This game is now closed, and has been re-worked. To find the new game, please click here.


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Just a little note: I've been meaning to update with a new species of mine but... ah, I've been dead busy. In fact, I havn't been on the internet much at all. As I can see, I think other people have lost interest too. Oh well. Maybe this game wasn't such a great idea. It really is a bit too complex, isn't it? Too slow as well. Even I'm getting bored with it (admittedly from lack of other participating players). Who knows - maybe this would be a good time to revise it, re-write the rules, etc. Make it simpler, less time consuming. Anyway, it was just to say I'm not dead or anything, and I haven't forgotten about it, just been waiting for other participants.

[Recent request: I would like to ask that if you make your moves, please reply directly to the journal entry and not your own post. I won't bug anyone about it but I might accidentally miss your moves, at least if I can see them in my inbox then I definately know you've made them, and then I can add them in. ]

Anyone can join at any time. It is a competitive game (well, not if I'm the only one playing so if you're interested please join!), but sort of an experiment on creativity mixed with adaptation.

:::::Introduction:::::

This thread is a game centered on designing your own creatures by evolving them. You must compete with your opponents to design the strongest, fastest, and smartest creature and eliminate your opponent's species. You can do so in a real-time environment, with mass extinctions and climate changes (random events).

This is a game, and is not intended to reflect any real life theories on evolution.

:::::Tutorial:::::

The game runs in rounds - periods of one week (real-time) in which the player can execute a set of moves (5 moves per week). The player commands a set of 'creatures' which represent one population of animals living in a particular area on the map. The player can move them, in doing so helping them multiply, they can attack opponent species, and they can evolve a population - design a new species. Each of these tasks takes up one move.

New players get 2 weeks immunity to attacks as they establish some ground.

-----World map:

[link]

The world map is seperated into areas, which are the habitats. Some habitats may be split into seperate areas, whether they are found on more than one place on the map, or a red line cuts through them at sea, and they are treated as seperate habitats. Red lines represent sea temperature boundaries, the 4th and 5th down representing the tropics, and the top representing the edge of an ice cap. Populations of different species, from different players, can occupy one single area, but there are set numbers of populations per species can occupy an area. Each area is numbered.

Each area is a habitat. It represents the flora, fauna and climate of that part of the map. The jagged shapes pointing upwards are mountain ranges. Numbers in brackets below show how many creatures of one species can inhabit that particular habitat. There are 10 habitat types. These are:

1) Deep sea: Darkest blue parts of the sea. These are deep trences and oceans where little or no light reach, strange aquatic fish and crustaceans go by touch, smell or bear bulging eyes to detect any of the little light available. [2]

2) Open ocean: These are the medium blue areas of deep saltwater, they can appear like voids stretching onwards and downwards as far as the eye can see. Aside from the odd school of ocean fish and the plankton in the water, there is little obvious life out here. [10]

3) Shallow sea: The lightest blue areas of sea. They aren't usually too deep, and they can harbour reefs where many corrals, fish, crustaceans, worms, sponges and other animals thrive, particularly towards the tropics and less so towards the poles. [3]

4) Tundra: White areas on land with streaks of blue, these are the areas locked in snow and ice. Glaciers flow along the surface and the temperature rarely goes above freezing point, little vegetation grows and few animals survive - there is generally little food or liquid water, making it a frozen desert. [3]

5) Conifer forest: Teal green area represented by christmas and pine-like trees. These hardy plants can cope with cold winters, and the summers can be warm and pleasant. The trees are usually tall, and the forest floor, snow-covered in winter, is covered in pine needles in summer. Smaller plants that need the sunlight can only grow where the trees don't - in the occasional clearing caused by a fallen conifer. [4]

6) Temperate forest: Light green area represented by a mixture of conifer shapes and coudy deciduous tree shapes. Mixed forests carpet the area. Here there are well defined seasons and the weather is generally mild. Many trees are bare in winter and many other plants are anual, dying off in the winter frost and occasional flurry of snow. Summer can be warm and wet. [6]

7) Grassland: Limey green area represented by grass blades brushing out. Open vast prairies of grasses or ferns with only a few trees and shrubs. Here the climate is rich and warm most of the year, but may be accompanied by dry seasons of drought and famine at cooler times of year. When the weather is warmer some grasslands are attacked by tropical storms. [5]

8) Rainforest: Darkest green area. Thick rainforest and jungle covers the area. The climate is hot and humid all year, and it pours with rain every day. Sometimes buffeted by tropical storms. Rich warm wet environment is perfect for harbouring many different species. [6]

9) Hot desert: Yellow area. Few plants are present and there is little water, and hardly any rainfall. Days are blistering hot, nights are deathly cold. Sand and rock is common, split and shattered from severe warming and cooling. [3]

10) Tropical swamp: Muddy green/brown area. Here the climate is hot and humid and the ground waterlogged. There are muddy lagoons and swamp grasses, the odd tree, and many insects. Water runs down from the mountains, keeping the area moist all the time. [5]

-----Natural disasters, climate change:

Not yet implimented.

