FAQ

***This page is heavily outdated and should not be  used as a reference for how the current game version works***

This FAQ is for v0.42

```
Index:

```

```
What are virgin bibites?

```

```
How to get past gen 1?

```

```
How to stop lag?

```

```
How to save/export & import a bibite?

```

```
How to make islands?

```

```
How to avoid the void?

```

```
Shortcut keys

```

Q. I have a problem/bug/error

A. Post full system specs including OS (Mac/Windows/Linux[& distro]) with a full description of what you're trying to do: reddit.com/r/theBibites

Q. What are virgin bibites?

A. Because any bibite similation has to start with something, either by importing bibites from a save file or by natural spawns, you'd typically start a simulation by having bibites randomly spawn in. This is why eggs will spontaneously appear out of thin air. These are virgin birth bibites; they have no parents. By default the birthed bibites will have their appearance & genes matching the genes tab (3rd in the pre-sim settings). They will spawn in with random brain functions. Due to the inherent nature of random brain connections, most of the time virgin bibites will be useless & die almost immediately. For example they'll swim backwards, swim in circles, ignore food, or they simply won't move at all. Due to the randomness, after any length of time (but usually a few hours), a virgin bibite will spawn in that by pure chance has the needed brain functions to survive until maturity. Upon reaching maturity it will lay eggs which will hatch into generation 2. The children will usually inherit similar genes & brain functions of the parent; so if a parent survives long enough to reproduce, typically its children will survive too. By default there are some small changes across generations; so the gen 2 bibites will be slightly different from the parent. Some will be less effective than the parent at survival; some may be more effective.

Q. How to get past gen 1?

A. There's no single answer. For beginners, it can seem difficult to get a stable species running due to the nature of randomly spawning virgin bibites. While it can happen within minutes of starting a new sim, typically it takes several hours with the default sim settings. You can reduce the average time taken by increasing the sim size (for example from 1500u to 3000u), but bear in mind once you do get a stable population of bibites in a 3000u sim, it can start to lag very quickly.

You can also speed up the rate at which your sim develops a stable population by increasing the runspeed of the simulation up to a maximum of 11x speed. But bear in mind that at higher speeds, the physics become less accurate. The typical recommendation is to not run a sim higher than about 5x speed if you're attempting to get a stable species.

You can also run multiple simulations at the same time. You can do this by right clicking (Windows) the bibites icon on the taskbar, and clicking the application again. This will open a 2nd instance. Keep an eye on your task manager if you do run multiple simulations as this can quickly overwhelm your CPU.

One method to very quickly produce a stable population of bibites that reach maturity & lay eggs is to run 7 or more 3000u size simulations at the same time. Increase runspeed of all sims to around 5x. Wait 1 to 3 hours real time, then check all sims. It's very likely there would have been a population explosion in at least one of them. Save some of those bibites, close all sims, and start a new, smaller sim and import your saved bibites.

Side note, increasing the cap of virgin bibites spawns does not always result in a faster production of a stable population. This is because the higher the number of virgin bibites, the more likely for a random virgin bibite to bump into & kill your emerging species of stable bibites.

If all else fails, feel free to use an existing bibite. The following have been carefully selected to ensure they're able to survive the default settings:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/buzcognebpzo9wn/AACTuWurmpQ2BEh93DP0b1BZa?dl=0

Or download from the community shared content:

https://github.com/TheBibites/Bibites\_Shared\_Content/tree/main/Version\_0.4.2/Bibites

Q. How to stop lag?

A. If your sim is lagging (running lower than 60 fps), the easiest way to reduce lag is to save some of the bibites, and import them into a new, smaller sim. There are other settings you can change to reduce lag, for example enable pellet merging, and turn off the visuals for pheromones.

Q. How to save/export & import a bibite?

A. To export, click a bibite, optionally change its name tag, then click save.

A. To import, make sure you have a running sim (paused if you like), and click the icon on the lower-left corner of the screen. Navigate to your saved bibite file.

Q. How to make islands?

A. It's a bad idea (read why below) but here's how: This is for the most part controlled by pellet spawn number factor, pellet spawn number power, and pellet spawn size factor. You can get islands fairly reliably with these settings:

Pellet spawn number factor: 0.3

Pellet spawn number power: 2.1

Pellet spawn size factor: 0.4

Pellet spawner drift power: -3.00 (although not essential, lowering this keeps your islands separate)

Once you start the sim, you may need to press [esc] and click restart a few times until you're happy with the island placement.

Islands are a bad idea because of how pellets spawn randomly until the sim biomass is full. For example if a very successful bibite species dominates one island, eating all the pellets, the species may die out due to lack of even pellet distribution to the island that has had the most pellets consumed.

The better solution is to run multiple sims at the same time, and after say 100 hours of evolution, export some bibites from each sim then import them into a single sim to have them compete against one another.

Q. How to avoid the void?

A. With time, and usually a fair number of generations. While it's trivial to enable the 'cheat' setting, this setting almost never works, and it's better to allow bibites to develop their own void avoidance technique on their own. You'll end up with better bibites in the long run.

Q. Shortcut keys

A. See: https://the-bibites.fandom.com/wiki/Key\_Bindings