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More Sexes and related mechanics


Dun(ce) Crow

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While the male/female binary is rather common among mammals, Nichelings are not exactly mammals, right? Especially now that they could have amphibian, avian and even arthropoid features!

Just like there is an mind-boggingly large number of lifeforms, there are dozens of ways sexes can work. There are fish that change sexes when there are not enough individuals of a certain sex, tapeworms that are male in  young modules and female in older modules (or was it the other way around?), a wide range of hermaphroditic lifestyles, especially among plants and gastropods, and fungi with literally thousands of sexes. The diversity in sexes is ruefully underfeatured in Niche.

1024px-Thalassoma_lunare_1.jpg

(This moon wrasse is a protogynous sequential hermaphrodite. Image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequential_hermaphroditism#/media/File:Thalassoma_lunare_1.jpg)

 

So, I suggest a new gene slot for sexes, with these genes:

Binary: As it is now. This individual can be either male or female its whole life.

Sequential: This individual changes its sex at one point in their life. Perhaps the halfway point? Or a random point? Or due to external factors, such as hunger? For the devs to decide. Could be seperated into protandry (male at first), protogyny (female at first), and bidirectional (either).

Parthenogenetic: Female only. Reproduces asexually, that is, produces clones of itself. Might work better as a rare fertility gene.

Hermaphroditic: A new sex . Can reproduce with anyone, excluding infertile individuals. Can also impregnate itself, which is not recommended. Scientifically called "simultanous hermaphrodity", but that's a bit long.

Trinary: Can be either male, female, or hermaphroditic, with the latter being rarer than the former two. Perhaps a 40:40:20 ratio?

Gynomonoecious: Can be either female or hermaphroditic.

Andromonoecious: Can be either male or hermaphroditic.

 

So, what do you think?

 

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One way I could see this working is the toxic body, which is very froglike, giving your nichelings the ability to change their sex. I'm looking forward to seeing other peoples' take on this.

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I find this idea very interesting though I consider Nichelings mammals and don't know what to do of so many sexes though a Nicheling changing its sex when there aren't enough females or males around sounds heavenly ^^ Would certainly like to try this on an experimental branch

Curious to see if a dev pops in here and gives her/ his two cents :D

Just one little issue. For me it doesn't make sense for a creature to be able to reproduce with an infertile one. I mean when you are infertile you are infertile there is no way around it.

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2 minutes ago, Jojo said:

Just one little issue. For me it doesn't make sense for a creature to be able to reproduce with an infertile one. I mean when you are infertile you are infertile there is no way around it.

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That's what I meant with "excluding those". Should perhaps made that clearer. Wait. Does "excluding" not mean the same as "apart from"  in English?

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2 hours ago, Dun(ce) Crow said:

That's what I meant with "excluding those". Should perhaps made that clearer. Wait. Does "excluding" not mean the same as "apart from"  in English?

Sorry, I might have misread your post and saw including ^^

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Tangentially relevant: If you are interested in learning about strange sexes in biology and related topics, I very much recommend "Evolution's Rainbow" by Joan Roughgarden, a fascinating and well written book.

Also, its the source for what I said in the OP. Forgot to add that to the post.

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I like the idea of having a rare chance of hermaphroditic and parthenogenetic nechelings. Although if you had self impregnators like that, you should make sure to have some kind of way to help prevent accidentally hitting it, or you could wind up with a lot of clones/sick kids. Also if two simultaneous hermaphrodites mate, which one would get pregnant?

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4 hours ago, Dr. Nearo said:

I like the idea of having a rare chance of hermaphroditic and parthenogenetic nechelings. Although if you had self impregnators like that, you should make sure to have some kind of way to help prevent accidentally hitting it, or you could wind up with a lot of clones/sick kids. Also if two simultaneous hermaphrodites mate, which one would get pregnant?

That is a good question. In real life, there are three possibilities: Either both get pregnant (most gastropods), the one who initiates the contact after, for example, a bout of penis-fencing (sea slugs) impregnates the other, or both just send their seed out there and who, if anyone, gets pregnant is up to chance (plants).

Both would be the easiest one to implement, but there might be a balance issue in that case, so perhaps the second option?

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