-----Creatures:

Once you have chosen an area you want to start in, it's time to design a creature. You should design a creature that would appear fitting in its habitat. Since its your starter, it will be small and simple, like a tiny insect or fish. You will be able to evolve it into something interesting later. You can use any medium or style you feel comfortable with designing it.

One thing to bear in mind when designing a new species, whether you are evolving an old species or starting a new game, is stats. For your first species you automatically get 10 stat points. You can allocate these points to these stats:

ATTACK - If your creature has higher attack than your opponent's defense, your creature can kill it off.

DEFENCE - If your creature has higher defense than your opponent's attack, your creature can't be killed off by that opponent.

AGILITY - If your creature has higher agility than your opponent, your opponent cannot catch it.

SIZE - If your size is smaller than your opponent by 10 points your opponent cannot find it. If it's bigger by 10 your opponent cannot harm it. If its in the middle it has no effect on your opponent.

INTELLIGENCE - If your creature's intelligence is higher than one of its other stats, it can use that stat in a secondary habitat. (see 'HABITATS' ).

HABITATS - Choose one primary habitat you want your creature to inhabit, which it will start in, and then two secondary habitats. Your creature can move to secondary habitats, but its stats cannot protect it from attacks in secondary habitats, unless its intelligence is higher than that stat. A species cannot spread to any habitats which are not its primary or secondary habitats.

MOBILITY - Currently there are just 3 types of mobility: AQUATIC, TERRESTRIAL, and AERIAL. Your creature could, theoretically, have all 3 of these stats, though its unlikely. This stat tells other players more specifically what kind of habitat the creature dwells in, and your creature can only affect other creatures of the same mobility type(s).

AQUATIC means it can swim, and can attack or be attacked by other swimmers (an aquatic creature in a land habitat would indicate it's a freshwater creature living in a lake or river within that habitat). TERRESTRIAL means it can move on land, and attack or be attacked by other land dwellers. AERIAL means it can fly, and can attack or be attacked from the air.

It would be considered cheating if you gave your creature one of these stats when that creature doesn't appear to be able to have that stat. E.g. giving a legless fish that would only flop about on land the 'TERRESTRIAL' stat, just for a tactical advantage. You can give semi-aquatic creatures both TERRESTRIAL and AQUATIC, and there will rarely be an exclusively AERIAL creature - if it ever lands and moves even for brief periods on land, then it is partiallyTERRESTRIAL.

How your creature looks affects what stats you allocate. Something that looks fast and nimble should be so. Something with sharp teeth should have greater attack. Higher intelligence usually means a bigger brain, manipulatory organs etc. You can add any extra information you like.

So, you have a new creature designed, scanned it and uploaded it, and have allocated its stats. It's time to join the game.

-----In-game play:

Once you have chosen an area you make a post to announce which area you have chosen to start in. The area will have its own individual number

Your first post will be your main place to store all your species - don't forget the page number that your post is on, otherwise you'll have trouble referring to it in the future! Here you can simply store your species in a listed format by replying to your first post, like this:

SPECIES NAME: Your species name (can be anything, even a random number)

(LINK TO ARTWORK OF THE SPECIES)

STATS: List your species' stats.

HABITATS: Show what habitats it is able to occupy.

AREAS OCCUPIED: How many creatures you have of this species and which areas they occupy, and how many are in each area.

DESCRIPTION: Optional additional information, such as lifestyle and diet.


Reply, start adding the next species (you won't have more than one until you have evolved your first one)...

-----Moves:

Now you should have your species in your chosen habitat. I will edit in the main game's post below this tutorial showing the habitats and what creatures occupy them, and add your creatures to it, so that other people can see from a glance what they're up against.

You will start off with just one creature in your chosen primary habitat's zone. This creature represents the population that occupies that zone. Now, you have 5 moves which you can choose from. All you have to do, is make a new post showing what 5 moves have been chosen, including the information for any newly evolved species. Only 5 moves per week can be issued per player, any more before the week is out will be ignored. The cut-off point between weeks is 00.00AM Sunday morning Western Europe time. Main game page will be updated during the day on Sunday.

