Why I hate the Apex

Well my main issue is its supposedly a race of greater intelligence with emphasis on scientific discovery, but its basis isn't even scientifically sound.

 

You underestimate the power of mob mentality. Get a dedicated enough group and minds fall like dominoes to the temptation of being in that group. Give that group enough support and power and they can do whatever they want until another group comes along or some external force shuts them down. That's evolutionary.

We are talking about alternate universe here! The laws of everything could be mish-mashed into potato casserole that went bad a month ago. We have penguins in space, cats in mech-suits, plants with mammary glands (as well as birds, fish and robots) and star people contained in the magnetic power of a scrap of metal the size of your fist.
Science is science, but it's not necessarily our science. if it was it would take a PhD to play any Sci-Fi game that came out, just to understand the physics of space flight and interstellar travel.

 

In all honesty I really like the Apex.

To the first point, monkeys are cute! But no one said you had to have sex with them or even suggested it as far as I know. To the second point, while there is a difference between Science Fiction and Science Fantasy, I do think it's within the realm of possibility that genetic engineering could lead to unexpected results, even animal-like qualities. Of course you can't de-evolve (because evolution is a gradual process over millions of years), but it would be possible to accidentally give a human embryo ape-like traits if you messed with the genetic code enough. And there are plenty of examples in science fiction of humaniods who have ape-like qualities and high intelligence. Beast from the X-Men comes to mind.

 

Its odd that people keep saying "not our science". Theres nothing to suggest that any of the laws postulated by "our science" are any different in this game. The only real difference that I can see in the starbound universe and our own is that humans have reached space. The backstory for the Apex suggests a misunderstanding of evolution, and I've pointed that out. Furthermore if fundamental laws were different, you'd see much more wacky and out of this world concepts. All that you've listed are all within the realm of possibility, the de-evolution tradeoff as it is referred to in the Apex backstory is not.

 

Could someone post a link to the lore? I can't seem to find it anywhere.

As I said, perhaps they value their minds over their bodies.

Oh? How many sentient species are you basing that on? I only know of one, which isn't really a large enough sample to make that assumption, but I'm sure the scientific community, not to mention humanity at large, would be interested to know of any others you've discovered.

 

Oh there is plenty of evidence of difference. Physics are a complex and nasty business that will warp your sense of reality and, with our current understanding, would make an interstellar empire impossible, simply because time is serious business and it doesn't mess around when you move at the speed of light.

The point is this (and I know you'll hate it when I say this, but it's the entire point): It is a game. There is nothing holding it to the candle of reality except overzealous and unrealistic expectations. If it is a question of "devolution" being the choice word, it is a mistake of language, not of lore design. If you do not enjoy the Apex, or just have a problem with ape-like races in general, it is simply as easy as picking another race, the Florans perhaps (after all, they're not a scientific fallacy or anything), rather than diving into all the perceived fallacies of a fictitious creation.

Thank you for your time.

 

When people say FTL they mean warp speed. So time is not an issue.

Look, people have said this numerous times, and I've already explained that I'm not going to play an Apex. The point of this thread is to point out my issue with it. I know its a game, that doesn't change that it irks me. Why people feel that bringing up this point will in any way change my mind is beyond me, because it really doesn't. I find it strange that people are so eager to try and get me to stop talking about a fictitious creation. I see a flaw, and I want to discuss it with others, if you don't, fine. But don't waste my time with these discussion halting comments.

If thats the case, years of sexual selection would have already led to a 'de-evolved' physical state of high intelligence. A better explanation would be that they were physically weak and modified themselves genetically to rectify it.

We can only ever base our knowledge on our observations. We observe in many species (sentient and otherwise) that sexual selection is a factor. We have attraction to our own species physically simply to ensure that sex occurs. You seem to be suggesting that the Apex don't have any physical attraction and only find attraction in intelligence. If that were the case, they would already be a physically inferior species of intellectual superiority. No further devolution could occur as there are no physical factors that determine attraction between individuals.

