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[effigyoffaith]

The test of whether or not two individuals are of the same or different species is generally if the can/will interbreed and produce viable offspring (this leads to fun little anomalies like ring species). So it is difficult to say if we are a different species from our ancestors or descendants because that is a test we can not perform. My point is they will probably think of them selves as human even if we would not.

[Neruz]

The test of whether or not two individuals are of the same or different species is generally if the can/will interbreed and produce viable offspring (this leads to fun little anomalies like ring species). So it is difficult to say if we are a different species from our ancestors or descendants because that is a test we can not perform. My point is they will probably think of them selves as human even if we would not.

It can also be determined based on genetic variation.


And while our future selves will probably consider themselves human, as changing the species name would be silly, they will not consider themselves the same as the current era humans, in the same way that we do not consider ourselves the same as the humans 30,000 years ago.

[Inquisitor Saturn]

Homo Sapiens has remained largely unchanged for the pat several dozen thousand years.
Evolution is a SLOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW process. It can take a million years for any appreciable differences to arise.

[Areyar]

Don't make the mistake of thinking that evolution has a direction or goal, certainly assuming that human evolution can be predicted by extrapolating the 'recent' trend is wishfull at best.
It is far more likely that humanity will devolve into a slackjawed, lazy, ultimate consumer of the matrix movies, rather than the hyperintelligent 'grey' everyone assumes is the logical endpoint.
 
Besides endpoints in evolution are equal to deadends, extinction is always lurking nearby for hyperspecialized (eg ultimately evolved) species.
Offcourse, near-extinction events function like evolutionary bottlenecks or rapids if you will. But then the changed conditions that caused the extinction will put a different set of evolutionary stresses on the species, evolving it into something else.

My on-topic point is: evolution has no role in magically created fantasy critters, besides selecting for survival/growth of populations in the emergent ecologies.
Depending on how/if randomised mythical species are generated, they can be generated in-vitro-sillico as complete species before worldgen or have a pre-worldgen-history evolutionary phase where species are planted (by the devine Toad of Creation) and strife to outcompete eventual competitors.
Successful populations can spread and/or diversify into subspecies unsuccessful ones can dieoff or spontaneously mutate to attempt survival/mimic bottleneck evolution.
I'm not sure on the wisdom of in effect adding an entire new layer of history to worldgen and a tracking layer for n populations of m species with p subspecies.
I think in general evolution is unnessesary, however a short period of titan and overall HFS history/evolution would be good for the continuity of the universal timeline.
It is engraved, that the HFS was driven/locked away by the elder gods, well .... that sounds like fun to emulate.
(heh. Also sounds like a plausible game concept: SlavestoArmok, Prequel. Titanquest. As a Deity of [insert + spheres here], draw species to your cause, grant them mythical powers and defeat Armok and the enslaving deamons so that your chosen people can be free.)

[Neruz]

Homo Sapiens has remained largely unchanged for the pat several dozen thousand years.
Evolution is a SLOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW process. It can take a million years for any appreciable differences to arise.

It comes and goes, sometimes it's quite fast, other times it's much slower, sometimes it stops entirely.

[lordcooper]

sometimes it's quite fast

Indeed, I evolved a little this very morning.

[Neruz]

sometimes it's quite fast

Indeed, I evolved a little this very morning.

See?

[GlyphGryph]

I know its a few pages ago, but the "anthro jellyfish" argument made me think of a comic I'd seen with anthro "slimes". Clearly this is how it would be done.

http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/080813

[wilsonns]

I think that I'm the only one that's not talking about evolution, I just want to ask something.

Will be possible to mod venoms and extracts that just works on some species?Ex:Insecticides...

[Footkerchief]

I think that I'm the only one that's not talking about evolution, I just want to ask something.

Will be possible to mod venoms and extracts that just works on some species?Ex:Insecticides...

