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I drew a mockup of a pattern I think would look nice. I based it off of fish, which is why the glowing color is blue. Nice idea btw!

Alternatively to a horn slot it could be instead of a mane.

The Peacock Tail gets a more peacock like texture soon ^^

Hello, I think it would be a nice think to add an option to change the name of savefiles after they were created. I often end up with 3 or more savefiles that are titled ''New game'' or weird stuff like ''agkhlsderflz'' (I know very good name huh) when I create new saves to test things out. Then I realize I like playing with those saves but am unable to change for a better name. I guess it would be a helpfull adition for people that are bad at naming like I am. Aditionally, maybe a random savefile name generator could be nice to help the naming too! That's my suggestions, thank you for reading!

A bug is that you can place parts outside of the soi of the part you are pacing it on if you hit test flight or save and exit with the part being dragged.

Relatively few of them, mind; not everybody will like this. But autonomous challenges would be nice. Perhaps a specific arena that randomly generates missions of a particular type for autonomous runs, with hunt/kill, collection, mining, etc challenges available.

While the male/female binary is rather common among mammals, Nichelings are not exactly mammals, right? Especially now that they could have amphibian, avian and even arthropoid features! Just like there is an mind-boggingly large number of lifeforms, there are dozens of ways sexes can work. There are fish that change sexes when there are not enough individuals of a certain sex, tapeworms that are male in young modules and female in older modules (or was it the other way around?), a wide range of hermaphroditic lifestyles, especially among plants and gastropods, and fungi with literally thousands of sexes. The diversity in sexes is ruefully underfeatured in Niche. (This moon wrasse is a protogynous sequential hermaphrodite. Image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequential_hermaphroditism#/media/File:Thalassoma_lunare_1.jpg) So, I suggest a new gene slot for sexes, with these genes: Binary: As it is now. This individual can be either male or female its whole life. Sequential: This individual changes its sex at one point in their life. Perhaps the halfway point? Or a random point? Or due to external factors, such as hunger? For the devs to decide. Could be seperated into protandry (male at first), protogyny (female at first), and bidirectional (either). Parthenogenetic: Female only. Reproduces asexually, that is, produces clones of itself. Might work better as a rare fertility gene. Hermaphroditic: A new sex . Can reproduce with anyone, excluding infertile individuals. Can also impregnate itself, which is not recommended. Scientifically called "simultanous hermaphrodity", but that's a bit long. Trinary: Can be either male, female, or hermaphroditic, with the latter being rarer than the former two. Perhaps a 40:40:20 ratio? Gynomonoecious: Can be either female or hermaphroditic. Andromonoecious: Can be either male or hermaphroditic. So, what do you think?

I blocked some spambots, but i can't do much more than blocking for now. If a new bot appears please report a post from the bot, a single report per bot is sufficient to bring it to our attention. Thank you!

Yeah in case you want to have your file name reflect what the tribe winds up doing/being.

Honestly... I agree. It would only make sense considering that anything else that attacks the pup insta-kills it. however there has to be some kind of safety on this kind of thing: I can only imagine the horror as players accidentally kill off their newborns after this goes up. Mayhaps one can only do this action on an omega, for example. And the button be a different color... maybe with a warning/confirmation window too. and two players have to turn the keys simulta-ok I'm done

I think that like cats and dogs in real life, Nichelings should be able to hold their kits in their mouths. The baby could be carried as soon as it is born, and can be carried up until two gems. Maybe also big bodied or large bodied creatures could carry lean bodied creatures like how in the wild sometimes animals will carry the weaker members of their packs or family. It would really help out when you have this one baby that runs out of energy before making it to the port, and you can just pick them up and leave the island. It would also make it easier so that the blue birds couldn't reach the baby. - Niches can only carry their babies till 2 gems! - Babies that are carried up until two gems will not grow, and the child may take slight damage due to not being able to grow. They will be dropped onto available tiles next to the mother, if none than baby will stop growing until put down. - You CANNOT do anything besides walking when holding a kit in its mouth. - Rare chance that a bluebird may still attack a scruff carried nicheling, however parent can fight back.

my idea here is to create one block/a set of block that will have the option to link on more than one block to have stronger connection like the way we used to connect to other block but add the link symbol when click to have a visual on what block u have linked i thought about having the possibilities to have 4 connection point on those block

