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[Eotyrannus]

This is the Planetary Competition sign-ups and discussion. Please sign up and discuss here. The map is in the game topic, and THIS IS A LINK GUYS..

Spoiler: PLAYERS (click to show/hide)

TEAM 1:
Team RAGE
Gamerlord
EXOSKELETON
Exoskeletons have an exoskeleton. This makes them far tougher, and is useful for defence and attack, but slows them down a lot.
BONUS: 10% off Combat increases
MALUS: 10% increase on Speed increases
WHITE
White plants have a dye that makes them absorb a lot of water, and hold onto it well. However, this also makes them vulnerable to predators, as they have trouble making hard defences.
BONUS: Terrestrial evolution price is halved.
MALUS: Combat price increased by 10%.

TEAM 2:
Team Dorfia
Ukranian Ranger
MANTLE
Mantle organisms have a muscular body wall that houses the organs. Mantled clades can mould their mantle into many forms, making it a brilliant canvas for evolution.
However, they are also more vulnerable to ecological change, for unknown reasons.
BONUS: 1 EP decrease on all evolution.
MALUS: Double Biodiversity loss in disasters/Special Events. If two equally-fit populations try to migrate to fill the same niche, the Mantle will lose.
GREEN
Plants using chlorophyll to photosynthesize tend to possess thick cell walls. These cell walls greatly help the plants to support their own weight. These walls however make the plant very rigid and temperature differences can severely damage those walls as they can't expand as flexible as membranes do. This is the main reason why green plants are weak to lower temperatures and less common in colder areas than plants which use other dyes for photosynthesis.
Bonus: Cost for increasing/decreasing size: (2^x)/2 (x = current size)
Malus: Increasing temperature adaption costs 10% more EP. (Rounded up)

TEAM 3:
Team Overthinkers
GreatWyrmGolden, kain-a-coel, The Froggy Ninja
HYDRAULIC
Hydraulic organisms can use their water-based muscular systems to create stiff supports, making them perfect for evolving new ways to move. However, this also makes them vulnerable to temperature change.
BONUS: Flight/Terrestrial evolution price is halved.
MALUS: Temperature evolution cost is increased by 10%.
RED
The genetic code for plants with red cells are made of triangular strands of DNA which make them more resistant to changes. Gametes have a higher chance to survive allowing red plant taxons to evolve a variety of different propagation systems more easily. Triangular DNA, however, needs more water for its construction than normal DNA and thus has a hard time adapting to dry environments.
Bonus: Evolving a new form of propagation only costs half. (Rounded up)
Malus: Terrestrial evolution price is increased by 40%.

TEAM 4:
Team Independent
10ebbor10
RADIAL
Radial organisms have symmetry that radiates out from the core, like a starfish or urchin. This makes their systems more robust, but also less flexible when it comes to evolution.
BONUS: Disaster/Special Event Biodiversity loss has a 50/50 chance of happening. If two equally-fit populations try to migrate to fill the same niche, the Radial will win.
MALUS: 1 EP increase on all evolution.
BLUE
The blue dye in blue plant cells helps the plant resist cold. The dye, however, is complicated and makes it harder for the taxon to evolve different means of propagation.
Bonus: Increasing temperature adaption costs 10% less EP. (Rounded up)
Malus: Evolving a new form of propagation costs double.

TEAM 5:
Team Urist
Icefire2132
NOTOCHORDS
Notochords have a flexible spine running through their body. This allows them to use the entire body to enhance locomotion, but the tightly-packed nerves are an easy target for predators.
BONUS: 10% off Speed increases
MALUS: 10% increase on Combat increases
BLACK
Black plants often use nonblack dyes for photosynthesis, but appear black due to the dense cytoskeleton inside their cells. The resulting strength helps to form harder materials than usual. However, the denser cell architecture adds a lot of weight to the plant and makes them heavier faster.
Bonus: Increasing the combat stat costs 10% less EP. (Rounded up)
Malus: Cost for increasing size: 2*(2^x) (x = current size)

Spoiler: BIOMES (click to show/hide)

The labels are made up of three zones: Temperature, Location and Number.
Creatures at the temperature they prefer will be fitter than others. If there is a difference of 4 between your temperature and the perfectly-adapted temperature, you will lose 1BD per turn and will be unable to add further BD until the problem is sorted.

