will get the food and successfully mate (no details
)
I hope that doesn't mean what I think it does... So what, you want to see your swinbots mate in graphic detail?
Anyway, downloading the program now... I'm just off for a walk, so I'll set it up and let it run while I'm out...
EDIT:
Well, after leaving it running for a while, the pool endured a significant drop in overall population at one point (possibly a mass extinction event) and ultimeately the pool's population has divided into two distinct groups... On the right we have the larger, more energy efficient group of what I call "roto-swimmers" who sort of "kick" through the water using large numbers of swinging plates on a pair of arms... Most are as you see in this picture, while the rest are similar, but much leaner (I.E. All their sections are a lot thinner, but they seem to be dying out as they are actually slower, with the bulkier ones leaving them in the dirt)...
On the left, meanwhile, we have a much smaller (but noe-the-less sucessful population of squid-like creatures, who sort of "rithe" and "slither" through the water... They, unlike the roto-swimmers, seem to have very little genetic diversity in their population, with all members of the species being generally very similar...
What we seem to be heading towards are lead elements of the roto-swimmers (whos species has been basically charging across the map from right to left in an eating and mating frenzy) encountering the squids, who have generally stayed in one area, with lower diversity and much smaller numbers (but with each individual member of the population being much more sucessful than any of their roto-swimmer counterparts)...
Minutes later...
Time passed, the two populations did indeed come into contact and... [
b]Oh God! It's horrible![/b] The roto-simmers are everywhere, consuming all in their path and will probably drive the squids (and themselves) to extinction... What we're seeing is a massive spike in population and a massive drop in food...
Wow... This is a pretty cool program...
EDIT 2: Well, as I thought, an epic mass extinction event occured and now, as the food levels in the pool stabelise, we're down to about 20 swimbots, some of whom are just green sticks that literally sit there and do nothing... Luckily, a small group of squids (a few of whom survived the disaster... The roto-swimmers weren't so lucky, with the two or three that were left being scattered far and wide, unable to find each other to mate) seem to be making a fresh start... At first, it seems to be a case of too little too late as my pool falls to less than a dozen swimbots, but then, to my surprise, it starts to climb again, a small clan of over half-a-dozen squids forming not too far south from where squids were located before the great roto-swimmer onslaught... There's maybe one roto-swimmer still left on the map now, but ever-tenacious squids are toughing it out... Not only that, but they're virtually unchanged from how they looked and acted when the roto-swimmers first invaded their territory...
Shine on, you crazy mother-luving (they're genetic diversity is pretty much in the toilet with such a small population left to repopulate the squids with, after all) squids you... Shine on...
EDIT 3: Well, the squids are the only ones left on the field now... There's about 20 of them and just when I thought their genetic diversity couldn't get any worse, one of them has apparently (and I didn't do this) undergone an epic mutation, have two better articulating limbs rather than four lesser ones, making it a stronger swimmer than its fellow squids... Unfortuneately, it carks it before it can pass on its genes...
At this point I think I'll save this group and start a new one, as the current one's getting boring...
[img]http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb6/CaptainTrek/Federationsignature.jpg[/img]
), passing on their genes to the next generation. A baby swimbot can take after just one parent or maybe both, and sometimes random mutations get thrown in. The idea is is that you leave this running for maybe an hour and see what happens. You can get some very cool-looking squigglers after a while, although if you've got some patience and are willing to go through a lot of trial and error, you can genetically engineer swimbots of your own.
