I have seen wildly differing opinions, from those who hold that you can have a life rich world with only the "oceanic" trenches and a bit of the "ocean" floor covered in water, to those who see the barren interiors of supercontinents+ the heat dump that our oceans serve and so think that Cretaceous levels of water are ideal. There is definitely more wiggle room when it comes to less water, much more water that Earth and you run the risk of occasionally submerging all your land, killing all your land life.
This seems to have happened to New Zealand to some extent, which has continental flora, but mostly island fauna. So it looks like just about all of Zealandia's native animals died, but plants and a few animals hung on til New Zealand grew to its modern size.
My ideal ocean coverage has giant very shallow oceans, broken up by many small irregular continents, with some well placed basins and trenches to act as heat sinks. Think Maritime Southeast Asia.
Well, air temp shifted from middle to maxed out in one update, and the ocean temp shifted two 'positions' - we aren't exactly going to get more water by staying here?
This is me being very pedantic, but Venus has functionally no water, and no magnetic field. If we stayed here, we would remain far more habitable that Venus
Lastly, we do have one untapped source of water that we can use if we wish, once we settle down:
High pressure on the surface level is the answer as that changes the all the temps when state changes happen.
Good point to look at there is that we still have CO2 listed as a direct part of our Hydrosphere.
Most Life currently is dealing with living around hydrothermal vents for the most part which can get really hot.
Earth didn't really have mass extinctions until complex multicellular life. Even when Earth completely froze over. Unicellular life is just built different.
I am very surprised that it still lists CO2 after it has all evaporated for sure: the boiling point fell below 0 degrees at 34 atm. Lakes and rivers at the poles when we had ice caps? Sure, after all, Antarctica gets cold enough to freeze CO2. But now?
I am glad that our atmosphere is still relatively thick though, as this means that our mountains actually have a decent amount of air.
By my estimate the air pressure drops below CO2's triple point somewhere between 3 and 4 kilometers.
[X][Orbital] Move to a higher orbit
[X][Atmospheric] Increase albedo
[X][Geological] Increase weathering (smoothens terrain, decreases atmospheric CO 2)
[X][Life] Undergo extinction event (reduces difficulty of other actions)
-[X] The planet is kinda, you know, BOILING
[X][Life] Increase mutation rate
[X][Klotho-Kea] Develop new feature (varied difficulty, specify feature and target)
-[X] Attempt to make the conical hulls of the Klotho-Kea spores as heat-resistant as possible, such that they can both get closer to the hydrothermal vents and go even deeper (downwards) into the crust of the planet.
That is going to do jack shit and it fact just make things worse.
You are just going to pump more greenhouse gasses into the atmo, because the dust will have settled after a few years, but all that gas will still be in the atmo.
[X][Orbital] Move high enough up to significantly lower planet air temperature (while keeping liquid water on moons if that is possible)
-[X] Don't move so far out that we freeze over
[X][Norðrljós] All of these storms are kicking far more stuff, including life, into the upper troposphere. Thanks to a better sense of the humidity of its surroundings and the perfect shape for raindrops to form around them, Norðrljós has started to take advantage of the abundant sunlight up high. Also it is much cooler up high.
[X] Lapis-kea (the stone Anankae)
-[X][Lifedetails] Parent (required): Anankae
-[X][Lifedetails] Habitat: The greatest innovation of this species is that they group around in circles allowing them to have an easier time attracting magnetic material in water. And have an easier time thriving in iron poor waters away from the Hydrothermal vents.
-[X][Lifedetails] Basic metabolism: These organisms mostly replaced their diet of So2 to life further H2S Hydrogen sulfide and produce and H2O as main waste products and s3 some of accidentally reacts with Co to create CoS waste. But the Lapis prefer to use the S3 to create their cell walls (See isolation).
