Floppy Ears

[Agave]

I'd like to see floppy ears introduced into the game. As I picture it, all baby nichelings (< 2 gems) would have them; teenagers (2 gems) could have a floppy ear and a normal, adult ear; adults would have whatever ears they'd inherit from their parents.

Floppy ears could also possibly appear in adults; floppy ear gene would be recessive to all the other ear genes. It also could:

• repel rogue males (they would be less or not at all willing to mate with baby-eared females)
• attract wandering females ('cause maternal instincts)
• make a floppy-eared adult a more likely target of predator attacks (it seems to me bearyenas prefer to attack my babies and teens over adults... am I the only one?)
• possibly lure bluebirds? (if they tried to attack a floppy-eared adult, the adult would be able to hurt and possibly kill them, depending on strength points)

What do you all think?

[Spacestar TheThundersuncat]

There have been two or three suggestions of floppy ears in some way. Adding cold resistance or as a dog ear cosmetic. 

Rogue males... well that's new, but the game already has issues with consistency.

So I'd like to ask how you would resolve the following points.

1. Why would a derpsnouted, stinky tailed and toxic bodied nicheling not repel a rogue male, but a creature with floppy ears would?

Sexual maturity depends much more on smell in furry creatures, anyway. Appearance does not matter to the rogue male, unless with spiky body, as it is in the game.

2. Why would a random female take care of an unrelated kit instead of having their own? It does happen, in most cases because they are related (rats) or very rarely because she has just lost her own or is in a bonding phase.

Having all wandering females go must have! seems a little overkill. You might attempt a chance based system, but all systems of this kind have been rejected so far. Sadly. A charging attack adding stun or so would be nice.

3. Bluebirds... imagine a big bodied nicheling being mistaken for a baby because of its ears. Would you mistake an adult grizzly for a cub because its ears are more floppy than usual? What about a dog? A cat? That doesn't work for me.

4. Bearyena attacks. They don't make too much sense anyway. There is little internal game logic to argue with, so the bluebird issue as an bearyena issue only stands somewhat. I'd like to see improvements here, though.

[Lilytuft]

I'm not sure about the gene, but the floppy eared babies sound cute!

[Wander]

It has already been suggested.
Thread here