Hello, Niche fans!

[moisole]

Hi there. I purchased Niche, though I haven't launched it yet. I saw some gameplays and it looks like a very cool game, so I wanted to say that to the developers.

I also read this forum, and I love the fact that @Philo and others are OK showing us the innards of the game (like with those AI posts that I might need to look at more carefully later on) as well as involving the whole community in the improvement of the game.

I have always been a highly theoretical player, so I like to see how the game works on the inside. I got a few questions by watching gameplays on Youtube, though. So I'm asking those below.

How do mutations work exactly? The label says 50%, but at what point in the process is this factored in? I can see different ways of that working. Like it could replace the baby's genes at birth, or during the mating. And if the later, it becomes something like ABMM x AB? (Where M is the mutation, and A and B are whatever genes are originally on the parent). Or something different? And if there's two mutations in the same slot (vg two different tails), I can't figure that out. (Or potentially FOUR mutations, I guess).

Speaking of mutations, what is the point of having things like Hemophilia or No Fertility in the mutation menu? I understand that some people may want to challenge themselves or something, but for "normal" gameplay (far from my intentions trying to tell everyone what is normal), it makes no sense at all. It's not even like Derp Snout, which some people may prefer because of looks...

Patterns. How can a pattern be tiny and big, and thin and thick at the same time? Those things are co-dominant, but I can't figure it out. I saw a suggestion of including a nicheling generator, and I would use that to look at patterns and color combinations and the like. I think it's a great idea, but I'm not so sure about the ability of taking them into the game. On one hand you can make very powerful nichelings and kinda "break" the game, but on the other hand what would be the point? so, I thought of adding a suggestion of something like a "creative mode". I have to find the original suggestion again, hehe.

And finally for now, crossing water. Watching Jessimew's Adam's Quest gameplay, I saw when crossing islands in the Archipelago, some Nichelings took one drowning damage where others took two, with no water genes involved, so my question is, when moving in the water and you don't have water breathing, what exactly triggers drowning?

That's all for now. Thank you in advance.

[Jojo]

3 minutes ago, moisole said:

And finally for now, crossing water. Watching Jessimew's Adam's Quest gameplay, I saw when crossing islands in the Archipelago, some Nichelings took one drowning damage where others took two, with no water genes involved, so my question is, when moving in the water and you don't have water breathing, what exactly triggers drowning?

I think that one is a bug. At least I haven't been able to figure it out (while some body types certainly drown at different water hights, I guess you are talking about two normal body Nichelings go into the water and only one takes drowning damage)

[moisole]

Thanks for the reply.

Yes. There's this really deep hex you need to stop by (deep enough that body size won't matter for sure). Then moving from there to dry land is safe (but for some reason, moving from there to shallow water is not, even if the water there is shallow enough that the nicheling can stay in it as long as it wants to). But some nichelings take damage on the dipping move, and some don't.

To make it more clear: The ocean bed is two hexes wide. Some nichelings move from one island to the bed, then step to the second hex in the bed (1 damage), then to dry land on the next island, while others go from land to ocean bed (1 damage), then one step in the deep waters (1 damage), then to the next island.

[Sky]

7 minutes ago, moisole said:

Patterns. How can a pattern be tiny and big, and thin and thick at the same time?

They mix together, so Tiny + Big would make a pattern that is right in the middle. Thick + Thin would be the same.

[bostonlobstah]

I too don't understand exactly how mutations work...hopefully we can get some help on that. All I know is: You put it in the slot, and your kid could have it. 

Welcome to the forums!

[georgie]

so basically the mutations mean a creature has a 50% chance of passing that gene on to its offspring if it is put in the mutation slot instead of any other gene they could have passed on. lets say i have two creatures, one with dominant short snout and recessive poison fangs, another with dominant short snout and recessive digging trunk. i put cracker jaw in the mutation menu of the recessive poison fangs nicheling, and they breed. lets say then the other nicheling passes on digging trunk, and the nicheling with cracker jaw in its mutation menu gets the 50% chance and passes on cracker jaw, this means the baby has digging trunk and cracker jaw in its genes, also meaning the baby will display cracker jaw because it is more dominant. if the gene mutated was recessive to digging trunk however, the baby would display digging trunk instead, with the mutated gene recessive.

 

hopefully that example made sense, i kind of made it overcomplicated for no reason :v