-[X][Lifedetails] Isolation: These organisms Reuse some of the the Trisulfer to create blue Lazurite walls
-[X][Lifedetails] Sensing: They can sense their neighboring Poli-kea and bud in a direction necessary to complete the circle pattern. They also the minor explosions syncronized they starve to force the higher layers of their off and the top neighborhoods into and force their upperlayers into the Sqores phase. Some colonies may fail to do so and die as hollow pillar like structures.
[X][Klotho-Kea] Develop new feature (varied difficulty, specify feature and target)
-[X] Attempt to make the conical hulls of the Klotho-Kea spores as heat-resistant as possible, such that they can both get closer to the hydrothermal vents and go even deeper (downwards) into the crust of the planet.
I am very surprised that it still lists CO2 after it has all evaporated for sure: the boiling point fell below 0 degrees at 34 atm. Lakes and rivers at the poles when we had ice caps? Sure, after all, Antarctica gets cold enough to freeze CO2. But now?
ach, I'm late for voting only by so many hours =w=;;
I keep meaning to get caught up, I've seen the threadmarks getting progressively more interesting whenever I see this on the forums
ach, I'm late for voting only by so many hours =w=;;
I keep meaning to get caught up, I've seen the threadmarks getting progressively more interesting whenever I see this on the forums
[X][Maidari] Develop new feature
-[X] Implement ammonia oxidation to nitrites
[X][Alquaria] Develop new feature
-[X] Implement ammonia oxidation to nitrites
Turn 55: You are a recovering super-Earth with safely cooled oceans that has recently undergone a significant but highly recoverable extinction event related to the recent boil-off
[X][Orbital] Move high enough up to significantly lower planet air temperature (while keeping liquid water on moons if that is possible): 27.3%
[X][Orbital] Move to a higher orbit: 18.2%
[X][Orbital] Collect more ice (difficult!) -[X] put in gas torus: 18.2%
[X][Orbital] Move high enough to be halfway between our birth orbit and Inky's original orbit : 9.1%
[X][Orbital] Move the weird Dust Grain into the gas torus, in a Lagrange point of the moon in that orbit: 9.1%
[X][Orbital] Move high enough up to significantly lower planet air temperature (while keeping liquid water on moons if that is possible) -[X] Don't move so far out that we freeze over: 9.1%
[X][Orbital] 'NOPE!' right on back to our prior orbit: 9.1%
[X][Geological] Increase weathering (smoothens terrain, decreases atmospheric CO 2): 22.2%
[X][Geological] Start temporarily covering the land with reflective material if possible: 11.1%
[X][Geological] Retain core heat (decreases volcanism): 11.1%
[X][Geological] flatten huge areas of land until they're mirror smooth : 11.1%
[X][Geological] constrict the gas torus: 11.1%
[X][Geological] Don't set off a supervolcano.: 11.1%
[X][Geological] Set off a supervolcano, the volcanic winter will buy some time for life to survive.: 11.1%
[X][Geological] continue to increase pressure on random chunks of materials: 11.1%
Concordance: 48.3%
[X][Life] Undergo extinction event (reduces difficulty of other actions) -[X] The planet is kinda, you know, BOILING: 60.0%
[X][Life] Don't Undergo extinction event: 20.0%
[X][Life] Increase mutation rate: 20.0%
Nitrites:
[X][Maidari] Develop ammonia oxidation to nitrites: 2
[X][Alquaria] Develop new feature -[X] Implement ammonia oxidation to nitrites: 1
Plagiarismonadota:
[X][Plagiarismonadota] Feature development target: DNA repair: 2
[X][Plagiarismonadota] Some lineages develop biomachinery highly resistant to boiling temperatures: 1
[X][Maidari] Develop ammonia oxidation to nitrites: 2
Anankae:
[X][Anankae] Develop as much heat resistance as possible: 3
[X] Lapis-kea (the stone Anankae) -[X][Lifedetails] Parent (required): Anankae -[X][Lifedetails] Habitat: The greatest innovation of this species is that they group around in circles allowing them to have an easier time attracting magnetic material in water. And have an easier time thriving in iron poor waters away from the Hydrothermal vents. -[X][Lifedetails] Basic metabolism: These organisms mostly replaced their diet of So2 to life further H2S Hydrogen sulfide and produce and H2O as main waste products and s3 some of accidentally reacts with Co to create CoS waste. But the Lapis prefer to use the S3 to create their cell walls (See isolation). -[X][Lifedetails] Isolation: These organisms Reuse some of the the Trisulfer to create blue Lazurite walls -[X][Lifedetails] Sensing: They can sense their neighboring Poli-kea and bud in a direction necessary to complete the circle pattern. They also the minor explosions syncronized they starve to force the higher layers of their off and the top neighborhoods into and force their upperlayers into the Sqores phase. Some colonies may fail to do so and die as hollow pillar like structures.: 1
