I was specifically commenting on a stable orbit place with no real tidal forces... also through in the possibility of sufficiently bored aliens with enough free resources to heavily terraform/move planets to settle a bet. The point was to set up an example society based on the given parameters. I find early on that fleshing out the basic outline of the story/culture is more useful than the debate on how the planets effect each other than anything plot wise.
That said you could pull off an algae mat by have the rivers end in a crater bay... and/or have water only cover thirty odd percent of the surface area. The point is to keep them on a semi-pangaea and have outlying lands to have the ferrymen live on. The rivers dump organic waste and garbage into the sea and the food source... which causes plants to congregate, then stuff that eats the plants and stuff that eats them. the plant eaters have guys use the 'eat till I'm too big for anyone not tool user to even consider eating' method. Making ZOMG ginormous things... they were air breathes just so you can see them from shore. Basically world building on notes from the marketing department. You couldn't have kelp beds and a solid mass of algae anyway. Unless the kelps are low/no light types.
I tend to make large posts (read multi page) that people take a few ideas from. Math and hardish science is great and all, but its rather limited to the early stages of a story with a generic plot. You know unless your writing to show off the spiffy new languages you just made up. With such a generalist plot you need something that will grab attention. Byplay or interesting cultural set up are two methods of doing... of course that can lead to the average fanfic of your work being better than your work or writing pages of bard 'songs' with a complete lack of music in the middle of a battle.
Don't get too caught up in the Science! of the outline of a story... or you could end up getting so caught up with the detail work of the icing on the cake... and end up with the world's most ant approved table cloth and a lack of actual cake.
That said you could pull off an algae mat by have the rivers end in a crater bay... and/or have water only cover thirty odd percent of the surface area. The point is to keep them on a semi-pangaea and have outlying lands to have the ferrymen live on. The rivers dump organic waste and garbage into the sea and the food source... which causes plants to congregate, then stuff that eats the plants and stuff that eats them. the plant eaters have guys use the 'eat till I'm too big for anyone not tool user to even consider eating' method. Making ZOMG ginormous things... they were air breathes just so you can see them from shore. Basically world building on notes from the marketing department. You couldn't have kelp beds and a solid mass of algae anyway. Unless the kelps are low/no light types.
I tend to make large posts (read multi page) that people take a few ideas from. Math and hardish science is great and all, but its rather limited to the early stages of a story with a generic plot. You know unless your writing to show off the spiffy new languages you just made up. With such a generalist plot you need something that will grab attention. Byplay or interesting cultural set up are two methods of doing... of course that can lead to the average fanfic of your work being better than your work or writing pages of bard 'songs' with a complete lack of music in the middle of a battle.
Don't get too caught up in the Science! of the outline of a story... or you could end up getting so caught up with the detail work of the icing on the cake... and end up with the world's most ant approved table cloth and a lack of actual cake.