Alien Systems OXZ

[Redspear]

Do insect(oid)s have theory-forming minds?

Great question, which I am in no position to answer adequately.

My approach Re oolite (usually) : if the classical lore say its so then it likelly is.

How or why exactly I prefer to leave to the player. Communism for example is a label that has been applied many times to governments that have either failed to live up to their supposed ideology OR failed to represent 'true' communism according to some. And similar could perhaps be said of other government types too.

What a Galactic register likely wants to know about any given system first is what might it be like to deal with them?

If such dealings are superficially democratic (e.g. choice of dealer and significance of that choice) then why not label it as such for convenience?

So maybe as a system summary it's superficial but useful. It's not really a democracy but if you think of it as such then you'll do just fine - you're not making a home there, you're just passing through.

Likewise, 'Insect' may be a label of convenience, as I've opined elsewhere. Or maybe it isn't, player discretion is what I'm advocating for, if anything.

[RockDoctor]

I was reading the thread because I'm having problems associated with this OXZ. In passing, I saw this, and had a couple of points to throw into the pot, not associated with the actual problem :

Great stuff - very funny. A few suggested additions.
"insect-messages"
"It is not the number of legs that matters but the proper use thereof."
"A lecture on the merits of six versus eight will be given tonight in the main auditorium. A ground-level section has been set-aside for millipedes and centipedes, size ranked to avoid being trampled by Arthropleurans, who wish to bring their myriapod point of view to bear."

(Leaving aside that "insect" means 6-legged, while 8-legs is common for terrestrial Cheliciates and 10 legs for decapod crustaceans. But it's really the count of tagmosed head segments that matters.)

[RockDoctor]

Is there a way to get the Messages to appear at all of the possible Stations in a System instead of only at the Main Station? Have several vague ideas on how this might be accomplished but before the Tweaking Experiments begin would like the opinion of some better JavaScript writers than myself. My Ooniverse uses Additional Planets and Stations for Extra Planets. Thanks in advance for all advice.

This is rather assuming that all of the stations in a system have the same species affiliation, isn't it? Which I doubt would be the case.
Say you have a system with a severe case of the lobstoids (with a particularly bad reaction to humans bearing meltable butter), and they're discovered by humanoids. By agreement, mining and trade of fantabulously-jewelled carapace moultings for narcotics ensue. Visiting humanoid Commanders are strongly advised ("see this laser? ; see your currently intact hull?") to trade at the humanoid mining station, making economic space for a whole slew of local middle-men, interacting with middle-lobsters, and largely obviating the need for direct contact between the butterphobic lobstoids and incompetent external humanoids. The humanoids in the system have presumably learned to get along with (if not welcome) their lobstoid overlords.

But there seems to be a problem with the OXZ's mechanics, which I'll bring up when I've finished reading the thread.

[RockDoctor]

it could save some unnecessary calculation when it actually matters,

I think I get it: why do the expensive check first when it also has to pass an inexpensive one?

Literally, they teach you this in first-year computing science. As you say, you've learned piecemeal ; it's easy to miss noticing this for a while.
We got taught this using a multiply-recursive algorithm, where we were required to keep track of the number and depth of recursions, and the number of items on the "stack" during the recursion. At the weekly seminar, when results were compared, a factor of around a thousand between the best and worst correct (i.e., gave the same results) implementations of the algorithm in terms of storage used and execution time. Some of the really poor implementations ran out of core - because first years had quota'd access to the mainframe. It can really make a difference. (The next couple of weeks focussed on several different ways of minimising and eliminating recursion - which are also "computer science" topics at a higher level than any programming language.)
At least, they did in the 1980s. At a time when "bondage and discipline" coding was the norm, and this thing called "Object Orientated Programming" was an optional 3rd or 4th year course. I bet "OOP" style compliers differ a lot in their ability to, say, detect recursive code, and optimise it away.
Another thing useful to remember, in deep nests of conditions - if you need a test (value, property) at several points in a set of tests, it can save effort to store it in a locally-scoped variable (so : you can see it in this module, but it doesn't contaminate the wider namespace) the first time (in the stack of test conditions) that you need it, and don't have to calculate it again somewhere else in the test stack. Ideally, you'd not have such a convoluted stack of test conditions, but sometimes that's reality.
Always assuming, of course, that the condition can't change state between incantations to read it's value.

