Ok, so speaking of long term planning, here's my thoughts:
Generation 1: locomotion
Generation 2: sense heat
Generation 3: tentacle/tendril type outgrowths
Generation 4: hard shells to protect offspring
Generation 5: flexible evolution in case any of these four evolutions fail. If all other evolutions succeed, I would suggest some sort of evolution that helps us out in a wide range of situations in preparation for the environmental crisis
First Environmental Crisis
Reasoning: Since most of the benefits from a sense of heat comes from locomotion (who cares if we can sense predators and find currents with better food if we can't move away from predators or move to those currents), we should get locomotion first since it also has its own benefits that will help us out in the short term and long term. Then nab sense of heat right after to help augment our new found locomotion and give us a sense of direction and purpose. The tentacles will help us utilize our ability to find high nutrient food sources even more, reaping numerous benefits. Hard shells to protect our offspring is useful, but won't really be useful until predators evolve, it's worth having but low priority. Then the last one is just a flex for making sure we get all these in before the first environmental crisis rolls around.
Of course, this reasoning is based on the current ideas and might change as new ideas are introduced, but just my thoughts for now.
Generation 1: locomotion
Generation 2: sense heat
Generation 3: tentacle/tendril type outgrowths
Generation 4: hard shells to protect offspring
Generation 5: flexible evolution in case any of these four evolutions fail. If all other evolutions succeed, I would suggest some sort of evolution that helps us out in a wide range of situations in preparation for the environmental crisis
First Environmental Crisis
Reasoning: Since most of the benefits from a sense of heat comes from locomotion (who cares if we can sense predators and find currents with better food if we can't move away from predators or move to those currents), we should get locomotion first since it also has its own benefits that will help us out in the short term and long term. Then nab sense of heat right after to help augment our new found locomotion and give us a sense of direction and purpose. The tentacles will help us utilize our ability to find high nutrient food sources even more, reaping numerous benefits. Hard shells to protect our offspring is useful, but won't really be useful until predators evolve, it's worth having but low priority. Then the last one is just a flex for making sure we get all these in before the first environmental crisis rolls around.
Of course, this reasoning is based on the current ideas and might change as new ideas are introduced, but just my thoughts for now.