Floran Physiology?

Starbound's universe is flush with human-sized bipeds for the same reason all sci-fi universes are.
They're easy. All writers are human, all artists are human, all animators are human, all actors are human. (Trained animals are not factored into this.) Human is the only pool of reference we have for real-world sapient species.

 

I think the bigger question is... how is a concentrated amount of light and star matter able to move independently as a sentient being?
...
...
...

 

... *insert a scientific theory here*

 

Scientific theory about energy being able to think? I've read that some scientists think the "final" stage of evolution will be a being of pure energy and possibly limitless power. Maybe they just don't see anything as important anymore, which could be why they have that horrendous level of A.D.D.
It also doesn't move independently... It requires a force field to keep it in a solid shape/form.

 

Did it come to you in a dream, then you forgot it in another dream?

 

I don't like it. The odds of us meeting an alien race are slim as they are... Meeting an alien race that evolved in a similar shape as we are would be so infinitesimal that it would be easier to say zero. Because our only reference is ourselves isn't much of an excuse. I get it, though... Making one set of gear fit seven different bodies would just make development take longer.

 

WAIT WAIT
how about this:
What if all 7 playable races in SB share characteristics because they share a similar origin?

Billions of years ago, a race of advanced humanoid beings started to breed new life forms by mixing their own dna with 4 different life forms; an anphibian, a bird, a plant and a mammal, thus originating 4 new races.
Later, for some reason, the humanoid race faced a great evil and probably their imminent extinction, which lead them to try 2 new experiences:

- First they tried controlling the energy of a supernova to somehow charge the cells and accelerate the evolution process of the 4 other races
It didn't work as they expected, but it did create a 5th race of pure energy beings.

- After that, they build artificial life forms to simulate social evolution, hoping that in the future these robotic beings could teach the other races about social interations.
Unfortunatelly, the humanoid race didn't have enough time to improve the artificial AI, and not long after they were gone, the simulation program got stucked in one of the early eras.

Also, after the humanoid race was gone, the mammal race divided itself into 2 different groups: one of them wanted to live and evolve in a natural way, while the other managed to genetically modify it's gens to phisically return to a primitive state while improving their inteligence.

 

Not saying it's aliens....but it's aliens.

 

Nope. I am just too lazy to make up an proper explanation. xD

 

I liked this a lot, with one issue. The Glitch aren't close to the first of the robotic race they were part of. The other groups grew the way they were supposed to, and eventually wiped themselves out. This happened multiple times. Getting stuck in the dark ages is the only thing that has kept the Glitch from going down the same path.

 

Snails are both sexes at once, but they need another snail to reproduce.

Given the vastness of the Universe it is not unlikely for plants to evolve in this specific way. All plants can move, ones more limited than others, all plants breathe, some plants move quickly, eat and digest (venus flytrap).

I like the theories here.

In terms of fiction, why the florans look like people it is the same reason why the majority of intelligent races in Star Trek, Star Wars and Mass Effect look humanoid. If they didn't they would not be relateable for us as fictional characters.

 

On top of this, there are always going to be similar evolutionary trends. Quadrupeds will be favored. (Carbon based) Life will begin in water. Arthropods will vastly outnumber any sort of mammal, reptile, fish or bird. Ect. Ect. It's the reason everything on earth with a skeleton has roughly the same skeletal structure. Patterns that work will be repeated.

 

They are born from the pale treeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

With the right conditions, a living sapient being could come from any type of planet/origin. But @Azahiel and @Ssj782 are right, humanoids are easier to develop for a game and easier to relate to.

It would be fun, though, to have a quadrupedal truly alien-looking alien. I didn't have a problem at all relating to Nanaki from FFVII, for instance, or any four legged creature starring in movies and shows. Where it gets weird is when you start to question relationships and 'human rights', and fans/devs giving them humanoid forms so romances are less wrong, and all the other things people do to make relating to a four legged beast less bestial. :/ But I digress.