F=Freezing (temperature 8.)
C=Cold (temperature 5.)
W=Warm (temperature 3.)
H=Hot (temperature 1.)

Different locations have different effects.

O=Ocean. Contains Depths biome. Marine. No plants. No scavengers.
Depths. Always Temperature 2. Scavenger niches for Ocean are moved here. No plants. Requires 10 EP and speciation to enter or leave, although it only costs the usual amount to migrate to a different Depths biome.
C=Coast. Contains Tides biome. Marine.
Tides. Requires at least one point in Terrestrial. Marine.
E=Exterior. Requires Full Terrestrial.
I=Interior. Requires Full Terrestrial.

Continental drift means that, every 6 turns, the map will change.

Spoiler: ACTIONS AND YOU (click to show/hide)

There are 4 available actions.
Evolution: Allows the raising or lowering of a single stat for a creature. This can either replace the old creature or split into a new species. If you want, you can have the same change in a connected biome, and any connected onto that.
Increase Biodiversity: Increases a population's biodiversity. For asexual species, this is the square of the current level. For sexual species, price is reduced by a third. This can be increased multiple times, as long as each time has the full price paid.
Disaster: After the 10th turn, disasters can be called. (These are explained later.) When the map changes, this will come into effect. If two teams announce a disaster on the same turn, nothing will happen, and they will not use up their disaster. However, they will not be allowed to retry it until next map change. If a disaster has been accepted, a notification will appear at the bottom of the next update. Further disaster requests will be ignored until after the disaster has finished. Once everyone has used a disaster, it will be another 10 turns until they will be allowed a disaster again.
Migrate: Creatures can populate a biome next to it. This costs 1 EP for every biodiversity point you want in the new population. The maximum EP paid is the same as the original population's biodiversity.

The order of actions taken is:
Migrate
Evolve
Biodiversify

The exact changes (cost and what evolution in which creature, where to migrate to) MUST be stated at the bottom of the turn.

Spoiler: SPECIES FORM (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

[u]Biome:[/u]
[u]Name:[/u]
[u]Picture:[/u]
[u]Description:[/u]
[u]Ancestor:[/u]
[u]Traits:[/u]
[u]Abilities:[/u]Biome is where it is located.
Name is whatever you call it.
Picture (not required) is a picture, ranging from scribble to masterpiece.
Description (not required) is fluff for your creature. If you have no picture, this is required.
Ancestor is what it evolved from.
Traits are explained in the Traits section.
Abilities are explained in the Abilities section.

Spoiler: TRAITS (click to show/hide)

These are for the Traits section of your creature.

Biodiversity: The only trait that varies by population. Higher biodiversity means better survivability in disasters. If two biomes merge, the new biodiversity is the same as the highest featured biodiversity.

Size: Size is the only evolution that can happen at the same time as another. The lowest is 1 and the highest is 8. If nothing fills the same niche in a smaller size, it cannot evolve or migrate (so a level 3 herbivore needs a level 2 and 1 herbivore in the same biome). This means a different diet in animals, and a different nutrient tolerance in plants. The cost to increase or decrease in one size is 2^x, where X is the current size is. (Size 1 to 2 = 2 EP, Size 4 to 5 = 2*2*2*2 = 16 EP, Size 7 to 8 = 2*2*2*2*2*2*2 = 128 EP) Size also contributes to the combat skill, which is +2 for each size bigger than the predator/prey. Starters are size 1 by default.
The IRL sizes are:
1 - 1 mm
2 - 1 cm
3 - 10 cm
4 - 50 cm
5 - 1.5 m
6 - 3 m
7 - 10 m
8 - more than 10 m

Reproduction: This can be either asexual or sexual. Starters are asexual by default. Sexuality costs 40 EP and can be reverted for free.

Propagation: This determines how a species reproduces. Each species must have EXACTLY one method of propegation.


Temperature: This determines where the creature can comfortably live. To move it up or down costs triple the current amount of Temperature. The usual limit is 5, but Endothermy brings it up to 8.

Combat: This determines attack and defence skill. This costs the current Combat number, multiplied by 10. The cost of 0 to 1 is 5 EP. If one side has a Combat skill 3 points higher than the other, the other side will lose 1 Biodiversity on that turn. This can either be physical (claws, armour) or camouflage.

