Pollinator Head

[Caemoxie]

As far as I can tell, no one has made this suggestion yet so here we go. Since insectivorous nichelings are coming with the next update, I was thinking there's at least one other potential food source our creatures can't make use of: Pollen! Having had a lot of fun with the wings and bird beaks in recent months, my thought for the head design would be like a hummingbird beak. So a sleek head with a long, thin beak. This would be fairly specialized, giving +2 smelling and the pollinate ability. From there I have a couple of different ideas for how a pollinating nicheling could be implemented. Either pollinators could gather pollen like any other food source, namely from the friendly carnivorous plants and possibly (since even meat-eating plants need pollinators) even hostile carnivorous plants, causing them to be friendly only to pollinator nichelings. For that method of implementation, it would be neat to see other flowers in other biomes (otherwise they are pretty limited to only being useful in jungle biomes) or a flowering cycle for the already existing harvestable plants. Alternatively, I could see pollinator nicheling acting in a support role, like the purr snout, only in this case for plants. Pollinators could cause berries to ripen early (basically acting as a mini-rainfall) or supply a boost to the harvest after a normal rainfall. For additional realism this effect could occur only after pollinating other plants of the same species. This plays on the role of pollinators in allowing fruiting plants to... well, produce fruit. Personally, I favor the second option, as I think it would add a little additional depth and a fun new mechanic instead of just an additional food source. I feel the effect would be fairly powerful and thus the trait would be recessive to most other snout traits.

[kakapo123]

I actually prefer the first option. This could be a great way to make the cactus useful. It's always annoyed me that there isn't really any way you can use the cactus without having a certain amount of defense, which Im pretty sure can only be achieved by having the armour body which is only unlockable on snowy islands, the complete opposite of savannah islands. It just really really annoys me because cacti are an important food source for a lot of animals living in dry climates

Also, not to be nitpicky or anything, but the pollen is actually the male part of the flowers sex cells. The stuff thats eaten by hummingbirds and the like is called nectar 

[Caemoxie]

Good point! I forgot about the cacti, I was actually thinking the second option would be great from those scraggly savanna berry bushes, but another option for the cacti would also be nice

[NINJA >->]

an option to this is to have the cacti and "savanna" barriers blossom more frequently as in reality desert and savanna type plants blossom rapidly  over night  to collect moisture. Secondly the cacti would have a flower blossom which might allow one turn of harmless pollinating ^^