Underwater islands spawning event
Darwin-Evolution
France Join Date: 2015-06-07 Member: 205310Members
France Join Date: 2015-06-07 Member: 205310Members
I have just had an idea to develop the life-cycle of the giant floaters in the underwater islands. This is the cycle that I had in mind:
1) The juvenile floaters are extremely small to begin with and are hidden deep beneath the sand under the islands. They feed by filtering particles through the sand, and start growing. As they grow, they start to attach themselves to large chunks of rock under the sand.
2) Once the floaters have reached a substantial size, the blocks of rock detach from the sea floor and then start floating up to the surface. At this point, the floaters have reached adulthood and now feed using an algal symbiote which produces nutrients through the process of photosynthesis.
3) Then, when they've completely reached maturity, it's time for them to spawn, which they do for two nights each year. Since they're hermathrodites, they spawn by releasing the eggs and sperm in bundles, which fills the water column with millions of small bundles that drift down to the bottom to eventually start their life-cycles in the sand. Many species of fish are aware of this spawning event, and take advantage of this by eating as many egg bundles as they can. This controls the population of the giant floaters. But the eggs are in such large numbers that there are bound to be some survivors who will make it to the bottom.
4) As for the adults, their fate is already sealed. Certainly, there are some fish here and there who try to take a bite from them sometimes, but the damage is almost unnoticeable due to the size of the giant floaters. The main danger to the animals is the erosion of the rocks they're attached to. As the rocks degrade, they become too small for the floaters to still be attached to, and so the floaters eventually die from that.
That's my theory of the life-cycle, but what I would LOVE to see in the game is the actual spawning event of the giant floaters, a bit like coral spawning.
Wouldn't that be cool to see millions of egg massesin the water column at night with quite a lot of fish there to take advantage once in a while?
1) The juvenile floaters are extremely small to begin with and are hidden deep beneath the sand under the islands. They feed by filtering particles through the sand, and start growing. As they grow, they start to attach themselves to large chunks of rock under the sand.
2) Once the floaters have reached a substantial size, the blocks of rock detach from the sea floor and then start floating up to the surface. At this point, the floaters have reached adulthood and now feed using an algal symbiote which produces nutrients through the process of photosynthesis.
3) Then, when they've completely reached maturity, it's time for them to spawn, which they do for two nights each year. Since they're hermathrodites, they spawn by releasing the eggs and sperm in bundles, which fills the water column with millions of small bundles that drift down to the bottom to eventually start their life-cycles in the sand. Many species of fish are aware of this spawning event, and take advantage of this by eating as many egg bundles as they can. This controls the population of the giant floaters. But the eggs are in such large numbers that there are bound to be some survivors who will make it to the bottom.
4) As for the adults, their fate is already sealed. Certainly, there are some fish here and there who try to take a bite from them sometimes, but the damage is almost unnoticeable due to the size of the giant floaters. The main danger to the animals is the erosion of the rocks they're attached to. As the rocks degrade, they become too small for the floaters to still be attached to, and so the floaters eventually die from that.
That's my theory of the life-cycle, but what I would LOVE to see in the game is the actual spawning event of the giant floaters, a bit like coral spawning.
Wouldn't that be cool to see millions of egg massesin the water column at night with quite a lot of fish there to take advantage once in a while?
Comments
On the 'technical' side I probably wouldn't enjoy it. Just earlier today I was searching for Titanium in the Blood Kelp area, and I marveled at the game raining down rocks with Floaters attached. But for whatever reason it kept spawning rocks and Floaters to rain down on me, to the point my FPS took a major hit and I had to exit the Seamoth and WARP away... I didn't want to risk a game crash.
I guess my point is, something like this would look cool, but unless its simply designed (like the schools of 2D Hoopfish) it would have to be careful to not overtax someone's PC.