[RockDoctor]

More generally, how do the commie insectoids think of themselves? Insects who happen to be commie - or commies who happen to be insects?

Commies are always commies first, comrade. Communist theory says that anyone who puts any other loyalty ahead of the communist party is "racist".

Not the commies I've worked with. They'd have a serious disagreement with any Trotskyites or Stalinists in the "namespace" (meeting room, election, whatever), but would form a united front with them against the Thatcherites (hawk, spit!). The split between left-wingers and non-humans was more important than minor disagreements over dead theorists. Sometimes it would have been more effective to have had a token right-winger in the room to get the various factions to unite in pursuit of human rights. Understandably, volunteers were thin on the ground. No shortage of right-wing infiltrators, but volunteers to be thrown into the conference hall sacrificial pit ... fewer.

[RockDoctor]

[

If... If... Or... or... Or... Or...

I have considered such things for some time, certainly with regards this oxp and don't want to reveal very much at present.

However, if a system is both insect inhabited and communist then I don't see why both couldn't be represented in some manner.

Some people are conflating "insect" and "social insect" (bees, wasps, termites, ants). Which is a false conflation. Is there something less "communist" than a praying mantis (-oid) which will happily eat members of it's own species, including it's own descendents (they don't have that sort of recognition system, not providing any parental care), once it has extracted the sperm sample it wants from them. The behaviourists term this a "nuptial gift". The economists call it a 100% taxation rate, and by "100%", they really do mean "everything".
The behavioural range in insects may be wider than that in vertebrates.

[RockDoctor]

I seem to have found a bug with Alien.Systems ; can you check it, and see if you can find the fault.
(Given the discussion about variable scoping, I'll hazard a guess that you've got a namespace-clash with another OX(P||Z).)

I've gone round the loop of "install Alien,Systems ; find bug ; remove Alien.Systems.OXZ ; bug disappeared" several times, and the bug comes in and out with Alien.Systems.

The other involved OX(P||Z) is the Email.System in section EQUIPMENT. With that installed and then Alien.Systems added, when you access the email, you get a list of emails over a menu of "next page ... previous page ... open message ... ... ... exit email system".
With Alien.Systems AND Email.System, this page :

• acquires the left, right and centre panels from the HUD (I've seen other crashes where this appears or disappears, indicating a pending crash)
• the menu of options above moves up-screen
• a line "Press Space to Continue, Commander" appears low on the screen
• none of the above menus or commands accept keyboard or mouse input ; the only way out is F4 again, to go back to the F4 screen. (Other "F" keys also go to their respective screens.)

Considering that email is a fairly important tool, losing access to it is also a significant problem.
I have a modest slew (100-odd) other OX(P||Z)s installed, but the bug consistently appears / disappears with Alien.Systems, and I've stripped out most of my normal slew to localise the fault. Obviously, it needs the Email.System to interact with.
There's some ju-ju I've forgotten to getting a (free) Box account to make an image viewable. But the link should work? Been 3 years since I tried this. but the image is at the other end of this link : https://app.box.com/s/29dwjaq64m2mcjuc5yc1j1jfi3y4vbrh
Maybe Relevant
The scoping problem you and Cholmondley were talking about is a ripe place for this sort of conflict, if you've created a global variable that matches name with one from the Email.System, which your OXZ then clobbers. Which is why people recommend schemes where, if you have to make a global variable, to use a name like b(for "boolean")AlnSyst(your expansion's name)MeaningfulDescriptor - the chances of a clash with b(for "boolean")EmailSyst(your expansion's name)MeaningfulDescriptor are reduced to near zero - as long as you and SomeOtherCoder don't release similarly named OX(P||Z)s close in time. It doesn't need strong "bondage and discipline" Administrivia.

There's a similar bug in at least one other "F4 interface" - if you have more than one page of GalCop missions to choose from, sometimes the "HUD" panels disappear, and when you subsequently launch, you've got no HUD. Or indeed, a ReversingUpDisplay. That's definitely an older bug than your OX(P||Z) - Someone Else's Problem - but it suggests that there are conflicts available on F4.
There's a 3rd bug that moves the positioning of the "Press 'p' to un-pause" message around on screen, and i've not found that one's origin either. You're not the first person to encounter such problems. If they're related problems.

[Cholmondely]

form a united front

Fair dibs!

