Bay 12 Games Forum

Quote from: Remuthra on April 25, 2013, 01:50:33 pm

But what if the Forerunners create a device that neuters the entire galaxy?

We have too much sexiness to be neutered.

And even if we are neutered, then we shall simply GROW ANOTHER PAIR BY EATING OUR OWN CHILDREN.

Yeah, square cube law. Still, hollow-bones dinosaurs. Large terror-birds like Kelenken will almost certainly have fallen over sometimes, or had other high strains on their leg bones, but they did completely fine with it. We're making them both stronger (ala square cube) and thicker at the same time, and having air sacs helps against falling (by virtue of being lighter for body size).

IIRC, they have better air flow control, so they can release the trapped heat. I'm sure that having dense feathers works perfectly well in a hot place though. If we compare a desert antelope/mammal of some sort (oryx, maybe?) and an ostrich/desert bird, the feathers are as poofy as a polar bear while the hair is extremely short.

It isn't really target body temperature it's lowering, bad wording on my part. It's more 'not-quite-as-warm-bloodedness' instead of 'needs a low body temperature to survive'.

I'm not sure how else the plants would get there, if it's not seeds/spores. But yeah, I'm not a fan of it either.


Also, if anyone says I'm being overly negative, that's me being picky. It's more constructive criticism than trying to go 'LOL U ALL SUCK N00BS'.

Okay, the general things are...

Mineralised bones are stronger, but also heavier. Honeycombed bones are stronger and lighter, and can be cannibalised from birds. And again, a hollow bone isn't a weak bone. A peregrine, with its little hollow leg bones, can still withstand hitting a pigeon in the skull at ridiculous speeds. If it's that much of a problem, however, we can always manually thicken the walls so it's more like a mammal bone with a honeycomb structure, since our bones have marrow-filled hollows in them anyway.

A bald head has no protection from the sun. A hairy or feathered head does have protection. Feathers are better at losing heat than hair, so feathers are the all-round superior option.

Complete cold-bloodedness won't give them the energy to have human-level intelligence. I'd recommend a simple lower body temperature, instead of going all the way. Platypus have a lower body temperature than normal mammals, but are still warm-blooded. Even more warm blood would mean they'd have to eat more food, which doesn't really help a colonisation attempt.

Sails generally don't work with warm-blooded animals, which our humans will need to be if they're intelligent enough to be people. They make blood overheat in the sun and you end up burning more food to stay warm if it's against the wind. It would probably be cheaper not to have to make custom clothes, too.

Downscaling is a good idea. Less food, can use smaller shade, and won't take as much damage from a fall.

The urea+digestive system idea is a good idea, although I'd still prefer uric acid.

The plants would, most likely, give a neglible amount of oxygen and sugar. It would be far easier to use a traditional hairstyle of some sort, and you wouldn't have to grow the seeds on your baby's head.

The binary heart isn't really necessary, it just needs to be a reasonable size.

I'm  all for making Velociraptors, but that isn't really part of the task we've been given. Perhaps later.

I like a lot of these, but I don't think I agree with the thoughts on hollow bones. You're going to fall twice as hard (and fast!) on a high G planet and hollow bones aren't the sturdiest. We're looking at people carrying an extra person's weight just walking about! We should go with a short durable person that is easy to put on extra muscle mass.

If we can improve reflexes as well to account for the faster fall times, that would also improve their survivability.

We should look into why the grass isn't edible. If it's simply an issue of digestion, we should look to improve our creations ability to digest roughage. Possibly by strengthening the appendix and stomach systems. We should look to cows for inspiration.

Air-filled bird bones are just as strong as marrow-filled mammal bones. We just need to make sure that we get a good structure.

I'm fairly sure that we're going to eat crops instead of wild grasses. However, if we felt we needed to use native crops, then it would be rather simple to give them starchy seeds or tubers, and to get rid of toxins. If we REALLY need to eat the stalks, the most likely problem is cellulose. Getting some gut bacteria for our humans would be the best option.

The temperature is 25% higher than normal, water is extremely scarce, grasses are relatively abundant, although they are not edible for humans. The air is only half the oxygen content that it needs to be for humans. Gravity is 2.11G and air pressure is 75% of what humans require

Ah, here we go! Right up my alley!

Temperature... I would replace the hair on the head with feathers, possibly silver. A thick coat of feathers is much better at losing/gaining heat than a similar fur coat, so it'd stop overheating of the head. Long fingers could also help increase the surface area, as fanning with a larger hand would also help with the hand losing heat.

Water... Uric acid instead of urea. The genitals would need to be modified to be able to do this, but we'd save a lot of water. Better panting ability and wilful sweating might be of use, too.

Oxygen... Larger lungs are an obvious choice. Perhaps increase the amount of mitochondria, so it's got more efficiency. An avian lung would vastly improve breathing.

Shorter, stouter limbs are a must. Improving shock-absorbing would help, and hollow bones (which could fit into the avian lung system) would also reduce weight-to-volume.

Air pressure... Well, better breathing helps with that. Other than breathing problems, low air pressure doesn't affect humans much, it's just moving between the states that's the problem.

Most of these solutions are either relatively simple or can be taken from an average bird. Should be a relatively easy job, since we have plenty of resources.

I've got a reasonable idea of what's going on.

Drop into existence.

See notes on book.

"HEY, YOU OVER THERE, WITH THE SKELETON GOLDFISH." Say WORDS at Flabort's guy. "DID THAT DO ANYTHING?"

I SHALL JOIN THEE. I made a good list of words from reading through this, and I have plans. Possibly involving a void, completely filled with booze. Or permanent drunken stupors.