Plants have
Nutrient Consumption: All biomes, unless stated otherwise, have three nutrient slots for plants: Low, Medium and High. Low can change to Medium, Medium can change to either, and High can change to Medium. This costs 20 EP.

Animals have
Diet: There are eight diets. There are granivores (eats seeds), herbivores, detritovores (eats dead plants), ovivores (eats eggs), carnivores and scavengers (eats dead animals), plus parasites and planktonivores. All, excepting parasites, can coexist with other diets.
Parasites require a prey species that is at least 3 sizes larger than them, while there is one filter feeder niche for each size (plus spares from Spawning species). The only other diet a filter-feeder can have is prey that's 5 sizes smaller than they are.
There can only be one detritovore and one scavenger for each size in a biome. The maximum size for a pure scavenger or detritovore is half the size of the largest organism in the biome.
Ovivores/granivores require a prey species and must be 2 sizes smaller than their prey.
Herbivores and carnivores have no diet restrictions.
Adding a diet costs 40 EP.  (Template: Herbivore (Species name) 1)
Adding a new prey to an old diet is the same as adding a new diet. This costs 30 EP.
Adding a specialisation level makes the organism harder to replace. This costs twice the current specialisation level.
All new species evolved from a prey will automatically become prey themselves, as long as they fit the criteria.

Speed:  Speed determines how fast a species is at a certain locomotion. The four different types of locomotion are swimming, walking, climbing and flying. Swimming is the default for the starters. It can only be obtained by aquatic or amphibic animals. Walking can be evolved by amphibic and terrestrial animals and describes any way of moving on the ground. Climbing can only be evolved by walking animals, while flying can only be evolved by climbing animals. Any animal that does not have any locomotion is considered immobile. Immobile species can only feed on mobile species. Climbing animals must be 2 sizes smaller than the largest plant. Predators cannot prey on a species that is faster than themselves.  This only works if the locomotion is more flexible than the shared one. The rule is: swimming < walking < climbing < flying, where '<' means 'less flexible than'. If it doesn't share a locomotion, then it cannot be hunted. Increasing the speed of one locomotion costs EP that is their level, plus one, squared. (It's similar to biodiversity) Evolving climbing (starting with level 1) costs 25 EP. Flight and Walking have their own costs, as stated in the ability section.

Intelligence: This is the goal of the game. The cost of increasing the intelligence by one level is equal to (2^x EP /size)*20 (rounded up), where x is the next level. For example, for a size 4 animal, to advance from intelligence level 4 to 5 the cost is (2^5 EP /4)*20 = (2x2x2x2x2 EP /4)*20 = (32 EP/4)*20 = 8 EP*20 = 160 EP. Once a species reaches level 10, the creator team wins the game. It also has a second function: During disasters every 3 points of intelligence saves exactly one loss of biodiversity. That means you can save up to three points at once during a disaster.

Spoiler: ABILITIES (click to show/hide)

Besides the regular stats, some species may also evolve additional abilities. If a species has no abilities, then this part of the template has to be filled with 'None'.

Pack: Packs can only evolved by animals with an intelligence of at least 5. This ability behaves quite differently whether the species acts as a predator or as prey. Predators hunting in packs are allowed to take down prey one size bigger than their own, while prey species gain a +4 bonus on their combat stat. This ability costs 60 EP. Idle malus for predators: 4 EP.

Nocturnal: Only animal species are allowed to evolve a nocturnal behaviour. Nocturnal species can take niches that are already occupied by diurnal species without competing with them. Nocturnal predators can hunt nocturnal prey only. Evolving a nocturnal behaviour costs 20 EP, while endotherms need to spend only 5 EP. Deepsea species cannot evolve a nocturnal behaviour.