Hey I was thinking about a Body Type that would overwrite the colors of a creature like Toxic Body does, but instead of standing out with intimidating warning colors, it would help the Nichelings to blend in perfectly with their enviroment: the Chameleon Body A chameleon changes his colors based on what they see to blend in so I suggest the colors would change depending on what biom-tile they are standing on. The pattern would still be the same (a spotted one would still be spotted, a striped striped...) but also change in color depending on the biom. I made a picture for illustration 5 times the same nicheling in different enviroments (I forgot the beach and the water but you hopefully get what I mean) I'd like if the body could be made to look slightly scaly instead of fluffy ^-^ It would give a lot of camouflage but has next to no other benefits, maybe heat resistance +1 or 2 but cold resistance -1 or 2 if anything Let me know what you think

For a mining ship, it'd be nice to be able to have a weapon that is specialized for safe use around ore; -damage, +digging, 0 damage to ore. That, plus the fact that it occupies an upgrade slot, should keep it a useful but very specialized upgrade.

Hi folks! Quite a lot of people asked if it is possible to get a key for the Closed Alpha, so we decided to run a give away Leave a comment here for a chance to win a Steam key for the Nimbatus Closed Alpha. This give away will be open for a while. We will draw a new winner every week (The winners of the first 3 keys have been announced)

I'd like to see the ability to made modular pieces that can couple and decouple. This would enable devices like deployable parts that can be swapped out - you could detach a mining rig to go into combat, then re-equip it to continue the mission, as an example.

I would like to see detectors gain an 'angle' setting. This setting, for balance, should also reduce the maximum range. As a starting point to experiment with, I'd suggest 25% max range for a 360-degree detector, with a linear scale up to 100% range for a 0-degree detector. (Current behavior.) Alternately, a tech tree with upgrades for more parts than weapons could take care of this. EDIT: In addition, I'd like to see checkboxes for what they can detect. Self parts, mothership/deposit container, terrain, enemies, ore. If you want to be REALLY nice, a separate output for each detection event, so that one detector can be used to control many complex behaviors.

A block that acts as the cursor for the gravity sensor. It'd be in another mode and set to specific tags. You could use this to build automated resource collection drones, just drop off one of these babies in the resource collector, and you could automate around the fact that it knows where the resource bin is. You could also use it for other purposes, like building satellites that follow your drone about from above.

So much depends on a hinge's orientation. They're usually controlling really important things - only important things care about facing. Weapons, thrusters, detectors. I would LOVE for a hinge to output it's user-configured name and its angle as an output. (Gun5 hinge 270.) Include a tolerance so that if my tolerance is five, it outputs Gun5 hinge 265 through Gun5 hinge 275. Hinges, detectors to output exact distance, engines for their specific thrust settings, a lot of blocks with adjustable settings can use this, and it will enable some "If greater then/if less than" logic.

I think that it would be cool for a spit head (Squid Beak?) that could stun an enemy for a day. I would probably have a cool-down on so you can't spam it on apes or killer bearynas (unless it's along the lines of being an ancient gene, which would make it hard to get). The stunned enemies wouldn't attack and wouldn't move, even when being attacked themselves. It would also give your nichelings an opportunity to flee from an ape or a rogue male.

@cinnacatYep To all people: My faw animal in niche is walrusdeer Tell your favourites!

Don't forget Ramfoxes! and walrusdeer of course ram and foxes combined together actually make a pretty cute creature also its taken me so long to figure out what the other half of the bearyena is! its a bear/hyena, right?

We already have that sugggestion here: Drop your votes there

I found this issue in the demo.

They have said they are not gonna ad mod support.

This could also work well with the Cave biome idea, as a constant light source.

Took 10 minutes to load, but cool!

Yeee I want those caracal tufts! also maybe a tail-tuft for the large mane since lions and lionesses have those as well?

Man I would LOVE a good underwater adventure to send my little tiger sharks into! Pufferfish could also be interesting as a poisonous food source.

I really appreciate that the derp-snout now adds distasteful appearance (eew that one's all lumpy!)

I agree on more interesting underwater areas and stuff. I would personally be in favor of an underwater biome with both underwater prey and predators so your nichelings spend 90% of their time down there, and maybe a small land tile with sand or something, just to help avoid situations where you get super unlucky and a baby without gills is born underwater, lol.

Maybe we could have moles, but they would act a bit more like rabbils, since you're underground? Also, for the cave predator, maybe it could be a blind spider/lizard creature?

Yes it would require some rework to do this. Currently only weapons are designed to have upgrades. But if this feature is popular we could implement it in a future update.

