mhiahia

I don't think they necessarily understand intelligence, but I imagine a female nicheling would certainly note that the rogue male has survived despite his physical limitations, therefore indicating capability of surviving, which would then be passed on to the offspring. Another part playing into this could be the factor of breeding outside the tribe, which would widen the range of genes and in real-life would also be healthier. In real-life, there would certainly be some children between wanderers and rogues, but they would have very bad chances for survival. There is also certainly a very high selection of wanderers - I doubt they have a very high life expectancy, since certain ones even go so far as to drown themselves in order to get food. As for the general behaviour, I think that Nichelings are in general highly social animals. The tribe system must raise their chance of survival significantly. As with other animals with similar social systems, the advantages of working together are probably the following: Instead of wandering tribe nichelings can set up a camp which grants safety from predators, food can be stored and more easily foraged, predators are less likely to kill you, hunting and defending is easier when you have backup, tasks like taking care of your young can be taken care of by multiple individuals, etc. A nicheling will most likely not take care of its offspring on its own. Instead, the tribe will help take care of the cubs (real-life examples are rats, who raise their babies together). Now, if nichelings have an understanding of who they've mated with, females would be better of if they mate with multiple males (maybe even fake mating) so that these males would then have an interest in providing for the baby. Thus, mating with a rogue male wouldn't be a mistake and instead more of a gamble - the resulting cub might be more cunning/smart which would lead to your genes being passed on. This, of course, only fits nichelings living in this particular social system, since they are also capable of mating for life and raising cubs as pairs.

We all know how rogue males work in-game. But what if we try and look at them in a more realistic way instead of a game mechanic? Rogue Males should objectively not exist. A tribe animal with the exact same set of genes would be unable to feed itself and quickly starve to death- so how come that rogue males are capable of surviving on their own? Yes, some of them are strong enough to hunt, but their lifespan doesn't differ from those that can't. This also brings up another question: Rogue males are never targeted by bearyenas or other predators. Despite being on their own, they have no problem with evading a premature death. In fact, rogue males are quite possibly extremely well-fed, since they spend most of their time in the search of potential mates. So what is the survival tactic the rogue males use? What allows them to flourish in such a dangerous environment? Easy - it is intelligence. Not only have they found a way to secure a constant food reserve, they can apparently evade predators altogether. This would also explain how they are so succesful when it comes to females - they are simply a good match because of their over-average intelligence. How is this intelligence formed? Two traits that all rogue males share are the crippled paws and the derp snout. As many have already mentioned, the derp snout gene is simply a disfigurement of other snouts - possibly generated by a mutation. This mutated gene could maybe lead to a bigger, better brain. The crippled paws could possibly also have an impact on intelligence, and I believe that rogue males have better fine motor skills than the average nicheling. This theory was crafted by the Realistic Approach to Niche Gang, featuring me and only me. Please tell me what you think about it.

Could you try and change the function of the keys? So that they don't set your computer to sleep or something?

Sure! I'll be a biologist and something else, whatever is needed.

So I bred this little guy and he checks all the requirements, but for some reason the achievement didn't get unlocked. Twenty or so minutes ago I unlocked the Erose achievement in the same save, so what's wrong?

We all know that feeling when you feel like drawing, but you don't want to create an entire background as well - or sometimes you want to draw a background but you have no use for it. So I thought that people could share their backgrounds here and others can use them (with credit to the artist, of course) or if someone is in need of a background, they can ask if someone has what they need.

Kinda like this, just less weird:

Yeah, the head-shape look very weird. The teeth look fine either way, I think both ways have their perks. The side mane looks good, but I'd add some more on top - the in-game models don't have just one row of hair on top. (He kinda lookes like Elvis from the side-) So what I'm saying is that the mane on top should maybe have some more floof added.

I'm bisexual, leaning into the two and more part of bisexuality. I know that you could call that pan, but I like bi more. Also, I'm generally not attracted to traditional masculinity (y'know, that macho stuff) no matter the gender, which is why I tend to like girls the most.

Oh, that makes me so much more comfortable with them. I'll be using that wording and mindset from now, thanks. (I had one tribe who believed rogue males were gods since they survived without being able to feed, so having a rogue child was an honour).

Tbh thinking about them in a..roleplay way is disturbing. As a gameplay mechanic I can tolerate them.

I took the test like four (?) times already and I always either get intj or entj, apparently depending on how social I am feeling.

Click on this button: And then on this one:

Wow, he's gorgeous. Did he get to have cubs? My favorite boy never got the chance to have some. Also, your art is great, hopefully we'll get to see more of it!

So I know that I'm overly late to the party but I just downloaded the slot2 save. Gave every animal a number and rolled to see how many will survive the coming purges (5). Rolled again, got four different numbers and one twice, so the animal with that number will be the new ruler/tyrant. Funnily enough it is number 5 which means that I've rolled that three times already.

Yesssss finally.

I still think about this everyday.

Yess, my favorite exiled princess.

This sounds fun, here: 466953049

Babuuus! And Sinsicle and Halfglance will have an only-child this is so precious. Not to mention the three half-floos that are going to grace this world with their presence.

He's the prettiest boii.

Noice. How do you figure out the amount of cubs?

UWU, cwute babwies.

I know, but in my defense I corrected it pretty fast. You just quoted me faster than expected.

I'm his owner so sure, why not. Cute Babies.