CELLQUEST: RIP in Piece [DEAD due to inactive host]

[ComiTurtle]

Do the mateing thing.

[Sam B]

Might wanna read this:

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As I've said before, evolution prices are going to scale as you get more complex. Dramatically so, even, now that you've officially hit the water creature stage (which was sadly cut from Spore.) Now, I'm not above slightly altering prices to balance them with your current amount of DNA, but there's only so far I'll go to make things affordable, and evolving before you know what you're up against in a new environment is rarely a good idea as somebody even pointed out a while back. Still, this is a reader-controlled adventure that I have tried very hard not to railroad in any particular direction, so if you guys really want to...

Act:

You eat a bit of the ever-present blue sand below and regain some of your belly, but once again you receive only 2 DNA Pts from the familiar food source. The healthy Eletus beside you seems very alluring for some reason, and you find yourself overcome with a sudden desire to mate.

However, you are in a strange new environment with a completely unknown ecosystem, and it may be unwise to go through with your urges before getting a sense of your surroundings.

You have 13 DNA Pt(s)

Are you sure you want to do this?

A) Yes, mate and evolve.
B) On second thought, maybe a bit of exploration is in order first.
C) Other: ___________________


Stats:

Homeworld: Aros.
Name: Eletus.
Traits: Annelid, Bilateral Symmetry.
Appearance: Faded blue; Long, slender body with thin wavy fins along either side; Pair of red stigma on either side of head and a mouth between them.
Behavior: Cautious, curious. Strong shoaling tendencies.
Diet: Geovore.
Belly: 80%
Size: 2.0; Just over a centimeter in length.
SNS: 1.2; Able to sense light from a slight distance; Cannot hear; Able to sense chemicals around you.
MOB: 1; You can move normally for your size. Can't fight the current well.
INT: 2.5; You have the beginnings of a brain and nervous system.
ATK: .5; You have a mouth.
DEF: .5; You have a thin C-Plate, protecting you from basic attacks.
HP: 15/15

Abilities:

--Active--
-Bud Off: Split your body into multiple organisms. Divides Belly by number of organisms. Temporarily reduces stats to a fraction of what they really are.
-Charge: A short burst of speed in any direction, can be used offensively. (-30% Belly)
-Protein Expulsion: Eject the contents of your Belly through your Mouth in a thick cloud. (-100% Belly)
--Passive--
-Segmented: Receive a DNA discount when increasing your size.
-Cephalize: Evolve sensory organs at reduced cost on your "head".
-Geophagy: Gain extra DNA from soil and similar materials.
-Regen: Recover HP at a constant rate. Belly drops faster than normal when more than a third of your HP is gone.

[Aabcehmu]

I vote for C, burrow a bit into the sand before mating. More protection than just being in the open, and our children are inescapably surrounded by food.

On second though, since it seems another vote isn't coming along, I'll change my vote to B. I would still prefer it if they did create a burrow when they eventually find a safe place.

[Shrump]

B, in my roleplaying expirience, when the GM gives you a "are you sure?" type of choice, you should rethink your decision. :P

Though I'm still for evolving, especially since when we explore we tend to get chased off or run away to a new location.

[Knight_of_Hide]

Eat more Dirt!

Then explore, I guess. Is it possible to mate without evolving, just to increase our Eletuspack?

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New Behaviour: Lusty

[Mithanu]

B, because listening to the GM will most likely pay off.

[Kíeros]

> Be an explorer.

[volnrok]

B, eating only blue sand causes its DNA value to diminish, we should locate a wider variety of dietary dirt.

[Sam B]

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I decided to take a bit more control than usual and skip straight past the decision for experimental eating and into the evolution I know you guys want, since it's been so long. I hope you don't mind that, or my completely unrealistic (and totally badass) alien lifeforms.

Act/Evolve:

Deciding to hold back on your reproductive urges for the moment, you opt to explore the new area and determine whether or not it would it would be safe to mate here.

You swim over to the nearest bit of coral to examine it more closely. It is a gathering of Crystal Coral: An unusually rock-like marine creature named for its dazzling surface which resembles the jagged interior of a geode. Large groupings of these corals can be seen even through the surface of the ice-covered ocean, glimmering like rare gems beneath the frozen crust.