[X][Klotho-Kea] Develop new feature (varied difficulty, specify feature and target) -[X] Attempt to make the conical hulls of the Klotho-Kea spores as heat-resistant as possible, such that they can both get closer to the hydrothermal vents and go even deeper (downwards) into the crust of the planet.: 1
Alquaria:
[X][Alquaria] Feature development target: Develop better compounds for energy storage (looking at ATP here, something similar or better).: 2
[X][Alquaria] Some lineages become able to survive extremely high temperatures during dormancy: 1
[X][Alquaria] Develop new feature -[X] Implement ammonia oxidation to nitrites: 1
[X][Norðrljós] All of these storms are kicking far more stuff, including life, into the upper troposphere. Thanks to a better sense of the humidity of its surroundings and the perfect shape for raindrops to form around them, Norðrljós has started to take advantage of the abundant sunlight up high. Also it is much cooler up high.: 1
Sun: Pixelle
Small scorched planet: Doom
Evaporating greenhouse planet: Marathon
Boiling wet planet: Bomber
(Nothing)
(Nothing)
Rocky asteroid belt: Tetrimino Asteroid Belt
You: Pacworld
Gassy terrestrial planet with two major moons: Mobius
>Qubert
Donutsteel
Small gas giant with one major moon: Mario
>Mushroomia
Gas giant with many major moons and big rings: Ralph
Ice giant with two major moons: Zebes
>Popo
>Nana
A little more gas is added to your torus, which you squeeze some more even as you squeeze random materials on your surface.
Losing a high-altitude lake to changing climate has given you a very wide, flat, shiny, and salty plain where the sky can vanish into its own reflection at times at its wettest. For now, it dries out into a mushy crust of moist salt.
You consider studying the strange dust grain in detail but ultimately go with moving it to Blinky's L5 point. Hopefully the high energy particles from the torus don't damage it too much before you get a chance to look into it more closely.
Looking at life in your oceans and surface, it looks like there's an extinction event related to the recent temperature swing, and when the dust settles down and becomes new rock, there will likely be a chemically distinct layer with a noticeably lower concentration of hydrocarbons and a spike in deuterium abundance.
Anankae and plagiarismonads come out more or less unscathed by the direct thermal effects as a result of their habitats being both isolated and piping hot to begin with, although the altered currents and nutrient balance do cut some of the more surface-bound populations down a bit. Among other things, some shallow caves lose much or even all of their water, leaving the inhabitants high and dry. The Alquarians (and especially the Norðrljós) are a bit of a different story where there's an obvious steep drop in their productivity but also a massive proliferation of robust, very heat-resistant spores everywhere they used to live.
As mentioned above, the littoral Alquarians of the coastal sands and sediment all but vanish from their teeming shores and leave behind innumerable little spores in the hot water for the day when their easy lives can resume once again. Quite a few of the more blue-responsive among them turn up again soon in deeper, cooler waters, where they face considerable competition for limited carbon from deeper water Alquarian species and emerging photosynthetic plagiarismonads. This isn't without its benefits for the Alquarians, and gene flow between the two reunited lineages and a mysterious boost of free inorganic phosphate has enabled the development of a rudimentary system for synthesizing (and degrading/consuming) intracellular polyphosphate chains. In some parts of the world, this also has the knock-on benefit of helping to confine potentially toxic heavy metals liberated by your very hot waters.
