Hello, and welcome to my brand new forum game. (Not so "brand new" now, but no matter.)
This game is a bit complicated, but it is much simpler than it seems. It all about evolutionary ecology, and taxonomy.
You play as clades of animal species, and your goal is to become as much specious, and long lasting as possible. To accomplish this, you will sprout new species from your branch of the evolutionary tree into available niches and environments, and make sure that existing ones survive, while the shape of the map constantly changes and possible mass extinctions loom over. You will also battle with one another too, to keep the most space.
Here, is how things work.
General RulesFor each new round, you will get 5 points to spend. They don't stack, so be sure to spend all of them. The ways they can be spent is down below.
There is a universal common ancestor. which is a ambiguous tetrapod animal. You will all branch out of it. I will be called Last Local Ancestor, L.L.C for short.
You can only make new species out of your own extant clades, and you are stuck with that said clade for the rest of the game, unless the game ends, the clade you play as goes extinct, or you quit. No exceptions
You are all playing as vertebrate animals. Plants and invertebrates are a part of the background.
Each species will have a fixed habitat and a niche they occupy, and those niches will also be preset for each biome. No overarching generalists.
Each species will have a dice value to indicate their success. Higher it is, more adapted they are. It is decided by a 20-sided dice. This is called Evolutionary Success. E.S for short.
You can personally name your species and clades, otherwise the species will be randomly named by me, and clades will be unnamed.
●Niches●
3)
*Apex Predator*
2)
*Ambush Predator*
*Lithe Predator*
Kleptopredator
Osteophage
1)
Terrestrial Insectivore
*Arboreal Insectivore*
Small Predator
*Arboreal Predator*
*Islander Predator*
Ectoparasite
Endoparasite
Carnivorous Burrower
Necro-Scavenger
0)
*Nectarivore*
*Frugivore*
Decomposer
Small Omnivore
Large Omnivore
*Cleaner*
-1)
Terrestrial Granivore
*Arboreal Granivore*
Small Grazer
Small Browser,
*Islander Herbivore*
Herbivorous Burrower
*Slow-moving arboreal leaf-eater*
-2)
*Browser*
Grazer
*Cacti Eater*
-3)
*Large Grazer*
*Large Browser*
*Bark Eater*
The niches marked with "*" are exotic, and can only be found in some biomes.
●Passive●
For an empty niche, it is pretty straigthfoward.
You will spend a single point to roll the dice, and bam, it is yours. In an event where two or more player target the same niche at the same time, then the species with highest E.S wins.
●Aggressive●
While speciating into empty niches is easy, attacking to get them is a bit more complicated. For an invasion to be successful, you will have to get a better luck in your dice than the initial occupier did. It costs a single point per attack.
The possible victims can also put up a defense by spending a single point the previous round, which temporarily adds 5 to the said species' E.S for the next round. This can't be stacked.
Attacks will happen automatically if two similar habitats merge, and the E.S of both sides will be used as they are, including any protection bonus. So watch out, and use that defense bonus wisely by trying to predict where the climate or the landmasses are going.
If you and your rival happen to have the same dice value, the two species may coexist in the same place and habitat until something or someone breaks the mood. This may happen if an another player attacks and gets the same value as the defenders total E.S, or if they both get the same E.S value when speciating into a vacant niche.
If you are speciating from one habitat to another in any way, you will recieve a -3 unadaptedness penalty in your new species' initial E.S dice roll for every movement in the biome spectrum.
If you try to change the adapted niche of a species when trying to speciate from it, you will get a -3 unfitness penalty to your new species' initial E.S dice roll for every individual movement in the niche spectrum.
These two also apply if the biome your species are in dissappears into an another one, where your adapted species' environment or niche may not be found. They will cause instant extinction if they both hit at the same time.
To colonise offshore environments, you must be lucky. As distance increases, dice requirement increases, capping at 20.
Same species can exist in two or more separate places. This may happen due to land or climate shifting. These separate populations will be classified as subspecies and can be played as separate units with their own -same- E.S until either they are put together again or speciation happens.
You can boost your moves dice rolls by spending additional points on them. Every extra point will boost the dice by a +2.
You can use one action point to improve an existing species E.S. If you roll lower than your initial E.S though, the species will instead get a -5 to their E.S.
The map you will play is a bunch of separate landmasses that shift, contort and move a little bit each round.
These landmasses will have biomes on them, and these biomes will have the distinct niches you will compete for. Each will have distinct colors and patterns.
Oceans are off limits, Nothing lives in them, and coasts, lakes and rivers are not biomes either. But freshwater may and will effect the biome distribution nontheless.
Supercontinents may form, and they may split. Large swathes of land may start sinking or rising due to climate change or tectonics. It's random.
These movements may form mountain ranges that affect the climates around it, making them either drier or wetter.
Climates can change, from a hothouse to an icehouse. It is also mostly random.
The game has a definite, undelayable end. Like a real planet, the world's internal heat can carry it only so far. First, continents will slow down their movements, then they will stop moving altogether, and start eroding, all the while global volcanism steadily diminishes, and then peaks with the poles marching to the equator.
Ice caps, wastelands and mountains are unhabitable, and serve as definite, impassable walls.
Islands will exist and appear off of, and dissappear into the sea but, no matter the biome they have, they will only house 2 species at most. A herbivore and a carnivore. Oasises will not.
●Biomes●
Here is the list of biomes in the game, sorted by tempature. Mountains are not on this list, as they are not tempature dependant.
Ice sheet
Tundra
Prairie, Boreal Forest
Plains, Forest
Savanna, Jungle
Desert
Wasteland
It is your lineages overral success.
There are three factors. The peak number of extant species, the amount of time that you remained extant, and your total number of species.
If you go extinct entirely, or quit and come back later, you will have to start all over again and have separate scores listed.
Player number is capped at 15. New players are always welcome if there is space. To join after the game begins, and original population spilts into countless separate species, you must find a clade from a player that is the most genetically distant from the other members of their lineage. If you then decide on them, then are your separate branch, no questions asked. Not that player you split off of will care much about a few forgotten offshoots. If there is no such clade, then you can simply branch out of an extant lineage, out of nowhere.
When you join or are posting an action, includeyour desired, distinguishable hex colour code, besides pure white. This is necessary, and please, add it into your appopriate replies each time. This will help me immensely at categorising.
There will be a visual map and a taxonomic tree (where your color will be used) in every turn report, along with a chart of each biomes niches, and if they are occupied or not, including the universal niches.
Come on in! Jump in! You can join whenever you like.
Current PlayersNaturegirl1999
Longevity: Rounds 0-?
Total number of species: 7
In their most diverse: 7
Color: #D000FF
Knightwing64
Longevity: Rounds 0-1
Total number of species: 5
In their most diverse: 5
Color: #FF0000
Unraveller
Longevity: Rounds 0-?
Total number of species: 3
In their most diverse: 3
Color: #ffcc33
A_Curious_Cat
Longevity: Rounds 0-2
Total number of species: 2
In their most diverse: 2
Color: #F8DE7E
Mercur
Longevity: Rounds 0-?
Total number of species: 2
In their most diverse: 2
Color: #0c6c2b
Shadowclaw777
Longevity: Rounds 0-?
Total number of species: 9
In their most diverse: 9
Color: #000000
Strongpoint
Longevity: Rounds 0-?
Total number of species: 10
In their most diverse: 10
Color: #1b37a8
Leonardo8
Longevity: Rounds 1-?
Total number of species: 3
In their most diverse: 3
Color: #32CD32
Author
Topic: World of Competition, An Evolutionary Turf War (6/15) (Round 5) (Read 6064 times)