Topic: Hey hey! Its a creature: The ViS

[Krakow Sam]

For ages I struggled to come up with an original creature idea that I might want to make in Spore... then it came to me.
I Give you... the ViS:


If theres one phrase that explains the ViS it would be KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid! The ViS evolved on a planet with incredibly scarse resources and as such developed into a very thrifty civilisation.
What you see above is not the natural form the ViS once had, but the result of the cultural phenomenon reffered to as the Great Simplification.
For centuries the ViS had viewed themselves with discomfort. The process of evolution by natural selection had given them forms (which i havent come up with yet, stay tuned) which were overcomplicated and rather inefficient. This idea would have revolted the ViS if they had been capable of such strong emotions. So when they discovered the science of genetics and Biotechnology they seized the chance.
Mapping their genome they set about it with a grim purpose. Unnecessary genes were eliminated, new code was written from scratch, countless mistakes and failed experiments were liquidated and reconstituted into the next generation of simplified ViS lifeform.
Eventually, 200 years after they had begun, the ViS scientists achieved their goal: The super-simple, super-efficient ViS seen above.

[huggkruka]

Now that's an original idea! 
Great work, the backstory is very nice. But what did ViS mean again?

[Cool AN]

Unique, and makes sense. Dude, you found a gold mine.

[Krakow Sam]

Now that's an original idea! 
Great work, the backstory is very nice. But what did ViS mean again?

According to my Latin dictionary Vis is Latin for 'Efficacy' I capitalised the S because it looks cool. I guess (using the power of the Backronym) it could mean Versatile Intergrated System.


Anyhoo, here we see the internal product of two centuries of work. The ViS internal physiology has been simplified to the extent that it now consists of a flexible cartiligenous exoskeleton, three multipurpose organs, a two-way tube to serve as a mouth/excretory opening , a large muscular 'foot' (a la slugs) and two tentacle like arms. The rest of the body is composed of a uniform 'filler tissue' which serves a number of purposes (respiration etc). The large eye is the only sense organ. It is sufficient for sight but has limited colour vision (the dull, monochromatic ViS homeworld and environement means no colour vision is required)

[MadGiraffe]

'Vis' is 'fish' in my language. But my interest is prickled, what makes this creature so genetically perfect?

[Krakow Sam]

They arent perfect as such. They just used genetic engineering to create a species which was as simple as it could possibly be while still being an advanced race. So no energy or matter is 'wasted' on vestigial features or things which due to their natural evolution just dont work as well as they could (an example is the human eye, the optic nerve connects in the middle of the eye and this results in our 'blind spot')



Here we see a ViS city. Pretty exciting eh? The ViS have one style of building: The windowless rectangular skyscraper. They use it for everything. Since the ViS live where they work there are no residential buildings as such, only offices (which are the source of the biggest export of the ViS homeworld: Administrative staff), factories and laboratories. Also seen in this picture are the ViS rollercars. using magnetic induction and counterweights these cylinders roll from place to place. Passengers and cargo sit inside a gyroscopically stabalised cylindrical cabin inside.

[Hydromancerx]

No offense but, this seem like a very dull species. Boring body and windowless buildings plus all gray and white stuff. I see their method of galactic domination is to bore all the species to compliance.

[kmr]

No offense but, this seem like a very dull species. Boring body and windowless buildings plus all gray and white stuff. I see their method of galactic domination is to bore all the species to compliance.

You're missing the point! It's ingenious! 

The creature will only look like that after he's gotten to the genetic editor. Before that, who knows what they looked like to give them that kind of inferiority complex? 

[smjjames]

sounds alot like that species from star wars (I forget the name) which centuries ago declared themselves a perfect species and kept cloning themselves over and over again to do the same stuff and the cities are dull and with perfect cube buildings. Basically these guys went on the path that they percieved as perfection and efficiency.

I bet they are pretty dull in general as thier thought patterns would be so alien from ours that thier lives would be endlessly dull.

makes me wonder if they have 'fixed' thier planet so that the weather patterns are the most efficient and there are no hurricanes and they have changed the mantle so that there are no plate tectonics and no earthquakes.

also, what about food? they have to get thier nutrition from something.

[Hydromancerx]

No offense but, this seem like a very dull species. Boring body and windowless buildings plus all gray and white stuff. I see their method of galactic domination is to bore all the species to compliance.

Yeah well your creatures so dumb, it threw a rock at the ground and missed! Burn!

Thats becaue it was a light lava rock and he threw it into the sea, thus it is floating on the surface and never touch the bottom or the ground on land. In short they just have bad aim

[Krakow Sam]

No offense but, this seem like a very dull species. Boring body and windowless buildings plus all gray and white stuff. I see their method of galactic domination is to bore all the species to compliance.

Exactly! Theyre the most boring species you can possibly imagine. Theyre known throughout the galaxy as the most cripplingly tedius people known to intelligent life. The only reason people tolerate them is that they do the paperwork... hell, they practically enjoy the paperwork (they dont really because they were pretty emotionless to begin with and they removed the rest in the Simplification). I'm going to have to think hard about what they were like before that though...

Good idea, yes they have systems to manipulate the weather (constant light cloud cover).
They eat a flavourless grey paste which is grown by microorganisms which live in vats.

[kmr]

I'm going to have to think hard about what they were like before that though...

Just go wild. A multi-eyed clam with seven eight-jointed legs with graspers at the knee, or something.

[smjjames]

and they'd probably bore the Torpal so much that they just say "hell with it" and blast the whole planet with megalasers just to make it quick.

[Krakow Sam]

and they'd probably bore the Torpal so much that they just say "hell with it" and blast the whole planet with megalasers just to make it quick.

As long as they have a megalaser permit that would be acceptable.

[smjjames]

and they'd probably bore the Torpal so much that they just say "hell with it" and blast the whole planet with megalasers just to make it quick.

As long as they have a megalaser permit that would be acceptable.

LOL, have you guys seen the "Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy" movie? that sounds just like the Vogon, except more boring and not so ugly.