Toxin: By producing a certain poison within the species' body, it becomes fully protected against predators which are not immune to this poison. When evolving a toxin, the creator needs to choose an existing poison or create a new poison. As with the species names, the poison's name can be almost anything, as long as it can be identified as a poison from the name. (Adding 'poison' at the end of the name generally helps.) This is needed to identify the different types of poison and to evolve immunities against certain poisons. Evolving a new toxin costs 90 EP. Idle malus: 15

Venom: While a venom is a type of poison as well, venoms are used in an active manner, like spikes and fangs. Thus instead of rendering the species invincible it merely doubles its combat stat against species which are not immune to its poison. Just as a toxin, a venom demands a name for its poison as well. The cost for evolving a venom is 40 EP for carnivorous species and 20 EP for other species. (Idle malus tied to combat skill)

Immunity: An immunity towards a certain poison renders the species completely protected from that poison. That means, that it can hunt species with the chosen toxin and species it fights with lose their venom boni. One species can evolve multiple immunities, but not at once. The cost to evolve an immuity towards a special poison is 30 EP. Idle malus: None, but is removed when poison does not exist anymore.

Endothermy: Endothermy simply adds 3 to the temperature stat, or allows it to be added if you do not want that at the time. It costs 80 EP.

Flight: Flight cannot be obtained instantly, but needs to be evolved over a period of time. When first evolving flight, its value is set to 1. Evolving flight and raising or decreasing the value by one costs 30 EP. Once the species has achieved the value 3, flight is removed from the ability section to the traits section 'speed', where it can be upgraded like any other locomotion. Flight can obviously only evolved by animals and allows the species to skip one biome when migrating. Idle malus: Normal speed penalty

Terrestrial: A terrestrial lifestyle is obtained similarly to flight, just that the goal value is 5 and the cost is 50 EP. As long as a species is not fully terrestrial it is an amphibic species. Once a species reaches value 5, it loses its swimming skill. Terrestrial species may be able to re-enter the amphibic phase with a starting value of 3 and can increase/decrease this value by paying 20 EP. If such a species would reach value 4, it instead obtains a fully terrestrial lifestyle again. Aquatic species which have been terrestrial once cannot populate the deepsea for obvious reasons.

Ichthyomorphy: Like Flight and Terrestrial, Ichthyomorphy is not obtained with one evolution, but instead is a gradual process. Increasing or decreasing Ichthyomorphy by 1 costs 20 EP. The amount of steps is 10. As long as an animal hasn't obtained an Ichthyomorphy stat of 10 it is an amphibic animal, but as soon as it passes the tenth step, it becomes fully aquatic with the exception that it can't migrate to the deepsea under and circumstances. Obviously, animals can only evolve this ability once they got the respiration bauplan and have become fully terrestrial. Amphibians that return back to the ocean before having evolved a terrestrial lifestyle lose their respiration bauplan and are not counted as Ichthyomorphs.

Chemosynthesis: The cost for this ability is 100 EP and can only be evolved by deepsea dwelling animals. When a species evolves chemosynthesis, it loses all of its other diets and it becomes a 'chemovore'. Similar to detritovores/corpivores, each chemovore species in a biome has to be a different size. Furthermore, chemovores cannot exceed size 3. When a chemovorous species evolves a different diet, it loses its chemosynthesis ability.

Dimorphism: Dimorphism means that different individuals of the same species have a different phenotype. Peacocks for instance feature a sexual dimorphism while butterflies feature larval dimorphism. Dimorphism itself costs 20 EP and needs another evolution (costs must be paid). When evolving dimorphism, the species template for that species is split into two. One for the adult/female and the other for the larva/male. (Note that sexual dimorphism can only evolved if the species already got sexual reproduction.) The evolution accompanying the dimorphism is applied to only one of the two forms. Whenever this species evolves in the future, the creator decides whether the evolution is just for one part or for the whole species. Traits unaffected by dimorphism are reproduction, propagation and intelligence. They are always the same on all different morphs. Given another evolution a species can feature both sexual dimorphism and larval dimorphism leading to three different morphs: Female, male and larva. When the larval dimorphism is evolved after the sexual dimorphism, the larva's stats are copied from the female template.
Larvae can't exceed the size of the adults.

Broodcare: Broodcare changes the way ovivores feed upon other species' eggs. Instead of just having it as a foodsource, ovivores will now have to to compare their combat/speed stats to their prey species just as carnivores do. However, ovivores get no benefit from the ability 'Ambush'. Evolving broodcare costs 60 EP.