Being primarily terrestrial organisms, the Norðrljós are hit harder by your rising temperature, and those that manage to do so while essential systems are intact sporulate waiting for liquid water to come back. Interestingly, some get swept up into your atmosphere by particularly violent winds where some small number revives from dormancy after finding gentler temperatures in your upper troposphere. They slowly grow into this bright and cool new niche, and despite them making up a very small fraction of your total Alquarian biomass, they're nevertheless enough to tint your clouds as a result of their UV-quenching pigments and increase rainfall as a result of their cloud-seeding shape and surface material/texture. Hilariously, under the counterclockwise-north/right hand rule convention, most of the cloudborne Alquarians show up in your southern hemisphere their name.
Hyperthermophilic plagiarismonads aren't all that uncommon, but they also don't make up the majority of your plagiarismonad biomass despite ostensibly being the first ones to develop. Whether this means the first plagiarismonad was mesophilic or is merely a result of staying in a very successful niche around your vents is anyone's guess, but on the literal bright side, where populations vie for carbon and sunlight in your photic waters, DNA repair progresses handsomely as pressure to develop this capability steadily increases with heat exacerbating the increased radiation damage. It's hard to tell, but there may be some mingling of genetic material involved in the repair process? Some extant populations with continuing pigment production also bounce back with the sun's rays getting weakerover time as you rush back outward.
Further development of nitrification in the plagiarismonads (this time focused on the Maidarus lineage of heterotrophic plagiarismonads) again backfires spectacularly as they instead build up denitrification machinery that turns what nitrates they can scrounge into useless nitrogen to couple with oxidizing reactions. It's probably just as well developing anaerobic ammonia oxidation capabilities involves a lot of intricate infrastructure or a nitrogen famine could result. The Alquarians are a bit more successful and manage to get past hydroxylamine, whose further oxidation to nitrite they fuel at great cost with the light-dependent reduction of carbon dioxide to more useful forms. The acquisition of this pathway is a boon for the airborne fraction even if it will also lead to an uptick in weathering from acid rain in your southern hemisphere.
The Anankae continue developing heat resistance and have more success this turn. Additionally, a new variety with the ability to organize into rings turns up among the Klotho-Kea and has been named the Lapis-Kea for their intriguing ability to develop shells of lazurite at depth. They seem to thrive quite a bit deeper than most other life-forms, and maybe something interesting will happen when a lucky, adapted population manages to get subducted and rejoin with the ancestral magma?
Panicked at the state of your oceans, you hurry back upward into a cooler orbit and get a bit further than halfway to Inky's old orbit. To make absolutely sure a runaway greenhouse effect doesn't start, you additionally brighten up your clouds and dry land, initiate a massive round of weathering that further decreases free CO2, and consider setting off supervolcanoes but ultimately decide aainst it. Temperatures plummet to something chilly (but which still supports liquid water) for you, Inky, and Blinky. Pinky's left not too far below the point where liquid water will reappear, and Clyde continues to be mostly frozen, so little changes on your outer moons.
Gauges of interest (not to scale!):
Average air temperature Freezing 🞀–o–––––🞂 Boiling
Average sea temperature Freezing 🞀–––o–––🞂 Boiling
Average asthenosphere temperature Dead 🞀–––o–––🞂 Molten
Average surface air pressure Trace 🞀––––o––🞂 Crushing
Observation controls (vote once):
[ ][Observation] Look around in more detail (Specify target(s))
Life controls (vote for as many as you want):
General life controls:
[ ][Life] Increase mutation rate
[ ][Life] Decrease mutation rate
[ ][Life] Undergo extinction event (reduces difficulty of other actions)
Generic lineage-specific controls:
[ ][Lineagename] Implement new metabolic cycle (varied difficulty, specify inputs and outputs)
[ ][Lineagename] Develop new feature (varied difficulty, specify feature and target)
[ ][Lineagename] Name a lineage of organisms
Special lineage-specific controls:
[ ][Plagiarismonadota] Feature development target: DNA repair
[ ][Plagiarismonadota] Feature development target: Encourage pyrite utilization
[ ][Plagiarismonadota] Feature development target: Improve photosynthetic efficiency
Life bounties/plans (accepting text/image
elaborations/revisions
for existing life forms):
[ ][Lifedetails] Parent (required): Which lineage does this one descend from?
