[No perma nests]

When I've done my challenge tribes on Long Winter, both times only spawned one permanent nest

[Niche Community Challenge - Long Winter]

A gift from the goddess is brought to the tribe in the form of a healthy kit born with double digging paws. She is named Salvation

Before he passes, StarSpot asks Nukirduk if he would do her the honour of having a kit with her. His gifts have helped the tribe collect food in ways that they could not have dreamt of, and she hopes their child will be blessed with the ability to continue his work

Meanwhile, Faith's Chosen and Isis have found themselves quite an adventure as they search for food, and though Isis still carries CloudStream's kit, she finds herself growing fonder of Faith's Chosen, allowing herself to dream of a family made of love, not for survival

Through his sickness claims his life, Nukirduk does have a moment to meet his daughter, a perfect creature sharing of his wings, if not his strength. In his last moments, he suggests she be named SwiftCurrent, in honour of StarSpot's parents, who brought her to this place and thus held a hand in the birth of his daughter. With only a day before her own passing, StarSpot asks Salvation to look after and care for SwiftCurrent, though she knows it to be a heavy burden for one so young.

Though aware that winter is fast approaching and they should be focusing on finding food, Faith's Chosen's curiosity about the creature he could only just make out in the frozen glacier was too strong, and so he freed the strange creature, with its funny face and strange, hard tail.

Upon the birth of Isis' first child, Faith's Chosen hears a call for help from a nearby creature, drained of energy and in mortal peril

Though it goes against his every instinct, he calls for Isis to leave the baby to its fate as he was, and help save this wanderer.

[Niche Community Challenge - Long Winter]

6 hours ago, Basil said:

AHHH OMG I LOVE THIS

JUST DONT DIE SO THIS STORY CAN CONTINUEEEE

Oh, don't worry, I still have two full pages of notes before we even catch up to where the tribe is at currently
(and I am glad you are enjoying it )

[Niche Community Challenge - Long Winter]

While threats continued to surround them, so too did a new hope, in the form of rabbils

On her last day, beside her mate, LightningSwift built her nest, fearful but also hopeful. Many threats surrounded them, but she knew they would be well protected by CloudStream and StarSpot

Surrounded once more, StarSpot and CloudStream found themselves facing a tough decision - protect the youngest in their tribe and risk death in the process, or leave him to a cruel fate.

Fate however must have been feeling kind that day, for luck was on his side as both the fox and the bear bypassed the unnamed cub in favour of other, unknown targets. The threat had not completely passed however.

Once again, the unnamed boy was spared by fate, and so in thanks, he was given the name Faith's Chosen.

The small tribe happened upon a glacier in their wanderings and, spotting the shape of a creature inside, broke it open to discover a stunning remnant of ancient time, who held a dark and sorrowful secret - that his tribe had consigned him to the ice, to prevent his sickness from spreading

With the gift of flight, Nukirduk was able to bring another wanderer to the tribe, despite ever dwindling food supplies.

Though he was sick, Nukirduk quickly proved his worth to the tribe, snatching up rabbils as fast as his wings would allow him to. Meanwhile, now nearing the end of his life, CloudStream asked Isis if she would carry the tribe, telling her the stories his parents had brought with them from the grasslands

And so it was, consumed by the need to collect enough food to survive the rapidly approaching winter that the small tribe found itself split in two.

[Niche Community Challenge - Long Winter]

The heavy snow makes it difficult to move, but now fully grown, CloudStream is proud to help his father collect food for the tribe. As they scavenge, a fellow wanderer appears before the small tribe, however, before she can be invited to join them, she disappears

The distant sound of foxes makes LightningSwift fear for the wanderer, though she looked strong, she was still alone, while the foxes travelled in a pack

Somewhere, the sound of a creature crying out in pain could be heard, only confirming LightningSwift's fears. Though now grown, she cautioned her children to be wary of the foxes.

The presence of a strange and unwelcome creature caused the small tribe to fear for their food supply. Through more food was in sight, every morsel was precious and not to be wasted

Even worse than the persistent visitor was the sudden appearance of a bear just like the one that had forced them to leave their planned home

A situation that had once seemed so hopeful was now fraught with terror. With a threat lurking at every corner,, would this little family never find the peaceful mountain home they sought? 

[Niche Community Challenge - Long Winter]

Two more travelling creatures from the grasslands find themselves at the foot of the Long Winter Mountain. In the distance, three frozen nichelings dream of eventual rescue, but for now, ThunderStruck and LightningSwift are more interested in building up their food supplies, a task that will be made a lot easier with ThunderStruck's double digging paw

Both struggle to stay warm in the cold weather, a factor that influences their decision to immediately have a kit, without first stocking up on food as they had initially planned

Little CloudStream is gifted with the same digging paw as his father, an auspicious sign in these mountains. Nevertheless, the awareness looms that with three mouths to feed, food will soon start running short. 

