[Forum Game] Evolve A Blob to Greatness: The Evolutionary Suggestion Game

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The OP says that we can only vote two suggestion, I fear that you'll have to cancel a vote here. :sad:
:(

Cancel the last one, then.
 
The issue was this is, if I recall, evolution is all about short-term changes, an organism evolving to deal with an immediate pressure, like defending against an emergent predator etc. Thus, planning is odd.

Well, in this sort of game evolution tends to happen quickly, assuming there are enough suggestions. Besides, I fully expect for the players to go off the deep end at some point. Not to give you any ideas, but one of these games ended with the Sophont Nightmare, a flying tentacled creature that assimilated every hostile life form it met into a massive web of symbiotic creatures and had no eyes but a highly developed sense of echolocation and a form of electrical telepathy becoming sentient.
 
Well, in this sort of game evolution tends to happen quickly, assuming there are enough suggestions. Besides, I fully expect for the players to go off the deep end at some point. Not to give you any ideas, but one of these games ended with the Sophont Nightmare, a flying tentacled creature that assimilated every hostile life form it met into a massive web of symbiotic creatures and had no eyes but a highly developed sense of echolocation and a form of electrical telepathy becoming sentient.
Wait wait wait wait wait. YOU were the inspiration for one of the SciFi channel's more recent movies? I don't know whether to feel better or worse about this. :)p)
 
Wait wait wait wait wait. YOU were the inspiration for one of the SciFi channel's more recent movies? I don't know whether to feel better or worse about this. :)p)

No. The game where that happened was "Competition" run by Eotyrannus over at the Bay 12 forums. This is the first of these games I've ran personally, but I've always been interested in them.

Also, what movie? Sound like some crazy B movie stuff.
 
Considering that one of our earlier mutation has been about tentacles, and that we are trying to evolve even more tentacles, I fear that we are already on the road for a fine example of Lovecraftian Biology.

And if Plank of Wood has his way then it will be a very shitty and smelly fine example of Lovecraftian Biology.
 
No. The game where that happened was "Competition" run by Eotyrannus over at the Bay 12 forums. This is the first of these games I've ran personally, but I've always been interested in them.

Also, what movie? Sound like some crazy B movie stuff.
No particular movie, just a general trashing of the SyFy channel. Their movies are so bad, that it has to be intentional. Example: Sharknado.
 
Suggestion: develop basic muscles, so that we can control our main tentacles.

+1

Suggestion: Suction cup or similar device to properly anchor itself to the seafloor to prevent it being washed away by the currents.

The currents undoubtedly exert a much stronger force on the blob now that it has tentacles, and it wouldn't surprise me if being washed away is a leading source of mortality. Furthermore, stronger anchorage would open up stronger-current habitats, and as any marine biologist will tell you, stronger currents equals more nutrients per square cm per hour. A higher nutrient uptake could then provide nergy to fuel further evolutions.

+1

Just spreading out the votes a little bit so that each evolution gets a little more of a chance to succeed.
 
EDIT: Nevermind that, made a mistake
 
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+1 Heat Sense and Fart engine (gas movement)

IMO we should think what is our main goal, being a predator or being able to defend againts it. So top of food chain? or bottom of it?

I would like to be in top of food chain...
 
Suggestion 2: Since other organisms are using gas propulsion, we should develop our own gas bladder. Preferably, inside the butt so that we are farting our way to victory.
+1

I was torn between this or the suction cups. I decided that swimming ability might be more useful than better stability.
 
Suggestion: Merging
Make the blob able to merge with other nearby blobs of the same species for better chances of survival.
Previous vote of mine is null.

Suggestion 2: Since other organisms are using gas propulsion, we should develop our own gas bladder. Preferably, inside the butt so that we are farting our way to victory.
+1
 
Alright, let's take a look at primitive creatures and see what we could use. I imagine that Tentacle Blob is quite similar to an early cephalopod. Cephalopods have a wide array of senses:

Gravity- This is a balance sensory receptor, one that they use to find equilibrium in an aquatic environment. It also detects when the creature is going towards a center of gravity, AKA when it is falling towards the bottom of the ocean floor. They use an organ known as a Statocyst.

Chemical Sensory- Similar to Olfaction (smell). This is used by Cephelopods to smell preditors and prey alike. In other creatures, this is sometimes used to communicate, though I am unsure of its effect underwater.

Touch- Cephalopods have an acute sense of touch. The three basic components of touch in most creatures are: Detection of Heat, Detection of Pressure, and Detection of Damage. The last one is what we call pain. In addition to this, cephalopods also use their tentacles to perceive depth.

Vision- Perhaps the most developed sense, is that of sight. Cephalopods use their sense of sight to detect predators and prey, as well as to communicate. They can detect brightness levels, shape, orientation of objects, and size. Despite this, and despite the fact that most cephalopods can change color, nearly all cephalopods are colorblind.

Hearing- Some squids have been known to use their Statocyst to detect sounds.

(Source: Wikipedia)
 
What if we developed our blob to act like a parasite, e.g. using the tentacles and a basic movement system to latch onto other creatures and feed off them. Or maybe it could use the senses of the other swimming blobs to attract them and kill them, as such acquiring meat.
 
Alright, let's take a look at primitive creatures and see what we could use. I imagine that Tentacle Blob is quite similar to an early cephalopod. Cephalopods have a wide array of senses:

Gravity- This is a balance sensory receptor, one that they use to find equilibrium in an aquatic environment. It also detects when the creature is going towards a center of gravity, AKA when it is falling towards the bottom of the ocean floor. They use an organ known as a Statocyst.

Chemical Sensory- Similar to Olfaction (smell). This is used by Cephelopods to smell preditors and prey alike. In other creatures, this is sometimes used to communicate, though I am unsure of its effect underwater.

Touch- Cephalopods have an acute sense of touch. The three basic components of touch in most creatures are: Detection of Heat, Detection of Pressure, and Detection of Damage. The last one is what we call pain. In addition to this, cephalopods also use their tentacles to perceive depth.

Vision- Perhaps the most developed sense, is that of sight. Cephalopods use their sense of sight to detect predators and prey, as well as to communicate. They can detect brightness levels, shape, orientation of objects, and size. Despite this, and despite the fact that most cephalopods can change color, nearly all cephalopods are colorblind.

Hearing- Some squids have been known to use their Statocyst to detect sounds.

(Source: Wikipedia)

The Tentacle Blob still lacks any senses, so thinking of some potentially useful ones is good. Though, if these are your suggestions, I should remind you that you may only suggest two adaptions.
 
Suggestion Number 2: Adapt our tentacles to have tendrils, so that they may latch upon medium or large sized organisms or possibly stick them to the ground if they need to do so.
 
The Tentacle Blob still lacks any senses, so thinking of some potentially useful ones is good. Though, if these are your suggestions, I should remind you that you may only suggest two adaptions.

Not my suggestions, merely to show information of similar creatures.

However, I will suggest that the Tentacle Blob evolve a statocyst, as that will come in handy in its current environment. It will allow Tentacle Blob to detect the downward force of gravity, to know when its buoyancy is equal to the surrounding water, and it may eventually allow us to evolve hearing.
 
My laziness is acting up, can someone summarize the current state of our monstrosity?

I'd propose our end goal be a giant super intelligent, immobile mass on the ocean floor.