Why are lifeforms so universal?

[Zorbul]

How is it possible that the same lifeforms are found on different planets across the galaxy? It seems that a species is more related to a similar species on another planet than to other lifeforms on the same planet. How can their evolution be explained?

Is there any lore that could shed light on this? I can think of a couple of explanations, it could be that an ancient civilization spread those lifeforms or the lifeforms spread themselves through space somehow.

 

[ArchEmperor]

Convergent evolution? Same environment enables emergence of the same basic structural life.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Lore answer? Panspermia?

RL answer - FD don't have the resources to make a billion different types of lifeforms. I guess they didn't want the life forms they have to be found on just a few planets either. Perhaps they should have leaned more heavily into proc-gen, but then you end up with silly looking stuff like in Spore or obvious repetitions like in No Man's Sky.

 

[GroG79]

Thargoid poo

 

[varonica]

Lore answer? Panspermia?

RL answer - FD don't have the resources to make a billion different types of lifeforms. I guess they didn't want the life forms they have to be found on just a few planets either. Perhaps they should have leaned more heavily into proc-gen, but then you end up with silly looking stuff like in Spore or obvious repetitions like in No Man's Sky.

Yeah, not sure where they are going to go if they ever get to launch ELW's, we of course have obvious repetition now so I don't think that would be a big problem given our current choice. With proc-gen you can of course place limits on variations with the seed, but maybe our current hardware simply isn't good enough for creating proc-gen life across 400b star systems with any effectiveness. Then of course you have to do the old, how do they assign values to life forms, the current system is pretty...well basic, and just encourages cherry picking, I can't tell you the number of Stratum Tectonics I have scanned compared to other types of bio, it's pretty big difference. I mean should they even assign values to life forms as they do at the moment if it's proc-genned, but if they don't what system do they use to encourage people to record them?

Lot's of questions, no answers, just have to wait and see I suppose.

 

[marx]

@Zorbul : The gameplay answer is that Frontier have tried a "realistic"[1] approach before, and it turned out to be terrible. Case in point: most Notable Stellar Phenomena. With only a handful of exceptions, they appear only in small areas in the galaxy only, most of them being unique to said areas even when they are similar life, like the various small and large molluscs. Although the distribution of NSPs isn't the only thing to blame for why they turned out to be terrible and mostly unknown by the player base, despite their actual contents often being of better quality than Odyssey's static plants, but it's probably the biggest factor.
So, Frontier knew that if they'd try the same approach again(!), the same issues would most likely remain... but this time, it'd be in a paid expansion, not in a free update. So the player reception would have been much worse.

Now, gameplay should always have precedence above lore. (Assuming you want a game to play well and sell well that is.) So there's no lore in ED about why plants on thin atmospheric planets have either spread across the entire galaxy, or spread along specific galactic arms.
Although there is one thing, from before Odyssey: that brain trees can be found around places where the Guardians used to be. So at least there was panspermia there.


[1]: let's not forget that we don't actually know how life is distributed in the universe, the only place where we have confirmed life is Earth. Who's to say what's realistic?

 

[Factabulous]

Yeah, having travelled to collect Stolen Pod and Gyre Pod samples recently I'm not convinced that all bio signals are available everywhere

 

[varonica]

Yeah, having travelled to collect Stolen Pod and Gyre Pod samples recently I'm not convinced that all bio signals are available everywhere

There's one bio type I found in only one place, the eastern most system of the galaxy. Of course this wouldn't be an issue if bio was infinitely diverse, because you would be finding new stuff all the time, it's when you have a dozen types of one particular life form and they can only be found in specific parts of the galaxy that it gets annoying for people who don't want to travel far, if they could find their own unique types of life forms just by hunting out unexplored systems it would sort of lessen the sting that some life forms are only found a long way away. Oh yes, just to be pedantic, isn't it actually "Stolon" Pods?

 

[Greasetrap42]

How is it possible that the same lifeforms are found on different planets across the galaxy?

Answer: Video game with obvious limitations.