Ambush: Instead of ignoring the prey's speed and combat completely, ambush predators will just ignore the speed, while the combat stat is still used. However, ambushed prey species can use intelligence to add points to their fighting ability. Furthermore, ambush is a gradual ability, that means a species starts with level 1 ambush and can evolve it further. Each level of ambush increases the predator's fighting ability. Increasing ambush by one level costs ten times the next level. (If next level is 7, it costs 70 EP. Idle malus: tied to leftover combat skill

Mimicry: When evolving mimicry the creator must state a species in the same biome of the same type (plant/animal) that the evolved species is going to mimic. That species will use the mimicked species' combat stat instead of its own (with all boni like venom). Mimicry costs 15 EP.

Hive: Hives can only be evolved by animals of the size 1 to 3. When fighting or evolving intelligence hive creatures are treated as if they were 3 sizes bigger. The cost to evolve a hive is 40 EP.

Antifreezer: Raises the temperature adaption by 1. This ability is devolved as soon as the species does not live in subpolar or polar biomes. Cost: 15 EP.

Immobility: This ability is not so much an ability on its own but rather a result of a speed stat of 0. Immobile animal species have the side effect, that every mobile species in the same biome produces an additional EP each turn. This only counts for species of the same team, so a "blue coral" won't boost the EP income of a "red fish". This is also cumulative so each immobile species will boost the other species separately. (Three different species of immobile animals will provide a +3 EP boost for each mobile species in the same biome.) Note that immobile species can not feed on plants or other immobile species.

Spoiler: SYMBIOSIS (click to show/hide)

Symbiosis, while actually an ability, is so complex, that it deserves its own chapter. Symbiosises have to be initiated by a species and require a target species in the same biome controlled by another team. The species starting the symbiosis is called the Symbiotee (S for short) and the target species is simply called Target (T for short).

To figure out which evolutions can be evolved, refer to this chart:



As long as both species meet the requirements, the Symbiotee can evolve the symbiosis paying the specific cost. During the next turn, the Target can now also evolve a symbiosis for the Symbiotee (switching the roles). If both species have evolved a symbiosis for one another, it is called a Full Symbiosis. Full symbiosises have the advantage, that whenever a population of one of the two species raises their BD, the population of the other species in that biome also gets an additional point of BD. This is not cumulative, so having two Full symbioses between two species doesn't give out two BD.

A special type of symbiosis is 'Merge'. This can only happen between a purely photosynthetic or chemosynthetic organism and an organism that is at least three sizes larger. This costs 60 EP. The two teams must decide to split the pay by paying part of a number of halves, thirds, quarters or fifths, and the rule is that the larger organism never pays less than the plant. The amount of EP given by the merged organism, and anything that evolves from it, is split between the teams in the same ratio that they payed for the symbiosis with. The effect is that the smaller organism adds its diet, toxins, immunity and antifreezer to the larger one.

Note that when evolving a symbiosis, only the Symbiotee is required to create a new species, as with every new evolution. Whenever one of the two symbionts evolves, the symbiosises stay as long as both parent symbionts are still present in the same biome. (A symbiosis will not carry to the next generation if the symbiosis partner has gone extinct or they don't share a biome anymore.)

Spoiler: Turn's end (click to show/hide)

Events: At first the gamemaster will make a short summary of events that happened during the turn. Disasters also fall into this category and may cause damage to various species.
Updating the world: If this turn is the last turn of a round, then the gamemaster has to provide a new map showing the changes brought to the world by tectonic plate movement and disasters.
Extermination: Quite often species will occupy the same niche due to evolutions or migrations. Due to the competitive exclusion principle, the less fit species will be exterminated completely.
EP: Once all the biomes have been cleaned of the unworthy species, the gamemaster will count the EP produced by each population. Unused EP of a turn will not be transfered to the next one.

Spoiler: Golden Rules (click to show/hide)

If a species is better suited for an environment, it will outcompete the inferior organism. (Diet specialisation levels are the main indicators. If both are the same, then idle mali decide which organism is more fit.)
If a species occupies the same niche as its parental species, it will replace it.
If two species in a biome are equal in fitness, then the one, that has been habitating the biome for a longer time outcompetes the newly arrives species.
If none of the above is true, that means both species are equal in fitness, are not directly related to each other and arrived at the same biome simultaneously, then it is decided at random which species outcompetes the other.