As you examine the sparkling coral a new type of fish swims by and breaks off a piece of it with its head. Before the bit of broken coral can hit the seafloor the fish turns back and eats the coral before swimming away. You and the other Eletus have just had a very brief encounter with a Masked Seatrout: A greenish colored fish that comes in varying sizes and tend to prefer shallow water. The Masked Seatrout is named for the thick, blue/gray scales that cover their heads almost entirely which resemble solid plates of stone more than scales. They almost exclusively live in the coral reefs of Aros, where they feed on a variety of minerals and rocks, though they seem to favor the rare Crystal Coral above all else. Masked Seatrout are geovorous, and are generally docile by nature.

After 'seeing' the fish do the same, you decide to try eating a bit of the coral yourself. You have some difficulty getting any of it into your small mouth, but soon enough another Masked Seatrout comes by and shatters a large piece with its rocky face, and you are able to snag a few of the smaller pieces for yourself. You gain a whopping 8 DNA Pts from the exotic new food and completely fill your belly, which causes your size to increase a bit as your body develops a small new segment at your back end.

A Whiptail Shark pup quickly swims by way overhead, but does not seem to be hungry as he completely ignores you and the Seatrout. You conclude that it would in fact, be safe to mate in this area, and feel no shame whatsoever as you proceed to do so with your fellow Eletus.

[GRATUITOUS WORM MATING SCENE REDACTED]

You have 21 DNA Pt(s)

A) Upgrade Stigma: Sense +1.5; gain extremely blurry, primitive vision. (-8 Pts)
B) Develop cephalized Cilia: No stat bonus; unlocks multiple upgrade paths. (-4 Pts)
C) Upgrade Mouth: Attack +1; increases muscle development near mouth. (-6 Pts)
D) Develop Auricles: Sense +2; greatly increases chemical detection. (-6 Pts)

E) Fins ------> Pecto-wings: Mobility +2; Thin fins elongate and become "wings" for gliding just above the seafloor. (-7 Pts)
F) Fins ------> Pecto-blades: Attack +1 Defense +1, Mobility -.5; Fins stiffen up and sharpen on edges, becoming deadly razor-like protrusions. (-8 Pts)
G) Develop Tail: Mobility +3; rear end elongates for very basic fish-like swimming. (-9 Pts)

H) Develop Camoflage: Alters your coloration to match that of Arosian Blue Sand, letting you use it to hide from creatures that rely on sight. (-7 Pts)
I) Protein Expulsion ------> Disgorge: Greatly improves Protein Expulsion ability and reduces cost by 50%. (-6 Pts)
J) Develop Gills: Lets you 'breath' water, significantly slowing the rate at which your belly decreases when submerged but greatly increasing your reliance on it. (-9 Pts)

K) Upgrade C-Plate: Defense +1; increases durability of C-Plate, body becomes slightly less reliant on moisture. (-7 Pts)
L) Grow in size: Size +1; body becomes larger. (-5 Pts)
M) Store Remaining DNA Pt(s)


Stats:

Homeworld: Aros.
Name: Eletus.
Traits: Annelid, Bilateral Symmetry.
Appearance: Faded blue; Long, slender body with thin wavy fins along either side; Pair of red stigma on either side of head and a mouth between them.
Behavior: Cautious, curious. Strong shoaling tendencies.
Diet: Geovore.
Belly: 100%
Size: 2.5; Over a centimeter in length.
SNS: 1.2; Able to sense light from a slight distance; Cannot hear; Able to sense chemicals around you.
MOB: 1; You can move normally for your size. Can't fight the current well.
INT: 2.5; You have the beginnings of a brain and nervous system.
ATK: .5; You have a mouth.
DEF: .5; You have a thin C-Plate, protecting you from basic attacks.
HP: 15/15

Abilities:

--Active--
-Bud Off: Split your body into multiple organisms. Divides Belly by number of organisms. Temporarily reduces stats to a fraction of what they really are.
-Charge: A short burst of speed in any direction, can be used offensively. (-30% Belly)
-Protein Expulsion: Eject the contents of your Belly through your Mouth in a thick cloud. (-100% Belly)
--Passive--
-Segmented: Receive a DNA discount when increasing your size.
-Cephalize: Evolve sensory organs at reduced cost on your "head".
-Geophagy: Gain extra DNA from soil and similar materials.
-Regen: Recover HP at a constant rate. Belly drops faster than normal when more than a third of your HP is gone.

[Aabcehmu]

I vote for A, I, and K. Stronger vision is useful since there's all of this stuff being visually described which our eletus cannot currently perceive. Upgrade to disgorge for previous reasons. Upgraded C-Plate, making us hardier and just a bit closer to landing.

[Shrump]

I'm going to say CIKM. We'll need a stronger mouth if we plan to eat this DNA rich coral, after all, a fish pretty much had to pre-chew it for us. But same reasons for disgorge and c-plate as Aabcehmu.