Here are the moves you can make:

MIGRATE: You can move any one of your creatures to any area surrounding that it doesn't already occupy. One creature moved = one move used up.

REPRODUCE: You can duplicate one of your creatures on the map, so that thre are more than one in an area. If that area has already reached its capacity limmit for that species, this command can't be carried out. 1 new creature = one move used up.

ADAPT: This is where you get to decide how one of your creatures will evolve. Say you had 3 creatures of the same species. You would only need to evolve one of those creatures, so at the end you will have 2 creatures of the original species and 1 will have become the new species.

You will get 4 stat points (in total, not per stat) which you can add to any of its stats to increase them. What stats you allocate to should reflect the changes in the design of your creature. In adapting the design you can make a fairly drastic but not too drastic change, like a bird-like dinosaur evolving into a flying dinosaur-like bird.

During adaptation you can change one of the secondary habitats to anything you like. The primary habitat cannot be changed to just anything, and can only be changed at all through swapping with one of the secondary habitats. You cannot both swap with a primary habitat and change a secondary habitat. One new species = one move used up.

There's another thing you can choose to do whilst evolving your creature - you can buy a secondary habitat for it, increasing the number of secondary habitats your creature can roam in. To do this, you must in fact take away 10 stat points for your creature when evolving it, giving 10 less stat points than before you evolved it! This is especially good for players that have intelligent creatures, as they can better survive in secondary habitats.

KILL: This is why you need your stats. For an explanation on stats see 'Creatures:' underneath 'World map:'. Your creature can only attack a creature that inhabits the same area, and whose agility, defence are low enough for the attack to be successful. Be sure to check an opponent specie's stats before attacking - it might backfire, and if your opponent's attack is higher than yours your creature might get killed instead!

:::::FAQ:::::

Feel free to ask any questions, important ones I'll paste here for other players to check.

:::::That's all folks:::::

Below this is the main game status. If you're still confused, you can ask questions as you go, I'll be more than happy to help. Thank you so much for being patient enough to read all that, and let me know if you have any suggestions for anything, whether its the tutorial or the game itself.

Have fun!

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Week: 3 (new week: 00.00AM Sunday, Western Europe time)

World map reminder:

[link]

Areas inhabited:

AREA #21 grassland

ESPANOX (2 creatures) (Player: ~Aqua-wrath - page 1)
Attack: 1
Defence: 2
Agility: 5
Size: 1
Intelligence: 1
Optimum: Grassland
TERRESTRIAL only

RAGNAR (1 creature) (Player: ~Re2deemer - page 1)
ATTACK: 2
DEFENSE: 6
AGILITY: 5
SIZE: 4
INTELLIGENCE: 1
Optimum: grassland
TERRESTRIAL only

AREA #25 shallow sea

BOGNATHI (1 creature) (Player: Amoeba-like-thingy - page 1)
ATTACK: 5
DEFENSE: 2
AGILITY: 6
SIZE: 3
INTELLIGENCE: 2
Optimum: Shallow sea
AQUATIC only

AREA #30 hot desert

RAGNAR (1 creature) (Player: ~Re2deemer - page 1)
ATTACK: 2
DEFENSE: 6
AGILITY: 5
SIZE: 4
INTELLIGENCE: 1
Optimum: grassland
TERRESTRIAL only

SHELLFORT (1 creature) (Player: ~Re2deemer - page 1)
ATTACK: 1
DEFENSE: 4
AGILITY: 2
SIZE: 2
INTELLIGENCE: 1
Optimum: desert
TERRESTRIAL only

STRIDER (1 creature) (Player: ~Re2deemer - page 1)
ATTACK: 1
DEFENSE: 5
AGILITY: 4
SIZE: 3
INTELLIGENCE: 1
Optimum: grassland
TERRESTRIAL only

AREA #31 shallow sea

HAPIKA (2 creatures) (Player: Amoeba-like-thingy - page 1)
ATTACK: 2
DEFENSE: 2
AGILITY: 4
SIZE: 1
INTELLIGENCE: 1
Optimum: Shallow sea
AQUATIC only

AREA #34 shallow sea

BOPIKA (2 creatures) (Player: Amoeba-like-thingy - page 1)
ATTACK: 4
DEFENSE: 2
AGILITY: 5
SIZE: 2
INTELLIGENCE: 1
Optimum: Shallow sea
AQUATIC only

AREA #49 shallow sea

HAPIKA (2 creatures) (Player: Amoeba-like-thingy - page 1)
ATTACK: 2
DEFENSE: 2
AGILITY: 4
SIZE: 1
INTELLIGENCE: 1
Optimum: Shallow sea
AQUATIC only

Total population: 13 creatures.