Now... if you could have the Species OXP of your darkest dreams, how would you embellish the insectoid systems? What would you like to find in them? And you need not restrict yourself to just the one template - just as Dictators has two quite distinct flavours (well, not that distinct), Oolite would let you do the same for the insectoids.

And, just to get the creative juices flowing, here are Captain Beatnik's three insectoid species from Riredi (he did a lot of work fleshing out the planet).



Above: Riredian native caste: Timeriver Runner





Above: Riredian native caste: Lightsinger





Above: Riredian native caste Factformer

[RockDoctor]

And v 0.4 is now available with a much more radical addition: restricted system entry

Is the logic of this as-intended? As far as I can tell, this restriction :

• Changes the appropriate links on F6 to display in red (oops - my intermittent red-green colour-blindness alarm has gone off ; it's not my problem, but it is one I've had to include in recruitment interviews ; should be more widely thought about since it affects several percent of users)
• throws an alert if launching into witchspace with the Restricted System as your target, and aborts the witchspace countdown. BUT
• doesn't object if you target a system the "other side" of Restricted System and your ASC chooses to route you through Restricted System

Is this the desired behaviour? I can see arguments both ways. You (the Govt) want a "restriction" to mean something, but what are you protecting against?

• Contraband? Because smugglers are notoriously law-abiding.
• All trade? Because AIUI a "restricted" label is equivalent to saying "we want no taxable, lawful trade, but are not going to object to law-breakers". That's going to have your Customs and Revenue Department twiddling their thumbs.
• $Health Reason$ - which would apply to goods (including contraband) coming in through the ports; people similarly ; ships arriving at witch point, sun-diving, and then jumping out ... less so. Space Active Retconned special COVID (number 2) ("SARsCOVID-2") transmitted by rabid Space Jellies or proselytising Space Serpents is very much a threat that an airlock stops by dint of being, uh, closed.
• Man-Insect Free Love Association Thought Police restrictions : see under "Contraband", above.

I also tried to get around the restriction by forcing a mis-jump on an adjacent route, then re-directing my interstellar-to-system jump towards the system I'm interested in. That didn't work. I haven't tried the ASC workaround on that. Yet - see other problem with Alien.Systems

But I'm wondering what exactly your intent with these restrictions are?

Without interfering with the free transit of Galactic Trade (ASC, star-skimming) what is the intention of the "restriction". In particular, the restriction of entry to the space versus docking in the system (station or planet)? For most of the list of reasons above, and accepting the game limitation that you always arrive close to the Witchpoint, you would better achieve these aims with a strong police presence at the Witchpoint, close monitoring of the Witchpoint-to-Star route ("Do not drop out of torus for more than 30s or you will attract a bounty (increase)!" Is code like that constructable?) and some sort of "Eyam Vinegar Pit Yellow-flag" station for when you have a genuine (or manufactured, for why-ever) plague, but still need to import/ pay for food/ medicine.
If you actually want to make restrictions effective, you need to inject the "hyperdrive abort" signal into both directly-set routes, and ASC-set routes. Which - yes, I can see that being difficult. Invading another OX(P||Z)s parameter space. See previous discussion about local versus global variables.

An alternative : if someone does come in under the "ASC workaround", might be to move the Witchpoint to close-to the star, with heavy police presence ; "refuel and go, attempted docking will be mortal" warnings ... modification of the "Welcome mat" idea?

I was trying gas-giant skimming a few days ago. I blew up. I don't have the Deep Horizons OXP. But a Witchpoint redirect to a gas giant for refuelling, or a gas giant + contactless refuelling station combo ... would also work. Or you could require incoming craft to convoy-up with a carrier (loaded with Naval Asps...) for the Witchpoint-to-Star leg. (My grandfather was on the Murmansk convoys ; he moved as far as possible from the sea when he was demobbed from the Merchant Navy. Being convoyed is not an experience you want to repeat.

But it all goes back to my top-line question - what is the intention of the "restriction"? "Space," as His Holiness Adams of The Dressing Gown once opined, "is big. Really big! ... mind-bogglingly superlatively-defeatingly big ...". Which makes "just passing through" not an issue for biosecurity. Trade, including contraband, requires either "dump & retrieve" or docking. What is the reason?

