Obviously, aq–tic c—lizations won’t be able to progress beyond simple tools and houses because of the lack of fire. What about Awakening creatures that don’t have the necessary limbs to manipulate tools? Evolution seems to slow down drastically in this stage as you are managing in the thousands of years rather than millions so nothing outside of maybe skin colour and minor height differences, so will you essentially be softlocked in the early awakening stage? I assume so, is there any other scenarios where you would be stuck in a stage?
5 Likes
I remember reading something about this years ago. I believe that devs have confirmed this, and that your creature couldn’t progress past Awakening
Maybe if the species grows to be semi aquatic then maybe.
2 Likes
It would be funny if slug/limbless creatures could just hold items in their beaks/mouths, like in Spore.
3 Likes
you could start selectively breeding your own species to evolve within a reasonable time frame, though it would also have a lot of downsides if done wrong
it would still have downsides if done right, unless your species views reproduction as a casual thing and not smth they only do with they are sexually attracted to, or you made a species that likes being forced to reproduce, but those downsides would all be societal, and not with genetics
1 Like
Or have a capability of going back to aware if needed…
1 Like
I think they will be able to adapt their legs or mouth as grasping limbs, this obviously has its drawbacks and inconveniences, but I don’t see any obstacles to ascension in this species.
I suppose that would still work on such timescales somewhat well…
I think first it should be considered if it is even possible to become awakened without proper graspers to use tools. Because I think that might be related to evolving to be smarter. If you cannot use the environment and primitive tools to your advantage, it might be the case that there’s no evolutionary pressure to become smarter. And thus it might be the case that there just cannot be an awakened creature that wouldn’t be able to use tools, so we wouldn’t need to consider this for Thrive.
2 Likes
if there’s another creature that evolved to hunt you with traps, there would be a pressure to be smarter, as being smarter would help you recognize the traps, and increase chances of survival by letting you avoid them
however, that’d require another species at least being close to awakening, if not already a civilization
and also
snakes could theoretically use guns and bows, the main problem is just making them, and making the arrows
that could be solved by adding knives onto their bodies, or giving them a pair of wood carving teeth, and giving them silk glands, to make the bowstrings, then making them bend the wood and keep it bent until it dries, then string it with their silk glands, and make the arrows with their teeth
calling that tool use would probably be similar to calling ant colonies societies though, unless the snakes evolved the silk gland and wood carving teeth for different reasons than making bows, since it’d be purely instinctual without much thought otherwise, but if they burrowed into trees, and used webs to catch food, then invented bows, and had to be taught how to make and use bows, then it’d be undeniably just the same as any other sapient making tools, even if they aren’t obligate sapients like humans are, despite not having any manipulator appendages, unless you count their entire body
2 Likes
Can a species progress into getting more technologies just from bows though?
yeah, hammers are literally a rock on a stick, and axes are a sharp rock in a stick, while knives are a sharp rock in a stick, but in a different direction. pretty much any configuration of rock on a stick can be made with rock, stick, and string, even with just having your entire body act as one tentacle to manipulate stuff, and pickaxes are a sharp piece of metal on a stick. baskets can be woven from wood or from string, and could be made in a few days by a team of them working together, or by one over like a month, so they could collect ores and plant bits to lure in prey or season food with baskets, then melt down the ores into metals if they figure out how to noodle their way to fire(probably with a bow and another stick), and hammer the metals(mostly copper or some other soft metal at first) into shapes
1 Like
How much longer would these initial sapient stages take for the snakekin when compared to humans for example?
I think it was confirmed that regressing in stages is planned to be impossible due to the programming difficulties (not my words). Just like how AI progressing above you and building a society before you is planned to be impossible for the same reason.
2 Likes
Yeah. Maybe some specific stage regressions could be added post-ascension though…
This is still heavily debated
2 Likes
Pretty sure falling too far behind would still absolutely be a gameover condition, like an another species ascending.
Also I wonder how long before ascension would one already hear of it ingame, as an actual reachable technological advancement…
1 Like
The AI progressing into society stage would still be a “game over” in a sense, no? If the society is in industrial and you are still a simple animal you are at their mercy and will slowly be driven away as they expand. This leaves you with two scenarios:
1- You are driven extinct as the civilisation starts taking away liveable patches and you compete with other life forms for the little space remaining
2- You manage to hide in corners of the map, “Lost Worlds” in a sense. However you will stay as a backwater life form and will slowly fade away, eventually going extinct from the passage of time.
1 Like
As both of these lead to a gameover, a gameover condition would probably be put on an another species becoming civilized instead.
3- Survive until they can’t maintain there overpopulation and THEY either extinct themselves or abandon the planet, leaving an opening to fill the void they left behind. They might also be killed off by a disease.
4- Awaken in secret, plan, and overthrow the more populous species that wasn’t expecting competition.
5- Just plain co-exist. Not every species will be the greedy, selfish, destroy everything and everyone else without mercy species humans are.
It has already been stated that other species will not reach galaxy stage before yours, therefore it is impossible for any species to ascend if you have not reached the galactic stage yet.
1 Like
Wouldn’t that force you to confront a potentially maxed out industrial species as an awakening/society stage species?
3 Likes