I have recently been running auto-evo for Thrive worlds for hundreds of generations at a time. Those worlds had all the regular settings except for being the small size. So, how does a Thrive world play out over such a long timescale?
Fortunately or not, all the three long time runs, of which each was in a different version (0.9.1, 0.9.2, 1.0.0), seem to give similar results which is expected since auto-evo stayed relatively similar across those releases, but at the same time points to the biospheres turning similar to a certain scheme over time. For what can be said about these worlds:
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The oxygen level stabilizes at around 50-65% after a few dozen generations and stays roughly in this range onwards. This applies to the depth as well beyond areas next to underwater caves and vents where their compounds eat away at Oxygen, causing it to fall, especially in vents (down to ~30%). Nitrogen is generally at 30% for most places and CO2 makes up the rest.
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While Phosphate stays relatively abundant, ammonia can fall much lower at times and even run out completely in singular patches
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Glucose as expected is virtually gone, iron is only ever above the concentration level of two in underwater caves. H2S is widespread but usually in low amounts beyond the vicinities of caves and vents. Radiation stays stable.
Now for their biospheres:
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Most producers are either 1 hex of their defining organelle (chemo proteins, thylkakoids, rustycyanin) or that coupled with a metabolosome/chemoreceptor/nitrogenase (staying at the size of 2 hexes).
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Predators meanwhile seem to exclusively use the injectosome with any signs of other weaponry nearly nonexistent, alongside metabolosome(s). They also frequently have slime jet(s) and more rarely producer (autotroph) organelles.
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Flagella and hydrogenases are extinct organelles. Slime Jets and Pili are found in 50% of all species, Metabolosomes clock at 2/3rds, Producer Organelles and Nitrogenase stabilized at around 10-15%.
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For the Eukaryotes, they seem to mainly focus on the radiation miche but signs of fitting into other miches are very visible, they frequently evolve various eukaryotic organelles, with nitroplast and chloroplast being on the rarer side. Themselves Eukaryotes generally make up no more than 5% of all species, though it might jump up at times (though never permanently).
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Eukaryotes seem to be the only stable toxin users left, with other toxin using species seemingly not making it far. They also appear to only ever develop bioluminescent valuoles and never regular ones. Cilia (including pulling) may also evolve. They seem to also add the binding agent onto themselves commonly but signalling agent has remained unseen.
For the other things noteworthy:
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After generation 100 evolution for most lineages seems to slow down dramatically, with many species living dozens of billions of years with no changes to them. The exception appear to be some specific predator lineages, chemolithoautotrophs and most importantly Eukaryotes, which evolve nearly every round.
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There are times when a species with just one food source (most commonly a chemolithoautotroph) appears to be surviving in a patch with it’s sole foodsource nonpresent. I have also noticed on an older run of this kind that some patches can become completely devoid of life but this, along with the aforementioned specialists, looks like a highly temporary state.
What are your thoughts?