[ ][Lifedetails] Habitat: Where does this lineage occur? What sorts of environments could easily follow in housing them?
[ ][Lifedetails] Basic metabolism: What do they take up and how? What do they produce as a result? What unique inputs/products/pathways distinguish them from their average cousin?
[ ][Lifedetails] Isolation: Is there something distinct or different about their outer coverings?
[ ][Lifedetails] Sensing: What information can they pick up on that their cousins seldom can?
[X][Orbital] Move to a lower orbit, stop just a bit before the increased energy would start to cause problems (like boil the planet)
[X][Atmospheric] Large amounts of lighting storms
[X][Alquarian] Develop new feature: The airborne and close to the surface variants start to develop more efficient methods of taking in large amounts of CO2 from the air.
Hopefully them getting more carbon from the air will help start to develop a good foundation for life in general when other cells starts to eat them (them having more energy/materials will allow way more of the later stages to exists).
edit
adding my vote to a few things
[X][Norðrljós] New carbon structures start to develop inside the cells, that allow to utilize the static electricity inside the clouds for energy or creating new materials.
[X][Lapis-Kea] increase heat and pressure resistance
[X][Geological] Reduce the major radius of the gas torus to within Inky's orbit
-[X] Make sure the bottom of the torus does not touch our atmosphere
[X][Tempo] Advance orbital (requires >50%)
[X][Orbital] Collect more ice (difficult!)
-[X] put it into the torus
[X][Atmospheric] Get living spores off planet
[X][Geological] Reduce the major radius of the gas torus to within Inky's orbit
[X][Plagiarismonadota] Feature development target: Improve photosynthetic efficiency
[X][Norðrljós] Lighter and lighter spores that stay airborn longer and higher
[X][Lapis-Kea] increase heat and pressure resistance
[X][Alquarian] Develop new feature: The airborne and close to the surface variants start to develop more efficient methods of taking in large amounts of CO2 from the air.
[X][Life] Increase mutation rate
[X][Lifedetails] a new branch of the Alquarians, the Jegerians. Pacworld's first ever predators!
-[X] Habitat: Right now the open ocean, as they are descended from the shallow water Alquarians that fled to the deep sea during our warming period, but really they would do well anywhere there is liquid water and compatible life.
-[X] Basic metabolism: they eat other cells. The ability to break down intracellular polyphosphate chains as proven to be very useful, and continues to mutate into a broader ability.
[X][Tempo] Maintain current tempo
[X][Orbital] Collect more ice (difficult!)
-[X] put it into the torus
[X][Atmospheric] Collect more gas (do not accrete to self)
-[X] put it into the torus
[X][Geological] continue to increase pressure on random chunks of materials
[X][Life] Increase mutation rate
[X][Plagiarismonadota] Feature development target: Improve photosynthetic efficiency
[X][Alquarian] Develop new feature: The airborne and close to the surface variants start to develop more efficient methods of taking in large amounts of CO2 from the air.
[X][Alquarian] Develop New Feature: The closer to surface variants start to develop rudimentary Grexing behaviors ; or progression towards multi-cellular / colonial life.
[X][Clotho-kea] A few Clotho-Kea found themselves lost outside the caverns of their ancestors. Piercing through the Seafloor
[X][Lapis-Kea] increase heat and pressure resistance
[X][Norðrljós] Lighter and lighter spores that stay airborn longer and higher
[X][Norðrljós] Feature development target: Develop better compounds for energy storage (looking at ATP here, something similar or better).
Our life lived! I don't want to change our orbit any more, as we have liquid water on ourself along with Inky and Blinky. Pinky and Clyde should melt over time.
