they have adequate organs necessary for survival. It seems to me like the caves would have LESS oxygen anyways for a number of reasons:
1) Most creatures consume it
2) plant life is more abundant topside
3) the absence of sunlight (an no other obvious energy souce except magma in some places) would make photosynthesis difficult for the plants that do live underground.
4) many caves have a tendency to consume Oxygen and fill with CO₂ and other not so useful gases. (due to things like respiration, but also reactions with minerals such as sulfur)
5) Oxygen is not terribly heavy and if there's not enough wind then it would likely seep out of the caves for "higher ground"

there are other things to consider that would make this thread a year long research investigation. Anyways, I can't really get comfortable with the idea of High 0₂ caverns.

[wierd]

... 2.5 pages. 2. Point 5. Pages. And you ruined it.

They call me El Doúblé Yêo, rerailer of worlds.

I didn't think it was to do with metabolism, I was under the impression that large insects and arachnids simply can't breathe the insufficient oxygen content that we have here on earth at present.

Spiders don't breathe, got no lungs! They absorb oxygen through their body, much like amphibians, and eeyup, not enough oxygen content to maintain a big size.

So caverns are technically jars of oxygen, just waiting to be exploited by hairy midgets...

As I pointed out earlier in the thread, some arachnids have book lungs.

A more advanced version with more active respiration would permit a larger creature.

The problem then, is the lack of an advanced pulminary system.

[WillowLuman]

I imagine a GCS as being like a giant trapdoor spider, sitting completely still for years, barely living, and catching big things when they come through. The sustenance from one big meal keeps it alive for years. Of course, in game they tend to chase, but in caverns where there's one around the floors are littered with web, so I guess when something steps in it would make it's way over.

Perhaps 02 is maintained as a waste product from things like magma crabs living near the vents on the third layer, and it seeps up to the top layers. Then again there isn't much connection between layers and they can have very different ecosystems in each one. Perhaps some creatures have evolved to subsist on things like magical background energy from the HFS.

[wierd]

SO2 (sulfur dioxide) is a major volcanic gas. It also has a whole classification of chemotrophic lifeforms that use and hydrogen sulfide for respiration.

Oxygen breathing life is only *one* option.

Given the lack of any other energy source to drive the ecosystem, chemotrophs look very attractive as a prospect.

[WillowLuman]

There could be groups of Sulfur-dependent chemotrophs living near magma pools, producing oxygen as a waste product of their metabolism in the way plants do. The other cavern creatures could subsist off this if there were enough chemotrophs. The mushrooms could also produce it as they metabolize. I think cave blobs, flesh balls, and floating guts would be the likely chemotrophs

[Naryar]

SO2 (sulfur dioxide) is a major volcanic gas. It also has a whole classification of chemotrophic lifeforms that use and hydrogen sulfide for respiration.

Oxygen breathing life is only *one* option.

Given the lack of any other energy source to drive the ecosystem, chemotrophs look very attractive as a prospect.

A non-bacterial chemotroph ?

Also, GCS are predators. They use carbon based compounds as an energy source.

And there's (95% of the time) no contact between magma and the caverns, how could SO2 enter the caverns ?