With a sky clear of birds, the decision is made to leave CloudStream in the nest while they search for food.

ThunderStruck's double digging paws means that he can dig up enough of the roots to feed the tribe all for a day, allowing him to rush back to his son's side, and just in time too, as the next day brings with it the dreaded cry of a bird on the search for prey

On his way to find more roots, ThunderStruck stumbles across a bear lurking just outside of sight from the nest he and LightningSwift had hoped to make their home around

Thankfully, they manage to flee as the snow beings to fall, hopefully covering their scent from the bear.

LightningSwift finds the next root, and though her family lacks the energy to collect it today, sapped by the cold and their hasty escape, she builds a nest secure in the knowledge that the root, and the one nearby will be dug up tomorrow.

StarSpot's birth brings with it another accursed bird, but LightningSwift will not leave her undefended.   

 

 

[Niche Community Challenge - Long Winter]

Update, this one is turning out to be a longer one (though apparently I'm incapable of not spilling angst all over the floor), I'm wondering if I should start a new thread or keep going here. If anyone has any opinions either way I would love to hear it

[Niche Community Challenge - Long Winter]

Fear not, more wanderers will find their way to the land of Long Winter, though hopefully they'll be more suited to the environment (i.e. I'm gonna keep restarting until one of the starters has a digging paw  )

[Niche Community Challenge - Long Winter]

Winter's Gift manages to convince Sorrow to leave the nest and move to FlameHeart's side, while she gathers enough food to survive today

Sadly, FlameHeart passes on, while danger continues to surround Winter's Gift and Sorrow.

A strong survivor appears in the winter wastelands, but with no food to offer her, Winter's Gift is unable to invite her into the tribe.

With little hope and now all alone in the freezing tundra, Sorrow bows her  head and struggles to find the energy to move away from the approaching predator. She was not built for this environment, more suited to sneaking through the long grass, like the parents she had never met.

And so it was that after 15 days, the journey of our small tribe came to an end, having failed to find their evolutionary niche in the mountains of Long Winter

[Niche Community Challenge - Long Winter]

Winter's Gift joins the tribe, with only a day's worth of food left. She quickly snatches up a root, providing just enough food to get the tribe through another day.

ForestSpirit manages to grab another, providing a glimpse of hope that maybe they will be able to survive this winter wasteland.

With not enough food to feed the entire tribe, DawnBringer fears for her unborn child. With no roots in sight or smell, the future looks bleak for our little tribe.

With the morning comes the passing of ForestSpirit and with it DawnBringer's realisation that she will never get to meet her unborn child. 

With that awareness, DawnBringer builds her nest by a rabbil warren, hoping with all her heart that one of the dormant creatures will stumble out and provide food for her newborn.  

Little Sorrow's birth brings with it some hope for salvation in the form of a Walrus Deer, but even with FlameHeart's strength, it will long outlive this little family.

Surrounded by both danger and potential, it is up to Winter's Gift to make an impossible choice. Risk Sorrow and collect food, or protect her from the threats surrounding her.

[Niche Community Challenge - Long Winter]

Many thanks to @Brokenshock!

Our journey starts as DawnBringer and ForestSpirit find themselves in a strange wintery land, far from the grasslands they grew up in. Though there are no berry bushes or rabbils in sight, they do spot a frozen nicheling in the distance.

As they journey towards this poor frozen creature, DawnBringer manages to dig up a close to the surface root, providing a little more food for their tribe of two.

The next day, ForestSpirit manages to find a shell for DawnBringer to snatch up, replenishing their food supply.

Inside the ice, they find young FlameHeart. Not the digging creature they had hoped for in this frozen tundra, but his big body and strength could potentially be helpful, so they welcome him into their tribe.

ForestSpirit was the next to manage to dig up a root, but the struggle to do so haunted the small tribe, as did their awareness that just below the surface was food aplenty, if they could just reach it.

But what is this?!

A lone child with a digging paw has appeared! Will the tribe be able to reach her in time, with a bluebird flying overhead and an ever dwindling food supply?

[Niche Community Challenge Thing]

Long winter......oh dear....I'm gonna cross my fingers for some digging trunks, otherwise I predict starvation real fast

[Niche Community Challenge Thing]

If there's still space available, I'd love to join as well!

[Secret Santa Art]

I guess if we're posting them now, I'll post mine too, now that I'm home.

