Added Mutation Thoughts

[Owyisensei]

So I have been playing Niche for a long while and with the wing updates I have been thinking of a few traits that can be added in the mutation trees. I will list them with what they are, what they look like and what they would do for the creature. 

1: Monkey Tails: I believe a new tail would be nice with the updated ideas, it being the idea of a collecting potential AND the ability to get into trees without wings. 
 the collecting add would only be a +1 on collecting imo to keep other things fair, that way if your creature is a flying type, it can also collect without a beak option. With the concept of land critters getting into trees, I thought this would be a nice option so you can have a land walking creature collect from the palm trees without getting stunned by the coconut. this would take two moves since the creature would have to be standing next to the tree to climb it. I would just make it look like a curled up tail. 

2: Reptile faces AND bodies: For this concept it would be adding a whole new mutation tree, the face being a lot like the Bears in stats, with no smell stats, no hearing stats, short on site, but a +3 on its attack. This can look like a alligators mouth, and even a more displeasing look of an croc's mouth for a disliked feature. The body would be a concept of doing better in hot climates and worse in cold, for the body would be cold blooded, so the snowy mountains, grass mingle, and deserts effect them the most. The body could just be scaled and also give a +1 defense to predators.  

3: Rabbit Genes in General : This one I am sure has been asked for quite a few times already, but I will add it to the list to cover it anyway. rabbit ears are pretty obvious in looks and the action of it should just be a +2 on hearing since people want them more for atheistic features anyhow, I believe a tail to go with the combo with no + would be great too. rabbit hind legs can be a boost in travel as well, making it another full mutation track. The head I have mentioned it can also Graze, I will get to that in the fifth idea.
(Side note about the genetics, why not make a displeasing trait of the creature being deaf? so no ears at all) 

 

4:Tentacles: This one is a tad bit more for my own pleasure then the rest, having an option to have a tentacle would be great, I would give this a + trait to fishing and nut cracking as a +2 for both and I Would love it to be a tail option, making it look a lot like a Squids forearm would make that just amazing. 

5:Hooves and grazing mouths: Now this one seems like it would be harder to do but I think it would give a whole new option for the lingering grass pieces. Grazing Mouths would look like horse mouths (would be the best look imo) that can eat the grass that grows back but not the grass that is taken forever, this way it doesn't over power the other mouth options. I believe a +2 food on every grass piece that regrows would be sustainable. Hooves would be the longest travel foot of them all other then wings, giving potentially the land dwelling species a better chance to be picked. I would believe a cloved foot would be a great look for this, and that can be matched on front and back legs, I would also give this option a +3 attack if they have all four legs as hooves and a +5 when "Stampeding", so moving further then 5 squares away from their start point. landing on the square that they attacked and pushing the thing back or killing it, so if others are around they can be damaged as well, much like how the walrusdeer does when completely cornered. 

I think that covers a lot of the mutation thoughts I have had for this game and hope to see some implicated into the game, I have been loving the new traits and colors along with the maps, I do have suggestions for Weather patterns and maps but this is just for the mutations I have thought of through my time playing. 

I hope I made a pretty good impression for these traits and I hope others will agree on their uses. Keep being amazing. 

The Image attached it a diagram I have made to show the looks of the items I have talked about, Enjoy ' 3 

 

[BlazingCorvid]

First of all, amazing art! I really like all the poses, they give each of your creatures a lot of character!

I like a lot of your designs, though many, like the monkey tail and reptile body, have been suggested in other threads. Some of them, though, are very unique! I really like your squid tail with its fishing and cracking (though you should frame it as clam cracking and not nut cracking since squid don't encounter nuts), and the design is very interesting.

For some genes, specifically the rabbit genes, you have them giving less benefit than others of the same category. For some people, including myself, that would make me not want to use them where there are more useful genes in that category. The rabbit ears should give at least +3 hearing like the other ears, and the tail should have a purpose too. In the wild, rabbits have bright white tails to confuse predators - the predators focus on the white spot, and so when it is hidden when the rabbit moves, the predators have to refocus on the rabbit, costing them time. In niche, this could translate to something like stealth or camouflage, or it could add a new trait like evasiveness, which could increase camouflage after turning or something like that. Also, snout genes don't affect sight, only smell, so the rabbit head should have +2 or +3 smell instead of +1 sight. Unless you actually want to disable the eye genes, but there is not actually a head in the game that does that currently.

For your reptile body, +3 defense is really high. The only gene that currently has that is armored body, which is really hard to get since it is a prehistoric gene, and even that does not add any resistance. I would say that a +2 defense, with +1 heat resistance and -1 cold resistance is more reasonable. For the mouth, again, snouts don't affect hearing or sight - you could introduce other genes like no ears or inner ears or reptile ears to give 0 hearing (though I would not recommend that- I would give inner ears +2 hearing since animals like birds can still hear). The bearyena snout gives +2 strength and strong voice, so +3 strength without the strong voice makes sense. By the way, what do you mean by "mutation tree"?

I like your rules for the grazing mouth - that seems fair to only eat the regrowing grass - but your hooves seem over powered. If each hoove has +3 movement, and you have double hooves, that gives 6 movement (compared to 2 for runner's leg), and if you combine that with lean body (+2) and whatever the back hooves give (+2?), then you have 10 movement, which is more than flight. The attack stats on top of that is far too much. I really like your idea for the attack stats when you have the set, and for the stampeding, but I would nerf the movement a little - perhaps by making each one only give 1 movement like runner's leg - that way, you can still move 6 paces with the other aforementioned genes and get the stampeding.

Overall, you have great ideas!