My solution to building very large, stable drones, is the idea of building a frame or a chassis. The chassis would be constructed on a second layer that doesn't collide with, but can be connected to, the layer we use now. Chassis blocks would be large and unwieldy, requiring good design to use well, but you should be able to connect to any part of a chassis block. (Rather than only X distance from the center, a long block can be used to anchor a long ship.) These chassis blocks would be a structural weak point as anything damaging them would also deal somewhat reduced damage to every block connected to that chassis piece, based on proximity to the hit. (So if you built your drone around a single chassis piece, a hit to the chassis could damage every part of your ship at once.) If a chassis part is destroyed, every part attached to it should be destroyed. The advantage in them would be that any adjacent chassis parts would be treated as a single block for the purposes of physics. The core should be a chassis part. The result would be that players would have a set of tools that aren't mandatory (except the core, as it is now,) that could provide a very rigid frame for a large drone. Parts can be anchored to this rigid frame for solid construction, but the frame blocks are large, and the player will be constrained in design to build around the blocks. In addition, he'll have to protect them, because damage to them is a serious problem for the entire ship. In addition, if a chassis block is broken, it could separate chassis parts, breaking a ship's back, and it's rigidity; the chassis itself could become a liability. I realize that this is a somewhat ambitious suggestion, but I think it's a solid solution to permitting rigid ships that doesn't rely on multi-connections. If the hierarchical structure of connections is definitely needed to keep physics straight, then this may be a solution.

This goes back to my idea of being able to 'pair' blocks that would sense each other's direction and/or distance. This is a better idea, but I would want to be able to use more than one; we should be able to name them, and use that name as a variable to determine what the directional sensor seeks.

Psst~ Great minds think alike The closed mouth of yours is really cute, way cuter than mine, but I still have a soft spot for a stongue-out Yoshi-style lol

(With my apologies for putting five ideas in one request, but they all interact, so separating them makes them all more confusing) I realize that Nimbatus is a drone-building game, and the focus is on the drone mechanics, but I think there are a few opportunities to improve the exploration aspects of the game, without detracting significantly from the construction. Travel between planets could take actual wall-clock time, presented as a countdown before the "Launch" button will function, but still allowing drone construction. For short trips, this could be on the order of seconds, so the player won't even notice in the time it takes to select a drone. For cross-galaxy trips, expect a good several minutes of waiting... perhaps a good time to build a new drone or upgrade your tech tree. Trips crossing the galactic core or between arms could require spending resources, with longer trips requiring more resources. That would keep resources useful once the tech tree is fully purchased. Destroying a transmitter would occasionally result in a transmission being intercepted from a random planet, making it immediately available for travel. Different regions of the galaxy would have different characteristics. While one area might be high in a particular resource, another would be scarce. This wouldn't necessarily affect any individual planet, but a large area. From the galaxy view, map overlays could show where different resources are most prevalent. These features would also encourage tech upgrades for the Nimbatus mothership itself, rather than just the drone tech. Propulsion improvements could reduce travel time. Cargo improvements could unlock drone collections. Sensor upgrades would show more of the planet (essentially zooming out the view) or enable minimap features,. Manufacturing upgrades would unlock new types of parts that wouldn't be strictly necessary for missions, but would support new drone designs. Unless I'm mistaken (and please comment if I am), the overall effects on gameplay would be: More technology options for longer gameplay An incentive to travel longer distances (better chances for resources) An incentive to not travel long distances (avoiding the time delay) An opportunity to explore new areas faster (intercepted transmissions) A reason to replay previously-explored planets (new drone parts allowing new designs) An incentive to find and destroy transmitters when that isn't the planet's mission Changing game tactics toward the later game (as more of the planet can be seen, more mission precision is possible) Whole classes of drone designs become in-game upgrades, so full-featured drones can't be built from the first mission.

Oh, there are more important things; I'm not suggesting it needs priority, just that it should exist one day.

I'd like to see hinges operate similarly to the adjustable engines. I would like to be able to set a rotation speed for both CW and CCW rotation, separately, because scanners and thruster rotation and the like can benefit from slower rotation in one direction than the other, and impulse givers can result in some hinged parts shaking themselves to death. EDIT: It would also be nice to have angle limits, a range within the hinge will operate, so that doors or grabbers can't over-deploy and destroy themselves. It would also be really really nice to have at least one set angle that you could rotate them to with a single input; for instance, I had a ship that used vectored thrust, via thrusters mounted on motorized hinges. These, and the legged drones with thruster-anchored feet, would have really benefitted from an input that would rotate their facing to straight down.