(And I just realized how good of an ambushing combo FHI is, if we were carniverous I would've voted for that)

[Sam B]

You know, if you really wanted to be carnivores and decided that it was better than being geovores, purchasing evolution upgrades leaning in that direction would be the first step to making that dream a reality. The second step would be excessive meat-eating with little regard for your personal health.

[Kíeros]

> ABJ is my suggestion.

[Ross_Varn]

I'm thinking the best of the two. ACIM. Those Pecto-Wings looks shiny although too expensive, but the gills less-so shiny and more limiting...

[Shrump]

Yeah, I think I'm going to actively discourage getting the gills, not to be a huge dick, but because it essentially forces us to stay in the water. (Although Sam B kinda hinted there that nothing about us is truly set in stone.)

[Aabcehmu]

I agree that gills would complicate directly jumping to land. It's got to be possible to go from gills to lungs, since that's what happened with vertebrates in actual history, but just developing a land based respiration system seems simpler using this evolution system.

[Shrump]

Mind you, we could always just say "screw land," and have an underwater civilization. I agree we should go on land, but the option is there.

[Aabcehmu]

Underwater civilizations are of arguable feasibility, but I'm not going to get into that.

[volnrok]

I'm going to go CIKM. It would be really cool if the Eletus turns out to be some sort of moving crystalline being.

[Knight_of_Hide]

C) Upgrade Mouth (-6 Pts)
F) Pecto-blades (-8 Pts)
H) Develop Camoflage (-7 Pts)

Trying to get a Carnivore Eletus up in here. Mouth to eat and bite with, the Pecto-blades so Charge can do some damage, and Camouflage to help sneak up on prey.

[Wessolf27]

>I'm going with CFI

[Mithanu]

CFI, just because.

[Ross_Varn]

Thing is, we don't need a carnivore. Our survivability rates are going to jump just because we're behind the wheel! Meateating means we've got to depend on an ecosystem- we can literally just go straight to the source as a genovore and just nom on that delicious dirt and minerals that everything else is based off of.

Going with F is going to seriously limit our maneuverability, and right now that's pretty much essential to our survival, guys. If anything make it E.

[Knight_of_Hide]

Hmm. Camouflage eliminates some of the need for high mobility, so I'm fine sticking with my choices.

Good point about the Geovore thing though. Still, we can be omnivorous between Meats and Minerals if we need to.

[Sam B]

Wall o' exposition regarding the geovore vs. carnivore debating going on:

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(Paragraph'd for your convenience because as a wall of text this hurt even my eyes.)

Before even starting CELLQUEST I had taken care to make sure that all the possible diet options were balanced from a gameplay perspective. You probably have not noticed given your reluctance to stray from your original food source but geovore 'foods' give a lower DNA yield than others. Meats give the most DNA, and plants are somewhere in the middle. Clearly omnivores of various types have an advantage in being able to choose whatever is convenient, but it's harder for them to stay balanced, much like balancing the aggressive/passive behaviors to get that coveted blue rating in Spore. I like to think my reasoning behind this system is obvious but will gladly edit this and elaborate a bit more if somebody asks me to.

Additionally, the kinds of things you eat have a marked effect on what sort of parts and upgrades you have access to during evolution segments. 'You Are What You Eat' is a concept I've hinted at before with very specific events during the cell stage (your color changing upon eating blue sand in excess) and also with many of the options available during the aforementioned evo sequences.

For example: If you ate a bunch of some thorn-covered plant, you might gain access to an option of developing similar thorns along your own body or a resistance of some sort to the plant's defenses, possibly even some kind of option to simply become more plant-like in general. Another example, for carnivores, would be preying on Whiptails a lot and gaining an option to grow a similar whip-like appendage for your own species or something to counter the Whiptail's sole method of attack.

A lot of the reason you guys are able to have a hard chitinous shell or keratin blades coming out of your sides, even the blue-sand-camoflage perk, is because so far you've chosen to strictly follow the path of the Geovore, and that's fine. I just wanted to make it clear that the other options are equally viable and it all comes down to personal preference when choosing what kind of diet your species will have. I hope this has cleared some things up and not just been a waste of valuable topic space.

Edit: I'll update with your new evolution choices once a clear set of winners emerge. C and I are currently leading with 6 votes a piece, and A/F/K are all tied for second with 3 votes each. This is assuming I know how to count, of course. If the vote ends up not using all your DNA (and it probably will the way things are going), the leftover points will be saved automatically even if the option to do so does not receive a majority vote.