Similar Questions:

• Why is there only one type of bacteria per planet?
• How come no dead or dying bio? Why no detritus on the ground? All signs of bio look less than 2 years old, and all the old crap is cleaned up.
• With such thin atmosphere (sometimes no atmosphere), how does the solitary types of bio spread across such vast distance on a planet surface?
• Why is there no interest in actual bio samples?* And why isn't environmental data including soil samples desired?**
• Why doesn't bio get squashed by my ship when I land on top of it?
• Why can't I carry two genetic samplers?

* Our samples are collected by the genetic sampler, analyzed onsite, then discarded. We only deliver bio data to Vista Genomics.
** Yes we have overall planetary surface data from DSS probes. But what about environmental data from the actual location where the bio sample was collected?

 

[marx]

Yeah, having travelled to collect Stolen Pod and Gyre Pod samples recently I'm not convinced that all bio signals are available everywhere

Well, NSPs aren't bio signals But yeah, I see what you mean. I recently made a list for myself about where I'd have to go to get a sample of each surface species. (Not of every colour variation, of course - I don't care about palette swaps anyway.) It turned out that out of the 90, I could get 76 around the bubble, 11 around Sagittarius A*, 2 around Colonia, and just one (Tussock Divisa) wasn't around any of those three locations.

Or viewed another way: out of 90, 57 are in every region, 2 are in every region except along the Perseus Arm, and 1 in every region except along the Scutum-Centaurus Arm. The remaining thirty are found in regions that seem to follow specific galactic arms. However, the majority of species that have a base payout over 10 million Cr can be found in every region, with just three exceptions. (Frutexa Flammasis, Stratum Cucumisis, Tubus Cavas.)

 

[Factabulous]

Well, NSPs aren't bio signals

Best go tell fdev - all organics in the codex:

Anyway, I'll bow out of the pedant-a-thon now - have fun everyone!

 

[Zorbul]

Convergent evolution? Same environment enables emergence of the same basic structural life.

There are many examples of convergent evolution on Earth, so yeah, that's a realistic possibility.

[1]: let's not forget that we don't actually know how life is distributed in the universe, the only place where we have confirmed life is Earth. Who's to say what's realistic?

This is also true, we know only one planet with life. It might not be a typical case. Still I think the kind of life that exists on atmospheric planets in ED is very unlikely. But obviously there are game design reasons and they must take precedence over apparent realism.

 

[aRJay]

Lore says panspermia I say cross contamination.

I don't take any special steps to ensure no bio material is on the landing gear of my ship* or the boots of my spacesuit and I am quite prepared to believe that the two other spacefaring beings we know of haven't either.

*Not even up to the standards shown in The Fifth Element.

 

[Zorbul]

Lore says panspermia I say cross contamination.

I don't take any special steps to ensure no bio material is on the landing gear of my ship* or the boots of my spacesuit and I am quite prepared to believe that the two other spacefaring beings we know of haven't either.

*Not even up to the standards shown in The Fifth Element.

Hmm, I like this idea. If some ancient race like Guardians had millions of years to travel the galaxy, not necessarily themselves but some robot craft, they might have visited almost everywhere. Without thinking of protection.

 

[Greasetrap42]

Hmm, I like this idea. If some ancient race like Guardians had millions of years to travel the galaxy, not necessarily themselves but some robot craft, they might have visited almost everywhere. Without thinking of protection.

Consider that every single system in the galaxy with a Gas Giant with Ammonia Based Life also has Thargoid sensors that can be found on landable planets.*

Certainly this is a game mechanic where FDev decided this would be true 100% of the time. What this implies is the Thargoids were capable of searching and visiting every system in the Galaxy to find the desired Gas Giants. And for whatever reason sensor fragments were left on landable planets of the targeted systems. And possibly in a very short time period. Notice that Thargoid Sensors all look clean and shiny. Never signs of dirt or debris from nearby meteorite hits, atmosphere, or solar damage. They don't look thousands or millions of years old.

Where I am I going with this weird thought?
This means that within the context of the game it is possible for Thargoids to leave stuff behind in a manner seemingly unfathomable to us. Possibly in a very short time period.



* Each landable planet in described system has a probability of having Non-Human Signatures (Thargoid sensors). If a cmdr finds no Thargoid Sensor Fragments somewhere in the system they can leave the instance, return and search the landable planets again.