I present to you, The Party Machine! It is an over 700 part drone with LED Grids and loads of logic. It displays images and also used firework rockets to make you party the best! Here are some GIFS: It also can attack using plasma weapons I really do hope that I have a chance at winning this game! Happy Space Flying ! - Gamma Warrior

1. Typing anything overwrites the name instead of appending 2. 16 character long names bounce up and down when being edited

I prefer it overwriting the existing name, but having the option to append by maybe clicking the name again would be nice (maybe keep undo, Ctrl+Z, active in case someone accidentally overwrites a name they wanted to append) or maybe a Cancel button next to the Pencil icon.

Sorry! I fell out of the forum for a while. I don't still have it, as the old saves don't work. I can tell you how I made it, though. I put thrusters and an orientation sensor on a hinge. I used an impulse giver and some AND logic so that the hinge's rotation turned half as fast - that's why it's hurky jerky, the hinge is on-off-on-off in half-second increments. The sensor is downward-facing when the craft is level. If it gets close to the ground, it turns the thrusters counter-clockwise at full speed - this boosts that part of the craft upwards. Then the thrusters level off more slowly. The logic required is that the impulse giver gives an output of (for example) A, the orientation sensor gives an output of either B and C on the left sensor. If B AND the impulse are active, turn the left hinge one way - if C AND the impulse are active, turn it the other. If the Directional sensor is tripped, activate the hinge directly. Same setup for the right thruster. If I recall, they are independent in this example.

AFAIK this is a known issue. But please keep reporting any problems and bugs you find, thanks!

My idea for its appearance would look something like this: (sorry about any blurriness, for some reason my phone refused to focus unless I tilted it just the right way, and then give me only a second to take the picture) Also, the reason that the head is so short is due to the pictures of spitting cobra heads I found on Google.

IMHO forced timesinks for traveling are not commiting to the 'fun'-part of the game, but may well be an option if one can reduce the 'cross galaxy travel time' from a "few minutes" to a "few seconds" with upgrades. But i like the general idea about an upgradable core! Transmitters giving the possibility to travel in a random part of the galaxy sounds interesting. And yes, the map needs some sort of overlay to remember where all the planets with good resources are located.

Wow! Good thinking! I hope this gets added in soon.. It would be great to have another bird on the prowl! But smarter and.. much better than a.. bluebird stupid bluebirds

I had one who I just left in a tree and renamed him tree-hugger.

No volcanic islands currently exist in the game, but one was featured on the Niche kickstarter page, so I would like to suggest how I think a volcanic island would work. A volcanic island would be a hot, tropical island rimmed by vegetation. It would range in difficulty from Medium to Killer, and would present some of the greatest challenges in the game. It would have its own prey, predators and genes, and would progress through phases like the First Snow, Summer Mountains, Long Winter and Frost Lands islands. Phase One the volcano is dormant Phase Two the volcano begins to rumble and spew ash Phase Three the ash begins to pile and can be cleared like snow Phase Four the volcano erupts Phase Five lava begins to flow from the volcano's summit, and will progress down the island at the rate of one tile per day Phase Six the lava stops and the volcano goes dormant again Lava would be avoided by moving around it, to higher ground, or through water. If the lava touches any vegetation, it would start a wildfire. Moving nichelings through lava would damage them, but leaving them in lava would kill them. All animals would flee from lava.

Exit to the main menu before closing the game out; I think that's the only time it saves at this alpha stage. I worked on pistons a bit, too, but for a different use; I wanted to make it as part of a walker. Limited success. Changes to the impulse block are supposed to be considered, which will make sequencing and thus complex behavior like walkers easier. The closest I got to a tread was a giant ring, using the drone brain and some mass blocks as an internal weight to roll the entire craft, interlacing some blocks so that an unconnected segment held together. You might try something with springs captured in angle blocks, but your tread will be very heavy and I think any tread will be prone to stretching and slipping off its drive gear. Also, treads can be broken, so chains of parts may not be the most robust build for them. I think i'd prefer to have 'tread blocks' that, like motorized hinges, have controls to rotate forward and backwards, and are linked as a group. Draw a line stretched between all tread blocks in this group that provide a CW or CCW force. Dealer's choice as to how much work the devs want to put in making sure the treat can't be penetrated - I'd be happy putting some mass blocks (give us some lightweight mass blocks?) behind the tread to make sure stuff doesn't pass through, but if it can resist terrain and enemies passing through it, that'd be nice, too.