A subsidiary question - is there any (easy) way to determine how many people use ASC versus don't? The Expansions amanger database could probably give us ASC.oxz downloads versus game downloads. But having spent 2 days multiply downloading a set of OX(P||Z)s while tracking a bug ... that is statistically dodgy.
Occasionally people dump (part of) their LATEST.LOG or save games ... which gives a more ... controlled set of statistics. Is there a good way to

• list such listings ; and
• count the mentions of extensions within them?

[Cholmondely]

I was trying gas-giant skimming a few days ago. I blew up. I don't have the Deep Horizons OXP.

Here you go: https://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/File: ... imming.zip

[RockDoctor]

form a united front

Fair dibs!

Now... if you could have the Species OXP of your darkest dreams, how would you embellish the insectoid systems? What would you like to find in them?

What does "insectoid" mean?
There are a number of ways of dichtomising (dividing into two) the metazoans (multicellular organisms). One is which forms first - the anus or the mouth? Protostomes vs deuterostomes - but I'd have to look up the embryology to check which organisms are in which category. I think vertebrates and echinoids (echinoderms and echinodermata) are deuterostomes, most other things protostomes, and corals and cubozoans are both - because they both use the same orifice as mouth and anus. But I won't go to the gallows for that - I may be rong!
Another dichotomy is between those with a rigid(-ish) exoskeleton and those without such. The "rigid(-ish) exoskeleton" imposes a fairly strict development/ growth sequence of "fatten" (shrinking airfilled cavities) ; ecdysis (split and discard the exoskeleton) ; swell (by inflating airspaces) ; harden new exoskeleton to suit new body ; return to fattening. This life-cycle is typical of the arthropods (insects, cheliciates (spiders, scorpions, eurypterids, up to 2m long!), crustaceans (lobstoids, barnacles), and many "worms" (around a dozen phyla, including the frankly scary looking "little penis worms or Priaprulids). Obviously, the more "investment" in stiffness/ armouring of the exoskeleton, the slower the growth. and there are a lot of demineralisation/ storage/ remineralisation processes around the ecdysis process. Sorry- my inner palaeontologist speaking. But internal skeletons can grow more gradually, but are more prone to external damage ; but exoskeletons force periodic moulting and expansion. That's a fairly fundamental division. It's likely to be interplanetary - because geometry is also interplanetary.
Locally significant variations - on Earth - are unlikely to be as significant in an interplanetary context. On Earth, all "insectoids" (ecdysozoans) with 4 head segments anterior to the mouth collapsed into mandibles, cheliciae, and 2 pairs of manipulatory/ sexual appendages are more closely related (as cheliciates - spiders, scorpions and their big cousins the eurypterids) than they are to any with 3 collapsed segments anterior to the mouth (insects, some "worms"?) ; but in an interplanetary sense, it's implausible that they'd necessarily share traits.
So ... getting back to the question - major dichotomies for classifying species. Radial symmetry versus axial symmetry. (so, closely related vertebrates versus echinoids (urchins and starfish). Ecdysozoan versus internal skeleton (exoskeletons versus internal skeletons).
- Complications of internal plumbing (anus-first or mouth-first? ; blood pipes or heamocoel?) are for the dissecting table, not "first contact".
- Complications of diet (vegetarian, carnivore, omnivore, obligate carnivore) aren't even consistent within one species (interbreeding population) let alone between closely related species. For the prison cell, not "first contact".
- Atmosphere - oxygen-lethal, oxygen-absence-requiring, oxygen-tolerant, oxygen-requiring, oxygen-very-requiring - is only an issue if someone takes their helmet off at the "first contact" table. And external sensors on your suit would tell you when to NOT do that. Either way.
- Fluid-floating or supported against gravity ... again, that'll be fairly obvious on meeting their spaceship environment.
- Radiation sensitivity : in which I include UV. If they're coloured grey/ red/ yellow, it's probably not a good idea to turn on the sunbed lamps in the "first contact" meeting room. Similarly, if their lighting is rich in hard-UV, expecting them to distinguish a red light from a green light is ... optimistic.
- Oh - lizard-oids versus mammal-oids? Essentially, that's a difference between relying on the environment to maintain internal temperature (exo-thermic/ -thermy) or maintaining it with your own biochemistry (endo-thermy, -thermic). This isn't simple. Or terribly important. Big organisms, by virtue of being big, are endothermic and can run into problems of disposing of heat. Small organisms are exothermic to some degree (and their food intake is a BIG clue to this). But ALL space-travelling organisms will modify their environment (spacecraft interior) to suit their comfort zone. So, read and respond.
- Chemistry : for "first contact", provide energy sources (hot plate, "water bath" with variants on "water") and let them bring thier own food. See atmosphere discussion above.

