Help me make an alien MOC!

Wolcome ladies and gentlemen to Dr. Zekesters crazy science lab (patented).
For one of my super serious and scientificly accurate experiments I need you, yes you the guy way to the left, to help me create an alien creature for a simulation of an extremely scientificly accurate alien planet. /s Scince my river of imagination has gone completely dry I need your help to create the craetures raw outlines, it’s habitat and to give me general infomations about it.

Informations for entering:

-Per person only one characteristic of the creature/it’s habitat.
-Don’t be too specific.
-The 10 suggestion with the most like on the 30th of september will be chosen. If your suggestion is chosen , I will notify you.

I hope you like this idea. Please leave (constructive) criticism and you entry below.

Whatever you do, you need tons of mixel eyes.

Everywhere.

Let the mixel eyes encompass your mind.

6 Likes

That would be funny. But I, sadly, don’t have any mixel eyes.

1 Like

;~;

I feel sorry for you, poor soul

2 Likes

Thank you. I think I should get some of these. I hope theire aren’t that expensive on Bricklink.

1 Like

It should be very bulky than, as in, strong - due to the nature of high gravity the creature would have to have giant muscle mass to resist it.

Than obviously go with a fish-like creature, I wouldn’t recommend deep-sea creature because if the planet has high gravity, it might be just impossible for a being to resist pressure of the ocean.

Wont affect the creature, maybe, maybe, it will affect it’s intelligence because of how old the Solar System is, I’d go with something smarter than a human, more advanced too.

This would cause major astronomical difficulties that I’m not going to bother to explain, tho, for the sake of fantasy - It wont affect the species.

I suggest taking inspiration from the Barraki, specifically Takadox - try to mimc his body-type.

Anyways, hope that help. As for me, I’d like to make an entry - make the species be agile, swift and efficient.

1 Like

Turn this thing into a MOC.

5 Likes

Lots of eyes/ large eyes, as a dim sun and no rotation means the potential for constant nighttime on have the planet. Water mostly negates gravity, but make it sleek, I guess.

1 Like

@MakutaTexxidos: These were just examples what some people could suggest. Thakns for analysing them but you should rather post your own entrys.

@king328: Is “a dim sun” your entry or just your thoughts on my example?

I had been giving my thoughts on the example.
If you want me to give my idea, I think a sorta amphibious swamp predator would be cool. Like a crocodile, salamander, and something else combined.

1 Like

Based on the planets information, it should be squat (to deal with the high gravity) and either have large fan-like protrusions a la elephant ears to ventilate the heat on the day side, have no major protrusions to stay warm on the night side of the planet or have fan-like protrusions that it can retract to survive on either side (probably acting like an extra coat when it does so). The last option would also be useful to stay stealthy while hunting. I suggest something multi-legged. Maybe inspired by dragonfly nymphs? Their extendable jaws are also fun for functions. As for why I’m not taking the “ocean planet” thing into account (besides suggesting dragonfly larvae as an inspiration), well, the Earth is technically an ocean planet. We still have lots of land life.

It reproduces by dividing, like a single celled organism. However, sometimes it won’t fully separate, resulting in freakish, uh, freaks.

It feeds on animals bigger than itself, so it needs a large mouth and some acidic fluid accessible to it.

1 Like

So you basically want an Elcor with a mouth. K.
If you don’t know what an Elcor is, it is this lovely being from Mass Effect:

1 Like

So it lives on a tidally locked ocean world which orbiting a red dwarf star? Well, the planet would likely look a little something like this:

On the side of the planet furthest from the star there would likely be a large ice sheet (assuming we’re dealing with water oceans and not something else entirely). Given that this planet also orbits a relatively dim star, this ice sheet would likely cover at least a third, if not half of the planet. Ice floes would likely extend out from this for quite a ways, meaning that any creature living on the side of the planet furthest from the star would have to have some sort of blubber or maybe fur (although I’m not sure how well fur works for insulation underwater…).

On the other side of the planet, it would be a very different story. I have made this side slightly greenish to represent a large algae cloud which would cover this side of the world. Occasional sandy/rocky islands would occasionally peak out from this cloud, however, they would likely be sparsely populated, if at all. A small continent might also appear at the point closest to the star, but on the same hand, it might not. The water on this side of the world would also be slightly shallower, and considerably warmer. A creature living on this side of the world would not need nearly as much insulation, and, in fact, insulation may even be detrimental on this side.

In the middle, between these two extremes, would be a fairly deep ring of ocean, with a temperature somewhere between the two other “biomes.” Here you might find creatures which are something of a mix between those who live on the more extreme parts of the world.

Now that I’m done explaining the difficulties of the planet, I think it is time to move onto the creature itself.