 

[Hellrider]

They are universal, because frontier put effort into hand made plants, instead procgen live with using bunch of premade parts (example of this strategy you can see in NMS, and effect isnt spectacular, at the end each planet has "own" plants rocks or even animals, but for 90% of time they are so similar, that you cannot spot the difference).

I'm not sure, why everything need lore explanations, tho.

 

[Tetra Trash]

@Zorbul : The gameplay answer is that Frontier have tried a "realistic"[1] approach before, and it turned out to be terrible. Case in point: most Notable Stellar Phenomena. With only a handful of exceptions, they appear only in small areas in the galaxy only, most of them being unique to said areas even when they are similar life, like the various small and large molluscs. Although the distribution of NSPs isn't the only thing to blame for why they turned out to be terrible and mostly unknown by the player base, despite their actual contents often being of better quality than Odyssey's static plants, but it's probably the biggest factor.
So, Frontier knew that if they'd try the same approach again(!), the same issues would most likely remain... but this time, it'd be in a paid expansion, not in a free update. So the player reception would have been much worse.

Now, gameplay should always have precedence above lore. (Assuming you want a game to play well and sell well that is.) So there's no lore in ED about why plants on thin atmospheric planets have either spread across the entire galaxy, or spread along specific galactic arms.
Although there is one thing, from before Odyssey: that brain trees can be found around places where the Guardians used to be. So at least there was panspermia there.


[1]: let's not forget that we don't actually know how life is distributed in the universe, the only place where we have confirmed life is Earth. Who's to say what's realistic?

Curious what you mean by terrible; like since they are so rare? These are my favorite thing to find/visit on exploration trips

 

[Darkfyre99]

Curious what you mean by terrible; like since they are so rare? These are my favorite thing to find/visit on exploration trips

It’s the rarity paradox in exploration games. Rare finds need to be rare enough that finding them feels significant, but not so rare that a systemic search can’t find them. It can be hard to find the right balance.

Prime example is finding the components needed for healing potions, in a hardcore/no-regeneration Minecraft worlds. I’ve had entire games where I've died before finding them, and others where I stumbled upon them by accident, which made the game way too easy.

 

[marx]

Curious what you mean by terrible; like since they are so rare? These are my favorite thing to find/visit on exploration trips

Terrible distribution, that is. It's not that they would be rare: as a matter of fact, once you're in the correct areas (and they won't appear elsewhere), most of them aren't even rare! However, those areas tend to cover tiny parts of the galaxy, which is why people think they are rare.
The end result is that most players tend not to come across any once they leave the Inner Orion Spur, unless they are specifically going to their locations. So, unless they've read up on NSPs, many players don't even know those exist, unless they are lucky enough to come across some albulum gourd molluscs in the bubble's region.

I'd say that the distribution of those specific gourd molluscs is actually pretty good: their area covers an entire region (which I'm pretty sure was an accident), and their other spawn criteria are both common enough that players are likely to come across them on their own, and also rare enough that they won't be tripping all over them. (See: peduncle trees and pods in Dryman's Point and Sagittarius-Carina Arm.) The rhizome pods out in Tenebrae also work somewhat well, and well, that's it. Just these two.

Of course, there is another big problem with albulum gourd molluscs, and all of the small life in general: they are too difficult to notice even once you're inside an NSP location. Most everybody notices the rather uninteresting static content, the big crystals and such, and then conclude that that's it, that was the content to be found. Then they leave without even knowing the better stuff that was there. Don't take my word for this, it's easy enough to check: most of the time when people share stuff and screenshots about how they found an NSP, it'll only be the crystals.
And to harken back to what I wrote about the distribution above, if you check the location, most of the time these NSPs must have been albulum gourd molluscs.


So yeah. Oh, and to top this all off, the actual rewards for finding NSPs are so tiny they might as well not exist. Perhaps if Frontier boosted them, people would engage with them more: after all, exobiology was a much more niche thing before Frontier multiplied most payouts by 20. But even if they did the same for NSPs, the problems above would still exist. It's a pity, because the quality and interactivity of spaceborne life is better than that of the surface flora of Odyssey. There are some pretty good ideas in there too... but it's all let down by some bad decisions and poor implementation, what with all the bugs and errors.

 

[The Own of Noon]

We have secretly switched CMD marx's regular NSPs with Folger's Crystals. Let's see if they notice