Newbie Guide

This page is under construction. Some sections may be incomplete.

If you're new to OurFoodChain, getting started can seem like a complicated task. There are so many species and so many ecosystems that it's easy for a newcomer to struggle to find anywhere to begin. This guide aims to help with that. This is a heavy work in progress.

Finding a Species to Evolve

Generally, one will find types of life that are familiar to them easier to evolve, as even though Oefsy is not Earth, the life that lives on it has many similarities. Do note that the newbie guides listed below are currently vastly incomplete.

• If you are familiar with animals or would like to create them, Musculata is Oefsy's animal analog. See the newbie guide to Musculata for major lineages.
• For botanists or other plant enthusiasts, the plant analog is Polyphyta. See the newbie guide to Polyphyta for major lineages.
• For people with a passion for bacteria and other simple microbes, Palaea is the way to do. See the newbie guide to Palaea for major lineages.
• For those who enjoy protists and other more complex microbes, you may enjoy Synaplota. See the newbie guide to Synaplota for major lineages.

Finding a species you would like to evolve is not the only thing needed to get started, however.

Ecosystems and Open Niches

Once you have found a species or lineage you are interested in evolving, the next step is looking for a niche to evolve into. In some cases, you can evolve a species into the same niche as its ancestor if there is an area where it needs to improve, such as better camouflage; however, finding open niches poses a more interesting challenge.

There are a few different ways to find open niches using the discord bot:

• Searching for roles that are absent from a given zone's ecosystem, using the ?zone bot command (using ?zone X and clicking the R reaction to sort by role)
• Searching for species in the environment which do not have predators (?search zone:x -has:predator; you can also add taxon:musculata or taxon:polyphyta if you are making a carnivore or herbivore, respectively)

WIP

Creating your Submission

Once you know what your species' ancestor and niche will be, the hardest part is creating it.

Every new species must have a unique illustration and a description. The description should include the following:

• The name of the species
• Its ancestor
• The zone(s) the species inhabits (usually only one, unless it has migratory habits)
• The species' size
• The species' reproduction, such as mate selection, clutch size, and parental care
• The species diet, if applicable
• Some details about the species' general anatomy, adaptations, and reason for evolving
• If the illustration isn't colored, the coloration must also be included

This may seem like a lot, but it can generally be broken down into three or four paragraphs. Here is an example of how all of this information may be compiled:

Species nova, also known as the New Beast, is descended from a population of Species ancestra which faced competition from other nocturnal species in Zone X. S. nova is 2 feet long and 1 foot tall, and its skin is brown to blend in with the ground. Unlike its ancestor, S. nova has fairly large eyes. These enlarged eyes help it to see better in the dark, to better compete with other nocturnal species.

S. nova mate in the spring, and males will fight over females for the right to mate. After mating, the female lays 2-4 eggs in her nest. The eggs hatch after 2 weeks, and the parents work together to protect and raise the young. S. nova reach maturity in 6 months.

S. nova is an omnivore, and it feeds on Plantus species and Animalus species. It is preyed on by Predatorius species.

This format does not need to be followed exactly, but it may be helpful if you have trouble hitting every required point. Generally, the changes you make should be related to the niche your species fills--for example, if it eats something with a hard shell, it would need stronger jaws or shell-crushing teeth.

It is recommended that you type your submission text in another document separate from Discord, such as in Google Docs or Microsoft Word, as more often than not they can easily exceed Discord's character limit and you will want to be able to easily break them up without accidentally losing any of it when that happens.

Common Mistakes

There are a few common mistakes made by new creators making their first species.

• Creating a new genus right away - New species should generally stay in the same genus as their ancestor unless they had a major anatomical change that makes it seem like it shouldn't; this can be pretty subjective, and you have to convince the NSS reviewing your submission that it actually belongs in its own genus.
• Too many major changes at once - Generally, major changes such as the loss of limbs, alteration to the connections or layout of body parts, the evolution of new body parts, and major changes to social behavior should be staggered across multiple evolutions. That said, coloration, changes to existing integument, and overall bodily proportions to some extent are fair game as long as they are explained.
• Making major changes that can be broken up into steps - This is common even among veteran creators. In general, if the evolution of a characteristic can be broken up into steps, it should be--for example, a land plant should not be able to go directly to being aquatic and must have a semi-aquatic transitional form.
• Assumptions and Retcon - Generally, retroactively changing a feature of the species' ancestor--whether accidentally via assumptions, or on purpose to fill in gaps--should be done very carefully. Retcons are officially not allowed, but special exceptions can be made in cases where there is not enough detail on the ancestor species to evolve a particular characteristic without doing so; in general, however, one should ask the creator of the ancestor species what their intent was first, as even seemingly necessary retcons may not be accepted.
• Not explaining things - You need to explain things.

The Review Process

Once a new species is submitted, a member of the Natural Selection Staff will eventually start to review it. Reviews generally happen in the order in which the species are submitted, though sometimes when multiple NSS are reviewing many different subs at once, ones that go more smoothly will be accepted earlier than ones submitted before them, resulting in the order being mixed up; either way, if the species submitted before yours is being reviewed, you can expect yours to be reviewed soon as well.

When the review begins, a member of NSS will ping you on Discord and ask various questions. Most of these will be asking you to go into more detail about a feature, or to explain something that confused the reviewer about the submission. Generally, your answers--if they are considered acceptable--will need to be edited into the submission; clearing confusion, however, may not need to be edited in, depending on why the reviewer was confused.

Depending on the number of questions, the reviewer's knowledge of the topics involved, and the general quality of your answers, a review may take as little as a day or as long as a week. Once the reviewer is satisfied, the submission will be accepted and officially added to OFC. However, if the reviewer isn't satisfied, or if you won't budge on a particularly major characteristic, the reviewer can reject your species or ask you to make a transitional form depending on the severity.