First off, this creature would also need some way to survive the high gravity of its world. With this, there are two routes we could go. If it is a vertebrate, it would likes have very squat, strong bones, and considerable muscle mass. The other, and in my opinion more likely option, would be something along the lines of a crab, possessing a hard outer shell which protects its insides from getting crushed by the high pressure of its home world. Of course, being a predatory animal, this thing would need some way to get around. Flippers are probably the most likely candidate, but I have a more interesting idea. What is it possessed a sort of biological “jet,” similar to those used by Octopi and squid? Although both options are possible, a “jet” propulsion system would make for a creature which can travel very quickly, but only really in one direction. Because of this major drawback, it would likely also possess one pair of flippers which it would use for turning and re-positioning itself. An interesting idea for a creature native to the colder half of the planet would be to have it be a burrowing creature, which digs into the many icebergs which dot that side of the world, and shoots itself out, impaling/grabbing any unsuspecting prey which pass too close to its hiding hole. Another thing I just want to address really quickly here is the fact that on a world like this, eyes are almost entirely useless. Half of the planet is in constant darkness because no light from the star can reach it, and the other half would be covered in a massive algae cloud, which would also block any light. On top of this, water also does a fairly good job of blocking light. So I say this not to disappoint you, but merely to point out that other senses would take precedent over sight, such as the ability to detect vibrations, electrical signals, heat, smells, etc. Sorry. So, anyway, the base creature would be a sort of flipper crab, possible with a lobster-like tail for slower, less stressing locomotion, which can shoot itself about at very high speeds using what essentially amounts to a high-pressure water gun. It can not see, but might have other senses which we do not in its place.

Now, I’m not done yet. This flipper crab would also likely come in several species, at least one being native to each region of the planet. The species living in the cold region would need some sort of insulation, likely in the form of blubber. They would probably be a bit bulkier than their brethren, perhaps necessitating the sort of ambush predation I suggested earlier. A creature living on the warm, algae-covered half of the world would likely have a weak sense of sight, and possibly possess more fan-like flippers than its northern brethren. These fan-like flippers would help both with locomotion as well as with keeping the animal cool in the much hotter waters. It would likely have less use for its jets than its arctic cousins, seeing as it is far less bulky, and therefore already faster creature. Another interesting idea for this warm-water living creature could be that it actually feeds upon the algae which is all too present in its natural environment, although, seeing as you said it was carnivorous, it would probably just feed on the creatures which feed on the algae. Finally, a creature living in the middle band would be something of a mix of the two. It may possess some blubber, its flippers would probably be slightly fan-like, though not nearly to the extent of its warm-loving counterpart. An interesting idea for this animal could actually be to have it so that the creature living on the cold side of the world can’t mate with the creatures living on the warm side, but both can mate with those living in the middle.

I hope this wasn’t too long, but I honestly love thought experiments like this, and really hope you take my input into consideration when designing this creature

2 Likes

@DraikNova: These were just examples somebody could give, not predetermend parameters.

@darkbrick999: Thank you for your entry.
@Runa: Thank you (too) for your entry.
@Hautaka: No.
@Silver_Falcon: Thank you for your analysis of tidally locked planets. Are these your thoughts on my examples or your own entry? And I don’t want to be rude or anything like that, but did’t I say[quote=“Zekester, post:1, topic:29148”]
Please don’t get too specific
[/quote]

and[quote=“Zekester, post:1, topic:29148”]
Per person only one entry.
[/quote]

?

I still really like your “presentation” .

Sorry, I merely meant to give suggestions as to what would be most likely to live on a planet with the characteristics you described, as well as some interesting concepts you could explore with whatever sort of creature you ultimately decide to make.

I guess my entry would be a flipper crab with some sort of jet propulsion system and the ability to detect heat and vibrations in water.

1 Like

personally I would use something more like silver fountain 1st suggested:

Something that lives under the ice and when it finds food it smashes from the ice with tentacles. For this it would need something like echo location or vibration sensing? As many people have said blubber instillation like a seal but don`t make it too big as not much would properly live in the ice sheet as it is very cold and without sunlight so not much to hunt.

So you want a fat wingless bat-squid

1 Like

@Silver_Falcon: Thank you for your suggestion. Still, great work with explaining what a tidally locked star is.

@doomrider: Thank you.

Didn’t realize that was just an example. Guess I’ll just use my old random generator method to determine what sort of creature I should make it.

EDIT: So I came up with an entry. To come up with it, I decided to use a random number generator method, use that to come up with an ancestral form for it, then refine it to make it a little more interesting. So, here’s my random number generator system:
First off, radial symmetry or mirror symmetry?
Flip a coin to determine. Heads is radial, tails is mirror.
How many limbs?
Roll a twelve-sided die.
Vertebrate, mollusc-like, arthropodesque, Platyzoan, echinodermesque or wormlike?
Roll a six-sided die. The number indicates which of these groups it belongs to.
How many eyes?
Roll a twelve-sided die. On a one or a two, the animal has no eyes, otherwise the animal has (number rolled)-2 eyes.

Results:
1: Radial symmetry.
2: 10 limbs.
3: 4, so Platyzoan.
4: 6, so 4 eyes.

So my entry is a 10-limbed, 4-eyed rotifer.

The creature’s ancestral form was conceived as simply using it’s tendril-covered discs to sweep food into its toothless mouth (with a rudimentary crushing system in its stomach), using its simple eyes and legs to move according to the time of day and seasons. The planet it lives on is aquatic, but at the time, eyes had only recently evolved. Before this, evading predators was rather simple. Evolutionary pressure from the new predator-prey arms race resulted in the following rather defenseless filter-feeding creature:


[Begin actual entry]
becoming a far more imposing, far larger predator. This creature retained three of its tendril discs, which still help pull prey to its maw, but three of them fused with limbs to produce structures like a Venus flytrap which help keep bigger prey in front of the beast’s maw, allowing it to bite it with its retractable inner jaw. It’s six flippers and fluke limb-tail allow it to move quickly and avoid larger predators, which it can spot with its more advanced eyes (I based the pupils on geckos).

[end actual entry]

3 Likes