Now it's the time to admit I created species without any thought for strategy, but solely by the principle of thinking of cool names and then assigning attributes which seemed suitable (yes, it did lead to me to submit a bunch of species with weapons + armor > 10). The fact one of my own survived anyway confirms what I suspected, namely that the game is so complicated that few people could find reliably successful strategies (or maybe it's just the random?) I guess it also helped that I submitted 10 species and most players submitted much less.

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[-]elspood4y50

I submitted the exact same 10 speed leaf eater that you did, I just started it in the Temperate Forest. Luck of the draw that yours got here first, I guess.

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[-]Vanessa Kosoy4y40

What do you mean, you just started it in the Temperate Forest? The Snark comes from the Temperate Forest.

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[-]elspood4y30

Ah, I read the wrong line. So yeah, we submitted the exact same creature.

There were definitely reliably BAD creatures, and certainly some reliably good ones, but a lot of variance based on the overall makeup of the population. I certainly didn't expect so many total creatures to be submitted; there was a lot more variability in results with 500-creature populations. In 5000-creature populations, basically the only thing that ever survived was invincibles.

With this size population, I don't think it's a coincidence that your minimal invincible survived - and certainly wasn't just luck that you arrived at its design. Give yourself SOME credit. :)

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[-]lsusr4y20

The fact one of my own survived anyway confirms what I suspected, namely that the game is so complicated that few people could find reliably successful strategies (or maybe it's just the random?)

I think this is exacerbated in the River and Shore where "what species arrives first" has extra high random variance.

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[-]Vanessa Kosoy4y*20

Well, the Snark also survived in the Human Garbage Dump. [EDIT: And in the Temperate Forest and the Rainforest]

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[-]aphyer4y10

The same pattern repeats for each foragable. First the foragable accomulates. Then a species which can consume the foragable appears. Its population explodes until it has eaten the accumulated foragable. Finally, its population reverts to carrying capacity.
Persephone 0461's Very Lesser Forest Dragon. It thrived until another predator appeared which hunted it to extinction.

Did a sentence or two get left out between these two paragraphs?

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[-]lsusr4y20

That was indeed missing words. Fixed. Thanks.

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Moderation Log

Species	Original Biome	Venom?	Weapons	Armor	Speed	Forage?	Creator
Leafy Luncheoner	Temperate Forest	Neither	0	0	1	Leaves	Sean Hyer
Mooshroom	Grassland	Neither	0	0	5	Grass;Seeds	Vanessa
slow vulture	Desert	Antivenom only	0	10	10	Carrion	eat (Allows survival in the Desert),Corm
mediocre 1-2-s	Grassland	Neither	1	0	2	Seeds	Corm
Very Lesser Forest Dragon	Rainforest	Neither	2	0	2		Persephone 0461

Name	Native Biome	Venom?	Attack	Speed	Forage?	Temperature Adaptation?	Creator	Social Media
Booyahs	Desert	Neither	2	10	Carrion	Heat (Allows survival in the Desert)	CK	None
Snark	Temperate Forest	Neither	0	10	Leaves		Vanessa	None
Venomoth	Rainforest	Venom + Antivenom	0	3	Grass		aphyer	None
Locust Eater Eater	Temperate Forest	Neither	2	2	Seeds		Multicore	None
Hopsplitter	Grassland	Neither	0	10	Grass;Seeds		Nem	None

LESSWRONG
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LESSWRONG
LW

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2021 Darwin Game - River

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