In the interest of science, I ran 10 more simulations with our submitted population. This is not to open a can of worms or to challenge the results in any way—we all knew we had to win on the first try!
The results were highly sensitive to randomness. Almost no species survived consistently.
Sometimes defenseless creatures survived and sometimes they didn’t.
LeavyTanky (ViktorThink) survived basically every time. Looks like there was no competition for the invincible leaf eater niche in the Rainforest (though plenty of leaf eaters abounded). I would say this is the strongest creature in the field of submissions based on my tests.
Usually an apex predator survived (10 attack, 10 speed). Often it was the most successful creature in terms of total energy across all biomes that it spread to. I was usually seeing antivenom in an apex predator not being worth it, but the Cheetah had it and did well in several runs.
Venomous creatures almost never survived.
As a class, armored tanks were the majority of survivors. Occasionally a speeder would survive, but much less commonly.
Usually, some mid-range tanks survived as well (~6 armor). This was often enough to stay ahead of predators while outcompeting invincible tanks.
On average only about 15 species survived past generation 1000. 30 species NEVER survived this long together. If you combine species occupying the same niche, this number was barely more than 10.
The tundra was always barren. The desert was always taken over by a single species.
I was surprised to see the Dump omnivores survive many times (Garbage Disposal, and 2-8-0 algae-...). Creatures with more than a few food sources generally didn’t do well, but the formula seemed decent in the Dump.
Sometimes the coconuts got eaten! Not often, though.
Often a 1 attack, 1 speed omnivore survived. Usually these took the place of defenseless creatures, but in one case they coexisted.
It might be fun to compete to design the creature that does the best against the 555-species field. I might also do some more experiments/analysis when I have some time—let me know if there’s anything you’re curious about.
Congrats to all the winners! Already looking forward to next year. Thanks lsusr for running this again this year!
In the interest of science, I ran 10 more simulations with our submitted population. This is not to open a can of worms or to challenge the results in any way—we all knew we had to win on the first try!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mSqaNlo5KT9l9vmY3ckd8KSTXA0xOz0u/view
Some things that I observed:
The results were highly sensitive to randomness. Almost no species survived consistently.
Sometimes defenseless creatures survived and sometimes they didn’t.
LeavyTanky (ViktorThink) survived basically every time. Looks like there was no competition for the invincible leaf eater niche in the Rainforest (though plenty of leaf eaters abounded). I would say this is the strongest creature in the field of submissions based on my tests.
Usually an apex predator survived (10 attack, 10 speed). Often it was the most successful creature in terms of total energy across all biomes that it spread to. I was usually seeing antivenom in an apex predator not being worth it, but the Cheetah had it and did well in several runs.
Venomous creatures almost never survived.
As a class, armored tanks were the majority of survivors. Occasionally a speeder would survive, but much less commonly.
Usually, some mid-range tanks survived as well (~6 armor). This was often enough to stay ahead of predators while outcompeting invincible tanks.
On average only about 15 species survived past generation 1000. 30 species NEVER survived this long together. If you combine species occupying the same niche, this number was barely more than 10.
The tundra was always barren. The desert was always taken over by a single species.
I was surprised to see the Dump omnivores survive many times (Garbage Disposal, and 2-8-0 algae-...). Creatures with more than a few food sources generally didn’t do well, but the formula seemed decent in the Dump.
Sometimes the coconuts got eaten! Not often, though.
Often a 1 attack, 1 speed omnivore survived. Usually these took the place of defenseless creatures, but in one case they coexisted.
It might be fun to compete to design the creature that does the best against the 555-species field. I might also do some more experiments/analysis when I have some time—let me know if there’s anything you’re curious about.
Congrats to all the winners! Already looking forward to next year. Thanks lsusr for running this again this year!
Another interesting experiment would be to try to maximize the number of surviving species (starting either from the current set or from nothing).