@Goggles-kun I got you and Pacific, I hope you like them! (I've also included a wip picture from before I added the details, because eh)

For some reason I always picture water bodied creatures as being super buff in the chest so that's how he ended up

Thanks to @Skysplash8 for coming up with this idea, it was a lot of fun! And thanks to @Pokestardragacraft for helping out.

 

(side note: if you're cool with giving a random on the internet your address, I can ship the actual painting itself to you, if you would like

[Secret Niche art santa drawing (Chrome!)]

Oh my gosh!!! She looks amazing!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

And you made this in MS paint??? That's incredible! Thank you so much!

[Secret Niche Art Santa]

I'm starting to get back into painting, so I would love to participate in this! I might get a sketch done for Christmas, since I'll be visiting my parents and I'll get the painting done once I've gotten home

Choosing my favourite Nicheling is so hard! I'm gonna provide two and let my secret santa decide, I think

First off is the prince of my original story mode playthrough, which fell victim to the curse of whale island.

The second is Chrome, who was the child of a jungle warrior who found us right when we needed help. She kept the tribe safe and fed in the mountains and her descendants continued to be the protectors of the tribe long after she was gone

 

[Set Starting Food]

On 12/15/2018 at 2:33 AM, Philo said:

This will be in the next update.

Yay!!! I'm so excited!

[Niche Luck Challenge Generator]

I've heard of the Whims of Fate challenge, but I've never actually seen any of those videos. It might be similar, but I based the numbers and stuff of my generator off this steam post by MysticTopaz

(obviously you could use it for the Whims of Fate challenge as well)

[Niche Luck Challenge Generator]

So, one of my friends decided he was going to teach me to code and naturally, I decided I had to do something Niche related. I decided to write a code that basically does the work for you when playing the luck challenge. I believe the luck challenge was originally created by @MysticTopaz?

It is incredibly bare bones right now, and not even remotely finished, but it works, so I thought I would share it. So far I only have two done, the Island Selector and the Mutation Menu Selector

If you have any problems with it, please let me know, apparently learning how to fix things is also an important part of knowing how to code 😁

 

[Set Starting Food]

It would be awesome (particularly in connection with many of the other features) if you could set the amount of food you start with. 

Basically my end goal is to be able to just jump into a new world and focus purely on trying to make the most aesthetic nichelings I can and pretty much everything else already needed for that has been suggested

[Bushfire Season]

On 7/22/2018 at 2:30 AM, PopsicleNinja said:

Meanwhile, it’s summer in America, and it’s definitely not fire season in my niche world. I rarely see more than three fires at a time, and almost all of the fires I’ve seen have spread two or three tiles before extinguishing themselves.

The largest fire I’ve ever seen was as big as 15-20 tiles, and it wasn’t even close to my creatures.

The only fire that sparked dangerously close to my creatures was extinguished by rain while it was still an ember.

It's so strange the way the RNG works! I was back at the Savannah again recently (only my second time there) and once again I ended up with a huge fire, not as big as these ones, but still probably at least a quarter of the island

[Share your favourite nichelings!]

On 7/12/2018 at 10:51 AM, Skysplash8 said:

I'm sorry, I'm addicted to sharing my creatures 😂 

Nuduk, the creature with a heart on his forehead:

 

 

Oh my gosh, that is beautiful! I love the mask pattern so much, there's so many beautiful possibilities

I got such a cute little guy as my starter on a save I was just doing to help work out which island I wanted to move to next (and of course he has the mask :D), I'm gonna be sad to say goodbye to him (maybe I'll backup his save so I can play with him later)

 

 

[I can hear AND smell a rogue male and I don't see his outline]

I had that happen and it turned out he was stuck? Like he wasn't making any moves or anything and I originally thought he was dead and just glitched, but then I brought a female creature down to try and mate with him (because he had some good genes) and he would mate with her when she was next to him, but he still couldn't move? I have no idea why it happened, but at least you know you're not alone with the strange ghost rogue males?

[Bushfire Season]

On our last day in the savannah, the fires were still burning, but the next generation were ready to move on. This is how much of the place ended up being on fire after fifty days

 

[Bushfire Season]

Despite the fact that it's winter here in Australia, clearly it is Bushfire Season in my niche world right now! This fire started pretty early when I arrived in the savannah and just never stopped burning. I've been trying to migrate all my creatures down towards the ports (and have the babies I need for the next generation on the way) but even that couldn't save them! A new fire spawned right next to one of my newborn babies, right where their dad was standing!! Hopefully everyone will be able to survive the eight more days needed to finish unlocking all the hot climate genes!