If I were to rank the importance ... symmetry most affects the layout of structures.
Fluid or atmospheric pressure next - affects wall stiffness. Massively affects mass for "water world" habitats.
Temperature range is probably next.
Within reason of corrosion, atmosphere composition is not a big deal - 2 or 3 ganged air locks should buffer between any two. 4 for extreme pressure differences. Forget the "chlorine breathers" - chlorine is an order of magnitude rarer than oxygen.

That's two binaries, and an integer (pressure). Call it an 8-bit word, casting the higher bits for symmetry and fluid, and the rest 2 bits for oxygen content and 2 for pressure range. Don't change pressure rapidly. Less than a factor of 2 per "day" cycle.


On the subject of a "united front" - would "carnivores" collaborate against omni-/ herbivores? - or consider each other as competitors?
I suspect individual variation would be the rule. Within-species and between-species. You and your dog can compete for food, but the dog still manages to persuade you to give them a home.

[RockDoctor]

I was trying gas-giant skimming a few days ago. I blew up. I don't have the Deep Horizons OXP.

Here you go: https://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/File: ... imming.zip

Ah, so the DeepHorizons address in the Wiki is wrong (as well as almost-dead). You have a Wiki-editing key, don't you?

[Cholmondely]

I was trying gas-giant skimming a few days ago. I blew up. I don't have the Deep Horizons OXP.

Here you go: https://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/File: ... imming.zip

Ah, so the DeepHorizons address in the Wiki is wrong (as well as almost-dead). You have a Wiki-editing key, don't you?

It was perfectly fine three and a half years ago. The oxps now saved on the wiki itself will be found on the Deep Horizon page. I've just added the relevant link to the Gas Giant Skimming page.

Cmd Cheyd never finished/published his high-detail system textures, but had several impressive-looking screen shots on his website. It was a nice website. History now, I'm afraid.

[Wildeblood]

Is there something less "communist" than a praying mantis (-oid) which will happily eat members of it's own species, including it's own descendents (they don't have that sort of recognition system, not providing any parental care), once it has extracted the sperm sample it wants from them. The behaviourists term this a "nuptial gift". The economists call it a 100% taxation rate, and by "100%", they really do mean "everything".
The behavioural range in insects may be wider than that in vertebrates.

No, sir! Criticize my insufficiently nuanced understanding of communism all you want, but I will not sit idly by and let you besmirch the reputation of praying mantises! A mantis makes an excellent pet. Trap one in your home and it will find its way to your bathroom or similar, and make itself at home in the corner of the room, where it will cause no inconvenience whatsoever to the vertebrate members of the household. It will diligently scan for other insect life entering the room in search of moisture, and prey upon them, effectively ridding the house of unwanted pests. In particular, the cockroaches that sneak into Aussie homes during Summer, seeking relief from the heat outdoors, find that relief short-lived as they get turned into neat, little piles of six legs, four wings and zero edible bits. To wander into the bathroom of a morning, find such a pile, shoot a glance at the corner of the room to confirm Mr Mantis is on guard for the next intruder, perhaps give him a thumbs-up and a friendly, "Good on you, Mr Mantis," can be quite satisfying.

[Cholmondely]

form a united front

Fair dibs!

Now... if you could have the Species OXP of your darkest dreams, how would you embellish the insectoid systems? What would you like to find in them?

