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Asterai

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Everything posted by Asterai

  1. The sound of crackling flames and the smell of smoke are pretty alarming to most wild animals. This should be reflected in the game by flames that show red to both senses.
  2. Giving hearing mode and smell mode different visual filters would make it impossible to mistake one for the other. This is most important for newer players, who are most likely to mistake the modes, but would improve the experience of advanced players too (my fingers have slid a key over on accident more than once). In addition, different filters could add a degree of flavoring to the different senses. A very simple way to achieve this would be to give smell a sepia tone filter while retaining the grayscale filter of hearing. Some other ideas: - Add a blur effect to the colored glows of smell mode; it's not a good sense for precise location at a distance. - Leave tribe nichelings in color in both or either modes. They are recognized and known to every sense.
  3. Proposed creature: Mimicpus, a camouflaged underwater opportunist. The mimicpus can transform to look like several kinds of static underwater props. Clams, coconuts, and alga are all reasonable targets for its mimicry in the current game. While they're difficult but possible to distinguish using vision (and sometimes in inappropriate locations), smell reveals them to be impostors. When schools of fish pass the camouflaged mimicpus, it will attack them and grab a fish, thereby revealing itself. It will spend a few actions "eating" the fish before it repositions and camouflages itself again. It will not attempt to catch razorania nor goldleeches as they are dangerous enough to fight back, and will not camouflage while any creature is adjacent to it. The mimicpus won't actively seek out fish nor spontaneously attack nichelings. However, if a nicheling tries to "gather" from it, it will deal 1 damage to that nicheling, apply the poison debuff, and flee in its undisguised form. Mimicpus has 2-3 health and can be attacked if it is undisguised or if a nicheling can smell it (small disincentive for losing sense of smell with gill and platypus heads). If attacked outright, it tries to flee. It is immune to the poisoned condition.
  4. As others have said, -2 vision is pretty onerous unless nichelings can navigate by other senses. As things stand that would mean a completely wasted day. And actually... in a thunderstorm, you're safer when you're NEAR a tree. You're in the most danger when you're part of the shortest path between the sky and the ground. There could be penalties for standing out in the open, perching on trees and stumps, and/or being at higher elevations than your surroundings, but you should actually benefit from being UNDER a tree's branches. Hail is a bit rough, but perhaps a fair portrayal of truly harsh conditions. As an additional weather type, what about Strong Winds? It could either shift the region all animals smell to one side, or simply decrease their smell range by 1.
  5. I love the idea of hybridization as a source for unique immunity genes. I'd like to see that implemented with bearyenas as well. There's a highly upvoted suggestion for ears granting cold resistance. If that comes to pass (and looks ramfox-like), ramfox hybrids might be great as a source of the ear gene. My personal preference would be for +2 hearing, +1 cold resistance. Also, the tail on the ramfox is MAGNIFICENT. I'd love to see a cosmetic Fluffy Tail (Ramfox Tail?) that gives +1 cold resistance but is bushier than the Medium Tail. Yet another suggestion is for snowshoe paws that can walk on top of snowy terrain. This could appear as a ramfox hybrid back legs gene, providing +1 move, +1 swim, +1 walking on snow (making snow tiles traversable as if normal tiles). Finally, I'd suggest low fertility for ramfoxes. I get the impression that the low fertility of friendly bearyenas is intended to account for the relative unlikelihood of a viable hybrid between two very different parents. The same logic applies to ramfox hybrids.
  6. Instead of having your nichelings automagically adapt to the dim light, what if we make a dim light vision gene? Call it night eyes and give them the slit pupil cat eyes have, or a round pupil that occupies a much larger fraction of the iris. Night (nightvision? nocturnal?) eyes: 2 vision in dim light, 1 vision in bright light. Whereas the standard eyes we currently have become: Day (diurnal?) eyes: 2 vision in bright light, 1 vision in dim light. For simplicity's sake, shortsighted and blind genes could remain as they are, with shortsighted giving 1 vision under all circumstances. Night eyes could unlock with, say, 30 days spent in a dim environment. Conversely, this opens up some room for a gene like: Eagle (farsighted?) eyes: 3 vision in bright light, 0 vision in dim light. Not sure that's a good idea, though, since in all but one biome that would be preferable. Unlock condition could be perching on lookout points (stumps and trees) 30-100 times. Taking suggestions for the names. Thanks @Skysplash8 for some ideas.
  7. I've played about 20 hours of this game and haven't yet run into a tree stump! That's what I get for going too slow and careful. Their existence might invalidate my suggestion, yes.
  8. I want to post lookouts on high perches to keep watch for predators and prey or maybe even help with scouting. I hit on the idea of using rocks as vantage points. A nicheling perched on a rock could have +1 or +2 vision, and see one tile further into surrounding grass. To balance out the benefits of this, the following restrictions could apply: - Climbing onto a rock requires 2 or 3 movement. (Climbing is harder than walking, and a creature that can barely move on land can't climb.) - Lookouts on rocks can't interact with surrounding tiles. (To pluck from that berry bush by the rock, you'll have to climb down, pick berries, and climb back up. No free lunch.) Additionally, nichelings might be safe from bearyena and ramfox attacks while perched on rocks, but not from apes, balance bears, or killer bearyenas. Predators of sufficient size or agility have no trouble reaching high places.
  9. Perhaps also tail movements like wagging or twitching? I noticed the other day that I can barely see my nichelings' tails unless I position the camera directly overhead.
  10. What about echolocation as the unique bat snout ability? 1 smell, 1 collecting (for insect-eating), and echolocation. Echolocation: Your effective vision range cannot be smaller than your hearing range. Like wings, I think this would encourage something of a specialized playstyle in which you really commit to the echolocation, with big ears and reduced vision.
  11. I like the idea of cold resistant ears, but... I would rather they look like lynx ears, with tufts on the end, or arctic fox ears, short, upright, and packed with fur. I feel obligated to point out that lop ears like the original suggestion are pretty much nonexistent except where humans have really warped domestic animals' genomes.
  12. If aquatic biome is expanded on, aquatic camouflage should be considered! Some possibilities: - "Blue" color (the gray coat seen on these cats and this dog) could provide a standard +2 while in water. - If more extensive aquatic life is added, stripes could grant camouflage in kelp beds, or spots could grant camouflage in reefs. - Countershading (dark back, pale belly) is a very common camo adaptation. Could provide bonus while swimming and flying.
  13. Some suggestions have floated around for improved underwater biomes. A great thing to add, if that comes to pass, is underwater camouflage. Some possibilities: - "Blue" color (the gray coat seen on these cats and this dog) could provide a standard +2 while in water. - If more extensive aquatic life is added, stripes could grant camouflage in kelp beds, or spots could grant camouflage in reefs. - Countershading (dark back, pale belly) is a very common camo adaptation. Could provide bonus while swimming and flying. EDIT: If you like this, you should probably vote for the most popular water biome thread.
  14. I think this is already adequately represented by the fertility genes. An unsuccessful mating might be because there weren't enough gametes, or it might be because the zygote/embryo/fetus wasn't viable, or because the mother was unable to sustain it. Perhaps there's some reason to miscarry if the pregnant mother takes damage, but it's not something I'm excited to see added.
  15. Perhaps the Sticky Tongue could also eat bug swarms? They might not be worth much food, as getting rid of them is reward enough.
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