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How do I start a project?; need a lot of help.
Topic Started: Jan 17 2010, 10:31 AM (419 Views)
Cynovolans
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For the past few months I've starting thinking about doing a project in the habitable zone. I have a few of the species in my head, but the problem is I don't really know anything about starting a spec. project. A few of the problems I've had is making the planet, and the anatomy of the species I'm worried they'd end up to Earth-like.

So what I'm asking is how do you members of The Habitable Zone start your projects? What steps do you take? And how do you make life on your planet unique?
I wish I could give the public a true picture of the queen as she appeared at her best, but this would be impossible, even had she permitted a photograph to be taken, for her charming play of expression while in conversation, the character and intellect which were then revealed, were only half seen when the face was in repose. -Lilias Underwood when speaking of Empress Myeongseong

"I was born in the dark. I went out into the light, and your Majesty, it is my displeasure to inform you that I have returned to the dark. I envision a Seoul of towering buildings filled with Western establishments that will place herself back above the Japanese barbarians. Great things lie ahead for the Kingdom, great things. We must take action, your Majesty, without hesitation, to further modernize this still ancient kingdom."-Min Young-ik to Empress Myeongseong
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Well, that will probably be different from member to member. Me, I do start with the animal and look at it in my mind. I decide how it lives, sort of Forensic Speculative Biology, I guess.

First, if it has a hydostatic skeleton, odds are, it lives under water. If not, probably on a very low gravity world. Same goes for thin legs on a bulkier body.

Small wings that allow for flight, once again, odds are a low gravity world.

Short thick legs on a small body? High gravity.

Thickly built body with a lot of weight on it, don't expect a fast or endurance runner.

Then comes the eyes, size show what kind of lighting conditions it has. Some times location can help with life style, far apart they are watching out for predators, close together, they are the predators.

After I have some of those details done, I can build an environment and other organisms around that very easily. Other times I will work in the opposite direction, but it's less fun.

To make it unique, it helps to try and think what other things could work. Maybe it doesn't chew with it's mouth, maybe it breaks food up with it's hands or claws before scooping it up into it's toothless mouth? As first these alternatives may sound ungainly, but with a little thought about how the system would work you can (usually) get it going.

That's some of the stuff I do. Though I don't have a system, I adlib and talk to other people about what's possible A LOT. Odds are, they'll notice any mistake we make before we do.
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Cynovolans
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I'm trying to start with plants and then work my way to animals. I'm trying to make plants that reproduce only sexually, and unlike most earth flowers which have male and female reproduction systems plants in the most widespread division will have only a male or female reproduction system. Another thing I'm looking into is plants that change their sex over time.

When it comes to animals I going to make a lot of pollinators, and then work my way up the food chain.
I wish I could give the public a true picture of the queen as she appeared at her best, but this would be impossible, even had she permitted a photograph to be taken, for her charming play of expression while in conversation, the character and intellect which were then revealed, were only half seen when the face was in repose. -Lilias Underwood when speaking of Empress Myeongseong

"I was born in the dark. I went out into the light, and your Majesty, it is my displeasure to inform you that I have returned to the dark. I envision a Seoul of towering buildings filled with Western establishments that will place herself back above the Japanese barbarians. Great things lie ahead for the Kingdom, great things. We must take action, your Majesty, without hesitation, to further modernize this still ancient kingdom."-Min Young-ik to Empress Myeongseong
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Holben
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Rumbo a la Victoria

I do a drawing, which focusses on one animal, usually standing victorious over another. There is often a chase in the background or sky, flyers fly overhead, and some animals feeding calmly watch on. This is the start of an ecosystem, which i flesh out with plants and stuff.

I draw a map of the planet, then create atmospheric conditions and temp. on the animals created.
Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea.

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Oceaniis
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If you want to build a planetary ecosystem, I would say that the first step is to build the planet.

Or in other way, which conditions you want in your planet? Hot/cold, dry/wet, high/low amplitude seasons, amount of water, gravity, palent size, air density, air composition, year size, and other esthetical things like sun's size on sky, etc

Them you can see how your animals would evolve in the ambient that you reated, if they need to fight against gravity, if the need to be migrators, if they need to protect from freezing temperatures, if they need to store water, all depends of the evironment
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Ànraich
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L'évolution Spéculative est moi

It depends, really, on whether you start with animals or the planet. If you have ideas for animals, I suggest building ecosystems and then deciding what kind of biomes these ecosystems and animals would inhabit. Then, based on the biomes, as well as the animal's anatomy, figure out what kind of planet they would inhabit, and in what kind of system it would best fit.

Or you can do it the other way around, starting with a planet and then making up animals to fill in various biomes that would exist on the planet, and build ecosystems as you go along.
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar.

"The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming

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Empyreon
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Are you plausible?

If you're interested in plant life to start with, the first thing I would do is look at what different challenges your plant(s) will have to face in different climates. Once you see the problems your life forms will face, then you start to look for solutions. Earth's solutions are proven to work, but maybe you want to try something a little different, so think of what else might solve the problem. Lather, rinse, repeat. Oh, and share your thoughts with others who can help you figure out consequences for your changes.

You mentioned pollination. Over time, flowers or similar structures will evolve to work with the pollinators around them, so having a general idea of the kind of animals that do this is a good idea. Are they small flying creatures that can flit from one plant to another? Are they large herbivores that get pollen stuck in their fur/scales/whiskers/tentapalps? Do they see in a specific spectrum, making a flower want to have certain colors to be successfully pollinated? Perhaps they don't use colors at all to draw animals in...

Continue along such lines of thought, and over time the details of your xenoflora will come to life, and you can share the fruits (pun definitely intended) of your speculative labors.
Take a look at my exobiology subforum of the planet Nereus!

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food for thought
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