 

I seriously feel like there wasn't a point to this thread. There was almost no discussion value; he even ends it with, "Anyway that sums up my problems with the race, carry on with your lives." That tells me he didn't want feedback on his thoughts.

 

What I meant was, why are people trying to justify the Apex lore to him; why are people trying to tell him to accept the Apex backstory? It's obvious he hasn't. He made that quite clear.

 

I think that this has been said already, (actually, I know that it has) but if you read the first Newsletter, you would know that the in-game lore is different from what we got in the news blurb. There is a possibility that the Apex backstory might be more scientifically accurate once the game comes.

 

They wouldn't have superhuman intelligence over night, though. They would reach human level intelligence first, at which point they would modify their genetic code.

 

So at what point did they evolve only to be attracted to intelligence? Because you realize that sexual attraction to physical traits is inherent, and attraction to intelligence wouldn't arise until intelligence was a factor playing into survival.

 

Intelligence is always a factor playing into survival. Otherwise, sentient species would never evolve. Also, I don't think animals on this planet care about physical traits, with the exception of some insects/arachnids, birds, and reptiles, but those are usually just coloration rather than anything meaningful. Dogs tend to hump pretty much anything. For most species it seems that reproduction is just a thing that happens and the members of the species that survive the longest have the most offspring. As far as furthering the species goes, it makes sense that it would be that way; a creature that isn't selective about what it screws is going to have a lot more children than one that is. I think our pickiness when it comes to mates is an acquired behavior rather than something we're born with.

 

Actually coloration, Antler size, etc are usually indicators of good health. So yeah, animals do care about physical traits, quite a bit actually. Intelligence may keep them alive but they aren't capable of acknowledging an intelligent animal. Without a human level of intelligence, an animal doesn't look at a mate and say "Oh look at how he's eating those insects using a stick, isn't he clever, his coloration is a little dull but damn he's sexy." It doesn't work like that.

Furthermore many, many mammals typically have males that fight over the females, the male that wins (hence demonstrating greater physical capability) breeds. Again showing that animals do indeed care about physical traits.

Well you'd be wrong, humans are typically born with inherent attractions to certain traits. There is a reason that women dress themselves up to attract men, and that men tend to want to build up upper body strength, and its because those are usually subconscious indicators of good physical health. We most certainly are born with an instinctual attraction, animals have reached a level of complexity where attraction plays a role, it may not seem like it does, but it does. Hence obscure mating rituals.


EDIT:

Furthermore, we've tampered with the evolution of domestic cats and dogs. They don't usually display the same attitudes as wild animals in nature simply because they aren't in the same environment. Dogs typically form packs, with an alpha male, who is the most fit, that gets free access to all the females. They can't do that when owned by a human with very little access to others of its own species.

EDIT2: Just wanted to add.

We aren't nearly as separate from the animal kingdom as much as people want to believe. We're animals, we have several traits typical of animals. One of these is our attraction, we can't just decide what we're attraction to, nor is it a learned behavior (although attraction can be somewhat 'steered' during your teenage years). Granted there are people in which the behavior manifests in odd ways (such as an attraction to something many people would deem ugly) but this also occurs in the animal kingdom at times.

My point is, a lot of what we do is instinct. We just aren't aware of it.

 

http://playstarbound.com/introducing-the-apex
It's pretty small.

 

I still like the game even though plant mating is the absurd but rubbing that in no way makes sense. In conclusion it is a game.

 

Actually that isn't written into lore anywhere. Thats just people being childish.

 

But the developers said it was up to the community, hopefully they were just making the community feel important and did not really mean it.

 

It was more of a "It isn't important, we're leaving it to your imaginations."

 

no. just NO. if you read "introducing the apex" ypu'd notice that it said that they were human like but devolped a miricale chem that allowed them to trade devolution for super smarts.