The amount of EP produced by each population is as the following: The base EP are equal to the biodiversity of the population. From that amount several things are subtracted such as idle mali and combat results, but also other numbers be added due to symbiosis. However, no matter how many negative numbers a population might score, each population will produce at least 1 EP.

An idle malus is a penalty which reduces the amount of EP a population produces by subtracting the number of 'unused' traits. For instance, if a species got a combat skill of 5, but a certain population needs only 2 to fight off predators, then the idle malus for combat for that population is 3. Traits which create idle mali are:

Combat
Unused diets (specialisation level)
Speed (tied to combat skill)
Temperature adaptions
Certain abilities

Spoiler: List of Disasters (click to show/hide)

Ice Age
An ice age will cool down the planet by one temperature level. Furthermore it will freeze a large amount of water and thus both the humidity and the sea levels will decrease.
Global Warming
This is the exact opposite of an ice age. Not only will it cause the planet's temperature to warm up but also it will melt some of the ice and therefore raises both humidity and sea levels.
Supernova
Unlike ice ages and global warmings, supernovae do not affect the planet's climate (in this game...) but rather cause the populations of the planet to lose biodiversity points immediately. Supernovae expose organisms on the surface to deadly radiation. Marine organisms aren't affected that much as they are protected by the water, though surface-dwelling organisms can still take damage from the radiation. The loss of biodiversity is as follows:
Terrestrial biomes (including rivers and islands) - Populations lose biodiversity equal to their size.
Shallows and lakes - Populations lose biodiversity equal to half their size rounded up. (Size 4 -> 2 points, size 7 -> 4 points.)
Oceans - Populations lose only 1 point of biodiversity regardless of their size.
Deepsea - Organisms living in the deepsea are not affected by a supernova at all.

Impact
An impact is probably the most destructive disaster in the whole game, as it kills off all animals of size 6 and bigger immediately. Plants and smaller animals will lose biodiversity points equal to their size (similarly to a supernova), where this loss is multiplied by 3 in the biome where the impact hit and by 2 in the surrounding biomes. Lakes and islands get the same multiplyer as the biome they're located in. The loss of populations living in rivers is halved. The biome which is hit by the impact is determined randomly.
Magnetic Reversal
The Magnetic Reversal will switch the magnetic poles. This has a huge impact on the ocean currents and disturbs the plankton growth, which in turn kills off many filterfeeding species. Also many species rely on the magnetic poles for navigation, especially flying ones.
All populations will lose BD equal to the connected biomes for that species. So if a species has three populations on continent A and three on continent B and both continents don't touch, all populations of that species will lose 3 BD.
Flying species will be hit twice as hard.
Filter feeders will be hit thrice as hard.

Spoiler: New kingdoms (click to show/hide)

If a team lacks a kingdom (either if they're new or theirs has been wiped out), they can negotiate for a new one. If a team gives their permission, the GM can give the kingdom-lacker a budget to create a new species from the old one.

LET IT BEGIN.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Isn't the OOC thread usually posted first?

[The Froggy Ninja]

OCC?

[GreatWyrmGold]

Out Of Character

[kaian-a-coel]

Or Out Of Context, depends.
_{I'm so signing in}

[GreatWyrmGold]

The latter usage is a single thread in General Discussion. The former is a whole category of threads, for all sorts of forum games.

[The Froggy Ninja]

I know what it means, I was requesting it.

[Icefire2314]

Gaiz.

Please only use this thread for posting creatures, for the GM's ease. DO NOT USE FOR SIGNING UP OR DISCUSSING.

[kaian-a-coel]

If the OOC topic is usually posted before the IC topic, there's a reason.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

I think this topic should be renamed to OOC....

[Mesa]

I think this topic should be renamed as OOC....

At that point it should be, really.
Would be less work to set up now, too. (IMHO)

[Eotyrannus]

Okay, I'll switch the two around. NOBODY POST K.

EDIT: Okay post nao guis.

[Icefire2314]

K I'm reserving a spot here

[Eotyrannus]

If anyone doesn't know how to make a team, just be one of the first 5 to become a leader. Pick a name, I'll give you your stuff, and you will then be a fully-fledged team.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Why did you start with the IC, anyways?

And um...what sheet do we use to sign up? The species sheet?