Additionally, we should move the gas torus down inside Inky's orbit, coincident with our rings. This will increase the torus's density by a large factor due to the reduced volume. Further, having the torus be located close to us should give us greater control over it, making it easier to shrink its minor radius down. It will also make panspermia easier if we manage to increase its density enough to hold liquid water within.
There is enough space inside Inky's orbit for the torus. Given that Inky's surface is a vast ocean, the moon is likely located just outside of the fluid roche limit. This is dependent on the ratio of densities between us and the moon of note. Inky's fluid roche limit is currently at about 3.24 times our radius, so there is at least 2.2 radii of space between our surface and Inky. As the gas torus's minor radius is currently half of our diameter, we should be able to cleanly shove it under Inky.
Space Murica, could you please change your geological vote to reduce the radius of the gas torus? It is quite difficult wrangling the torus and voting together should prevent a backfire. The gas torus started out coincident with Inky's orbit and was only moved to Blinky when a geological vote of mine to bring the torus inwards backfired on Turn 51.
[X][Tempo] Maintain current tempo
-[X] Specifically countervote any attempts at abandoning planethood and becoming a biosphere if it would otherwise pass
[X][Orbital] Accrete gas onto torus
-[X] put it into the gas torus
[X][Atmospheric] Collect more gas (do not accrete to self)
[X][Geological] Reduce the minor diameter of the gas torus as much as possible, to one fourth of our diameter or smaller
[X][Lineagename] Photosynthetic Plagarismondota rename to -> Plagarisynthesites
[X][Plagarismondota] Coastal Plagarismondota/Plagarisynthesites develop adhesives used to form stromatolites
[X][Alquarian] Develop oxygenic photosynthesis
-[X] If this has been developed already, become more resistant to oxygen produced by oxygenic photosynthesis
[X][Norðrljós] Lighter and lighter spores that stay higher and longer
[X][Lapis-Kea] Increase heat and pressure resistance
[X][Clotho-kea] A few Clotho-Kea found themselves lost outside the caverns of their ancestors. Piercing through the Seafloor
[X][Plagiarismonadota] Feature development target: Encourage pyrite utilization
[X][Geological] You have something that almost looks like a ring of mountains near your equator. Finnish that ring in order to create wind still interior.
[X][Observation] Observe our rings, What are our rings made of?
There is enough space inside Inky's orbit for the torus. Given that Inky's surface is a vast ocean, the moon is likely located just outside of the fluid roche limit. This is dependent on the ratio of densities between us and the moon of note. Inky's fluid roche limit is currently at about 3.24 times our radius, so there is at least 2.2 radii of space between our surface and Inky. As the gas torus's minor radius is currently half of our diameter, we should be able to cleanly shove it under Inky.
OOH, as I've been reading this I've been eyeing the moons with hopes to see if we could get biospheres seeded on the moons as well.
A part of me is optimistic we could achieve seeding of Norðrljós on Inky and/or Blinky
I haven't gotten that far, but eeheehee, I'm a fan of fiction with inhabitable moons, whether the world is inhabitable or not.
maybe 'biospheric-capable' is a better descriptor, but I've only seen it so many times (a number of which were in homestuck fanspecies setups).
A part of me is considering trying to get Lapis-Kea, or an offshoot, to develop coral-like formations down the road.
I'm satisfied whether they, Clotho-Kea, or similar seed the crust / mantle, but I'm also plenty happy to try and get an offshoot on the seafloor or surface going.
eheheheh, replicating a bit of the Scub Coral from Eureka Seven when the biosphere time comes. Hoping to stave that off long enough to get a fascinating tree of life going.
For this turn I'm moving Clotho-Kea to dig into the seafloor, because caverns are a tough nut for them to crack.
I'm hoping that they will be able to get an easier access to deeper layers of Pacworld from there.
As for really mad stuff, I'm imagining leveraging Lapis-Kea particle in the future to build particle accelerators on one hand. And magnetosynthetic/kinetosynthetic wheels driven around by other lineages on the other.
