BeastMaker discussion

[agorski]

Pending approval of the announcement in the News Forum, this thread is for general discussion of the app and beast making in general.

The Tusked Swarmer is a walker that inhabits forest terrain on Caladbolg.

It is a large, very fast, very strong carnivore killer.

The Tusked Swarmer is classified as HBS-T-LL-LN-T with bilateral symmetry consisting of a head with brain and senses, torso, front limbs consisting of two sets of legs (2 in each set), rear limbs consisting of 2 legs, and a tail. It uses paws for manipulation and Its weapons are tusks.

The body has a bony interior covered with skin which has an armor value of 10. Interior fluids are ichor.

Based on its typical profile, light density, and large size the Tusked Swarmer is about 1.4 m tall, 33876.543 cm³, and 30.5 kg.

Normally, it moves at around 100kph, with an endurance of around 6 hours.

It is not edible with a disgusting taste.

The Tusked Swarmer is not trainable.

 

[Timerover51]

Pending approval of the announcement in the News Forum, this thread is for general discussion of the app and beast making in general.

The Tusked Swarmer is a walker that inhabits forest terrain on Caladbolg.

It is a large, very fast, very strong carnivore killer.

The Tusked Swarmer is classified as HBS-T-LL-LN-T with bilateral symmetry consisting of a head with brain and senses, torso, front limbs consisting of two sets of legs (2 in each set), rear limbs consisting of 2 legs, and a tail. It uses paws for manipulation and Its weapons are tusks.

The body has a bony interior covered with skin which has an armor value of 10. Interior fluids are ichor.

Based on its typical profile, light density, and large size the Tusked Swarmer is about 1.4 m tall, 33876.543 cm³, and 30.5 kg.

Normally, it moves at around 100kph, with an endurance of around 6 hours.

It is not edible with a disgusting taste.

The Tusked Swarmer is not trainable.

A couple fo comments. First, forest animals are not going to be fast. Cheetahs do not live in forest, but on the open plain. Speed is simply of little benefit to a forest animal. Agility is of much greater importance to a forest animal.

Second, does the 100 kilometers per hour with an endurance of 6 hours mean that this animal can run at that speed for 6 hours? If so, I would submit that such a creature is not possible due to the energy requirements needed, along with oxygen intake. What you are describing is basically a 6-legged cheetah. Cheetahs are good for the short, high-speed sprint, not a sustained run. Even animals that really on an extended chase, particularly the Cape Hunting Dogs of the African Plains, take turns in the chase.

Lastly, what animals are there for it to eat? As it is a carnivore, it requires prey. A rule of thumb for carnivores is that a carnivore requires 100 times it body mass in prey species for sustained living, as long as it is a warm-blooded animal. If a cold-blooded animal, then it requires only 10 times its body mass in prey species.

Also, a carnivore will typically pick as prey animals those of its own size or somewhat larger, up to maybe twice its size, for the most part. A tiger is willing to take on animals up to three times its size, and animals that hunt in packs will tackle much larger prey. A wolverine is an exception to this, at it will tackle anything that may be food. Generally, the larger the size difference, the greater the chance of the predator being injured in making the kill. Injured predators tend to have a short life expectancy.

 

[agorski]

Good analysis. This was just an example generated by the app (with some tweaking). I think the endurance thing might be mitigated somewhat by the creature's light density and the fact that this is a lower gravity world.

The app randomly generates a new beast based on the world characteristics and terrain type using the T5 rules. This can certainly give wacky results. But each beast is completely editable, although some parameters are restricted to stay within legal ranges based on the world and terrain mods.

 

[Timerover51]

Good analysis. This was just an example generated by the app (with some tweaking). I think the endurance thing might be mitigated somewhat by the creature's light density and the fact that this is a lower gravity world.

The app randomly generates a new beast based on the world characteristics and terrain type using the T5 rules. This can certainly give wacky results. But each beast is completely editable, although some parameters are restricted to stay within legal ranges based on the world and terrain mods.

Art, any time you use a random number generator or die to generate anything, there is a pretty good likelihood of wacky results. As long as the critters are editable, then you can clean up problem ones. Predators and prey, along with carrying capacity are another one of my hobbies.

 

[agorski]

Version 1.5 is out

New:
• Incorporated minor changes corrected in the T5.10 core rules.
• Added a text export option for beasts and encounter tables.
• Dark Mode support.

 

[flykiller]

First, forest animals are not going to be fast

lots of animals wind up in lots of places. for example iiuc tigers originated in siberia, but are now found in se asian jungles. some mice will climb trees and sing. and some birds live in holes in the ground.

 

[coliver988]

And I think as we've only a single world data point for animals, there may be many really odd things we thought could never happen. Just look at planetology and how much that has changed in the last few years: Gas giants near stars, super Earths in orbits that they should not be, other oddities that were "impossible" keep showing up. While there are some things physics just won't allow, changing O2 levels, pressure and gravity alone would change several base assumptions