Thank god, someone with something useful to say.  Yes, it will be possible!  Creatures and poisons belong to one or multiple "creature interaction classes," which determine who gets poisoned by what.  The use of these was demonstrated in the creature preview/spoiler from a couple months ago:

[CREATURE_INTERACTION_CLASS:GENERAL_POISON]
[USE_MATERIAL_TEMPLATE:POISON:CREATURE_EXTRACT_TEMPLATE]
   [SYNDROME]
      [SYN_NAME:sickness]
      [SYN_AFFECTED_CLASS:GENERAL_POISON]
      [SYN_IMMUNE_CREATURE:SELF:ALL]
      (routes of administration and effects omitted)

Like all creature interaction classes, the GENERAL_POISON class is just a string used to link the creatures and poisons together.  It's not an object with its own raw definition or anything like that.  The above example also shows how you can set up immunity for a specific creature with SYN_IMMUNE_CREATURE (I changed the creature token to SELF, as it contained a spoiler).  So this poison will work on any creature in the GENERAL_POISON class, except for creatures of its own kind.

You can attach these syndromes to any material, and almost everything in the game is made of a material now.

[dragnar]

Homo Sapiens has remained largely unchanged for the pat several dozen thousand years.
Evolution is a SLOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW process. It can take a million years for any appreciable differences to arise.

It comes and goes, sometimes it's quite fast, other times it's much slower, sometimes it stops entirely.

There was actually a study done recently to determine how quickly humanity is evolving. The answer? faster than ever. The rate a species evolves is largely based on the available genepool, and our population keeps growing. It seems that very little physical evolution has occured recently, but more subtle changes are happening constantly.

[Neonivek]

That is also due to the fact that while a species is in the wild, a species that evolves and becomes less adapt can often die off.

While in reality there are families with long histories of diseases and disabilities that in the wild would have more then killed them off.

[Lancensis]

I think that I'm the only one that's not talking about evolution, I just want to ask something.
Will be possible to mod venoms and extracts that just works on some species?Ex:Insecticides...

Yes, it will be possible!

Insecticide or goblinicide sounds wonderfull. I was already planning to make a Centre for Goblin Studies custom workshop where dwarves dissect goblin cadavers to find out how they tick and make new ways to make them stop ticking. The problem with creating poisons like that is that I can't really think of many ways to deliver the toxin to the stuff you're trying to kill.  Presumebly if you make the poison as an extract, there still won't be a "Smear Anti-Kobold Toxin on Pig Tail Sock" job making it difficult to use. Perhaps you could burn it, flooding the area with toxic smoke?

[Mephansteras]

Hmmm, maybe a custom reaction to make a special metal that is poisonous? Goblin Bane iron or something?

[Footkerchief]

The problem with creating poisons like that is that I can't really think of many ways to deliver the toxin to the stuff you're trying to kill.  Presumebly if you make the poison as an extract, there still won't be a "Smear Anti-Kobold Toxin on Pig Tail Sock" job making it difficult to use. Perhaps you could burn it, flooding the area with toxic smoke?

Burning it probably wouldn't do anything, although vaporizing it would.  You could also use a cave-in to fill the area with poisonous dust.  You could also produce a poisonous gas directly at a custom workshop.

Creatures have the best repertoire of poison delivery methods -- they can spit globs of contact poison, breathe clouds of poison gas, secrete contact poison on their skin, or inject poison.  I'm assuming the ability of vermin to inject poison hasn't been removed, but I doubt they have any of the new abilities.  Anyway, you could send out war animals to poison the goblins, or you could manufacture poisonous vermin at a workshop and have them dumped outside the walls.

Hmmm, maybe a custom reaction to make a special metal that is poisonous? Goblin Bane iron or something?

I don't think the weapon itself will trigger a contact syndrome.  It has to be a contaminant on the weapon.

Eventually there'll probably be some way to get the dwarves to put poison on their weapons:

Any word on poisoned weapons this time around?

They used to be in the game (in the form of batmen with GSC-poison-coated blowdarts), and all the code for adding blood contaminants from item contaminants is still there, so they could very well make it in, especially as I add new underground features and the vectors of torment within.  As for adding a job that allows dwarves to poison their weapons, I've always had an internal resistance slowing that down as it didn't seem particularly dwarf-like, but I'm sure it'll go in at some point, quite possibly with some new ethics and potential backlash, or something.

This warrants a question. How will poisons/weapon coatings operate in dwarf mode?

I'm not going to allow that until the ethical framework and repercussions are in place.  Dwarves with poison weapons seem strange to me, so I'd like to do that stuff first before I worry about the interface, jobs and storage.  That is, you'd be allowed to make that decision, but it would cause quite a fuss in general.