I have no idea about the Novakids, though now I'm hungry to read fanon theory on all races now. xD Anyone have ideas? Perhaps Novakids have a truly alien origin, beginning as stardust that somehow very slowly grew the seeds of consciousness, and came together to form miniature stars in space. They kept their heat and mass by consuming more stardust. When they came in contact with high amounts of certain metals, these metals reacted to their chemical makeup in a way that served a number of them well - it gave them the ability to form a basic shield in space to protect the developing "body" of gas from invasion by space debris, which could end a Novaball's life by scattering their gases, and ruining the delicate system that allowed consciousness. They probably existed as primordial blobs for a long time until necessity made them smarter: Perhaps a large population of them were drawn to a low gravity planet, so they didn't explode on impact. There, they got accustomed to living inside an atmosphere, their 'shields' protecting their environment, and them from absorbing each other, while learning to deal with new prey, metals, energies, etc. Eventually, their 'shield' got stronger, and became a thin, if strong barrier that could be manipulated by the Novaball at will, resulting in more useful shapes than just blobs. From there, perhaps they spread out across the universe, or continued developing on this planet, their natural deadly makeup essentially a deterrent against any possible predator. Without the need to worry about long term enemies, their 'self preservation instincts' became negligible, there was no need for long term memory, and their short term memory shrunk. They're currently capable of imprinting information, but few Novakids remember anything past 15 years prior. This is enough time to learn how to do things and grow culture and technology, but short enough that eventually Novakids forget their 'childhood' and ever not knowing how to do anything. This results in a people who are completely ADD and nutso. They do not fear death because it doesn't occur to them to do so, and few find their memory issues bothersome because they won't remember not liking it later. They are 'crazy Westerners' as a people, and live up to the stereotype perfectly.

HOWEVER, because of interaction with more 'stable' species, perhaps Novakids these days are changing. This exposure teaches new methods, philosophies, and technology that would force anyone to rethink their own situation. So I'm sure there are plenty of Novakids who don't fit the mold, and anything in between. (/end brainstorm at 8:26 AM because she really needs to go to work!!!)

Going with what @Lobo said - I do like the idea that the same 'mysterious alien race' that shows up in Glitch and Avian backstories would be one and the same and got involved with more primitive races enough to influence their development. The idea sounds a bit like Protheans from Mass Effect and Forerunners from Halo, but these apparently were actually directly experimenting on 'lower' life forms in some mass genetics project... Maybe that was the calamity they faced - they were having trouble with reproducing and were experimenting with genetics to improve their own race and plan the future if their race's efforts succeeded. But then they ran out of time and disappeared. :/

 

Keep in mind there are animals out there that hybridize with plants. Don't see why a plant couldn't develop animal features from it's prey.

 

Can you give an example of what you're talking about? o.o

 

Google "Green Sea Slug"!

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/green-sea-slug/

 

Because its a game. No one asks why Mushrooms make Mario Grow, nor do they ask why rings can keep Sonic from death. (Well I'm sure they ask but there are no answered I assume.) And before someone gives some long wall of text reason why each of these things do what they do, from a source that could only be from some special collectors book from Japan or something, don't. I'm trying to make a point that in Videogames things don't often need to be explained, you just accept that they do that. That said, the Starbound Universe could be some other alternate dimension where things behave differently.

I'm sure we will get some incite onto theses questions asked here, but I wouldn't be surprised if the devs didn't leave it unanswered so that the fans could speculate and create their own theories over the reasons why.

 

I couldn't have said it better. Willing suspension of disbelief folks. Accept the conventions of fiction on the basis that it is fiction.

 

I understand your point, but some of us enjoy immersing ourselves into a game enough to try to explain something seemingly impossible IRL. In a science fiction world, things usually behave with some greater level of reality than other genres, with a pinch of suspension of disbelief. Filling in the blanks is great fun to me, and offers up an opportunity to delve into science and exercise the brain! Hence, walls of text that I love reading and writing.
For the record, I'd love to read up on some headcanon why Sonic rings exist and how Mario mushrooms work. Even if it made no sense for real life physics, within the context of these 'alternate universes,' Sonicverse and Marioverse have their own rules and it's titillating to figure out what those could be.

@Mostlyjoe ... That slug is awesome. I never heard of that before! (Apparently these scientists didn't either, actually.) Definitely spreading the word about this one at dinner! This little slug could spawn a completely different theory about Florans altogether! lol