While watching some niche playthrough (shoutout to seri >:3 ) I thought up a few gene ideas?? so i just want to share them, and I'll try to draw them up at some point. just for fun
Gecko tail/plump tail - abilities
"decoy" - when attacked by a predator or bird, the creatures tail will drop, leaving them unharmed. to regrow the tail, it costs 15 food
heat resistance +1
Mermaid tail/finned tail - abilities
this one was a weirder idea, but basically when a set of legs match the tail (idk what tocall the legs, maybe mer-legs and mer-tail) the nicheling would instead become a strictly water creature, but they can swim farther than anything else
swimming +2 (or +3)
movement on land -1
pretty scales +1 (when near the coast, they could possibly attract more wandering nichelings
Camel body/humped body - abilities
good for savannah, the camel body can store water, and keep the nicheling cool. Possibly affects camouflage ?? (in a good way, or a bad way)
Heat resistance +3
movement +1
Predator eyes -abilities
Predator eyes have the bonus of allowing nichelings to see exactly where rabbil's are without using their smell/hearing, along with increasing their radius by 1 when in tall grass
sight +1
soft foot/stalking paws - abilities
allows nichelings to get right up on rabbil's/moles(boles? i forget what they're called) without startling them, though they lack the strength
+1 camouflage
+1 gathering
-1 attack
so those are some of my ideas??? just wanted to share. i was trying to doodle them up, but its actually kinda hard to draw in a style similar to niche. so rip, lol
hopefully I'll be able to give some type of visual examples