What does "insectoid" mean?
There are a number of ways of dichtomising (dividing into two) the metazoans (multicellular organisms). One is which forms first - the anus or the mouth? Protostomes vs deuterostomes - but I'd have to look up the embryology to check which organisms are in which category. I think vertebrates and echinoids (echinoderms and echinodermata) are deuterostomes, most other things protostomes, and corals and cubozoans are both - because they both use the same orifice as mouth and anus. But I won't go to the gallows for that - I may be rong!
Another dichotomy is between those with a rigid(-ish) exoskeleton and those without such. The "rigid(-ish) exoskeleton" imposes a fairly strict development/ growth sequence of "fatten" (shrinking airfilled cavities) ; ecdysis (split and discard the exoskeleton) ; swell (by inflating airspaces) ; harden new exoskeleton to suit new body ; return to fattening. This life-cycle is typical of the arthropods (insects, cheliciates (spiders, scorpions, eurypterids, up to 2m long!), crustaceans (lobstoids, barnacles), and many "worms" (around a dozen phyla, including the frankly scary looking "little penis worms or Priaprulids). Obviously, the more "investment" in stiffness/ armouring of the exoskeleton, the slower the growth. and there are a lot of demineralisation/ storage/ remineralisation processes around the ecdysis process. Sorry- my inner palaeontologist speaking. But internal skeletons can grow more gradually, but are more prone to external damage ; but exoskeletons force periodic moulting and expansion. That's a fairly fundamental division. It's likely to be interplanetary - because geometry is also interplanetary.
Locally significant variations - on Earth - are unlikely to be as significant in an interplanetary context. On Earth, all "insectoids" (ecdysozoans) with 4 head segments anterior to the mouth collapsed into mandibles, cheliciae, and 2 pairs of manipulatory/ sexual appendages are more closely related (as cheliciates - spiders, scorpions and their big cousins the eurypterids) than they are to any with 3 collapsed segments anterior to the mouth (insects, some "worms"?) ; but in an interplanetary sense, it's implausible that they'd necessarily share traits.
So ... getting back to the question - major dichotomies for classifying species. Radial symmetry versus axial symmetry. (so, closely related vertebrates versus echinoids (urchins and starfish). Ecdysozoan versus internal skeleton (exoskeletons versus internal skeletons).
- Complications of internal plumbing (anus-first or mouth-first? ; blood pipes or heamocoel?) are for the dissecting table, not "first contact".
- Complications of diet (vegetarian, carnivore, omnivore, obligate carnivore) aren't even consistent within one species (interbreeding population) let alone between closely related species. For the prison cell, not "first contact".
- Atmosphere - oxygen-lethal, oxygen-absence-requiring, oxygen-tolerant, oxygen-requiring, oxygen-very-requiring - is only an issue if someone takes their helmet off at the "first contact" table. And external sensors on your suit would tell you when to NOT do that. Either way.
- Fluid-floating or supported against gravity ... again, that'll be fairly obvious on meeting their spaceship environment.
- Radiation sensitivity : in which I include UV. If they're coloured grey/ red/ yellow, it's probably not a good idea to turn on the sunbed lamps in the "first contact" meeting room. Similarly, if their lighting is rich in hard-UV, expecting them to distinguish a red light from a green light is ... optimistic.
- Oh - lizard-oids versus mammal-oids? Essentially, that's a difference between relying on the environment to maintain internal temperature (exo-thermic/ -thermy) or maintaining it with your own biochemistry (endo-thermy, -thermic). This isn't simple. Or terribly important. Big organisms, by virtue of being big, are endothermic and can run into problems of disposing of heat. Small organisms are exothermic to some degree (and their food intake is a BIG clue to this). But ALL space-travelling organisms will modify their environment (spacecraft interior) to suit their comfort zone. So, read and respond.
- Chemistry : for "first contact", provide energy sources (hot plate, "water bath" with variants on "water") and let them bring thier own food. See atmosphere discussion above.

If I were to rank the importance ... symmetry most affects the layout of structures.
Fluid or atmospheric pressure next - affects wall stiffness. Massively affects mass for "water world" habitats.
Temperature range is probably next.
Within reason of corrosion, atmosphere composition is not a big deal - 2 or 3 ganged air locks should buffer between any two. 4 for extreme pressure differences. Forget the "chlorine breathers" - chlorine is an order of magnitude rarer than oxygen.

That's two binaries, and an integer (pressure). Call it an 8-bit word, casting the higher bits for symmetry and fluid, and the rest 2 bits for oxygen content and 2 for pressure range. Don't change pressure rapidly. Less than a factor of 2 per "day" cycle.


On the subject of a "united front" - would "carnivores" collaborate against omni-/ herbivores? - or consider each other as competitors?
I suspect individual variation would be the rule. Within-species and between-species. You and your dog can compete for food, but the dog still manages to persuade you to give them a home.

Wonderful! Exhilarating!! Fascinating!!!

But what about the OXP?