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Things I wish had stayed


jaxpsylla

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Howdy! I recently went back to some old updates of Niche just to play around. I started at the very first one, (0.1.5) and im currently on the water update (0.2.1)

I saw a bunch of stuff that I wish had stayed in the final game, and from my knowledge of the other updates, I wanted to make a topic talking about all of the things I wish had stayed in the final game. 

1. Random Mutation

Remember in the water update, when sometimes a baby would be born with gills or platypus beak, or with yellow or orange eyes? I thought it was interesting how a nicheling could just get that gene randomly, even if it wasn't in the mutation menu slots. I think it'd be neat if certain genes (like eye color, fur color, pattern color, etc) could randomly appear on nichelings. I think this would be neat for my tribes bc at certain points in my game, I realize all of my nichelings are nearly identical. (which is my fault for inbreeding) If genes could randomly appear on my nichelings, it would make my tribes more diverse. I also think it'd be an interesting challenge, like if you randomly mutated big ears on a snow island, or big body on a savanna. 

2. Fur/eye/pattern unlocking

Back in the old updates, in order to unlock fur colors, eye colors, and patterns, you had to mutate the one before it. (For example, red fur was needed to be mutated in order to unlock beige fur.) I thought this was a neat feature, but because of the way mutation menus work now, it may be a little annoying for some. Because the menus are permanent, it would be kinda wasteful to use up a slot for a fur color or eye color. But back when the menus worked for every nicheling, the mutation of fur color, eye color, and patterns were neat. I also liked the special unlock for panda pattern.

3. Warning dots

Warning dots were probably my favorite pattern in the jungle update, I loved them so much and I still do. I was really sad when they were taken out, but with the new way that patterns work I guess it's kinda hard to put that pattern back into the game. I don't know why I liked it so much, it kind of reminded me of balance bear pattern in a way.

4. 0.5.0 Mutations

Back in the update where we first got hybrids, the way things were mutated was very different than it used to be, and how it is now. In order to mutate genes you had to expose your animals to certain things. For example, berry paw could be mutated if your animals had picked a bunch of berries, or lean body when you stayed in the heat for a long time. It was difficult to breed the animals you wanted, but I liked the challenge. It got annoying after a while because no paw and blind eyes would always sneak into their mutations, but I still enjoyed it.

 

That's it! What are some of the things you wish had stayed in the current version? Or things you're glad weren't added?

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I wish we could still name the animals. Then I could name all my dodomingos Suzy. I'd have an army. 

I think the random mutations should definitely be added back in, 110%. People who don't like it can just go into sandbox settings. I don't remember ever having random mutations, but it sounds like fun. Especially for someone who doesn't use the mutations menu. You could totally make this a topic in the featured request section.

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16 hours ago, Applesauce said:

I wish we could still name the animals. Then I could name all my dodomingos Suzy. I'd have an army. 

I think the random mutations should definitely be added back in, 110%. People who don't like it can just go into sandbox settings. I don't remember ever having random mutations, but it sounds like fun. Especially for someone who doesn't use the mutations menu. You could totally make this a topic in the featured request section.

Nope. You can't ever stand near the beach again without them morphing into frogs. Or even move through a biome stripe. It had many good features, but many issues. 

Randomly getting derpsnout and blindness, breeding non-stop just to keep the right genes ruined any role play for me. It's better challenge wise, but, ugh. That one specific version was frustration incarnate, even if reasonable mutations would be amazing...

(Edit: the "it" really was the experimental mutation system. If that is unclear.

I don't know, but the major issue was that you had no control and slight exposure would drastically alter your skillset.)

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21 minutes ago, Spacestar TheThundersuncat said:

Nope. You can't ever stand near the beach again without them morphing into frogs. Or even move through a biome stripe. It had many good features, but many issues. 

Randomly getting derpsnout and blindness, breeding non-stop just to keep the right genes ruined any role play for me. It's better challenge wise, but, ugh. That one specific version was frustration incarnate, even if reasonable mutations would be amazing...

As Applesauce said, it should be optional in the sandbox settings so anyone who finds it frustrating can just turn it off. And maybe there could also be a setting for how frequently random mutation occurs, so you could change it to make random mutation happen more commonly/rarely 

And as for story mode, maybe it could just be automatically switched off, or set to very rare?

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44 minutes ago, Spacestar TheThundersuncat said:

Nope. You can't ever stand near the beach again without them morphing into frogs. Or even move through a biome stripe. It had many good features, but many issues. 

Randomly getting derpsnout and blindness, breeding non-stop just to keep the right genes ruined any role play for me. It's better challenge wise, but, ugh. That one specific version was frustration incarnate, even if reasonable mutations would be amazing...

I see your point and that morphing into frogs thing sounds annoying. I didn't think the type of mutations depended on the environment. I still think they should add them back in, but they should be completely random, despite what biome your in. So your could get gills in the burning savannah or lean body on a snowy island. Also you should be able to decide how rare mutations are in the sandbox settings. So say you want to make a specific percent of your nicheling be born with mutations. You want around 1 out of every 40 nichelings to be born with a mutation. You'd enter the ratio of Mutated nichelings (1) to the number of normal nichelings (40). Of course, this is only a chance so not every 1 out of 40 nichelings with have a mutation. There might be 2 out of 40! Or none. The conclusion is that you can customize the ratio of mutated nichelings to non-mutated nichelings. You could do 1:40, 0:0, 2:50, or if your crazy 100:100, which now that I think about it is the same as saying 1:1. 

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I think Spacecat is talking about the experimenta mutation system.

Random mutations would be fun for some genes, but only for some genes. Pattern colors and such, but no genes that affect the gameplay too much.

Imagine having a tribe of flying bearyenas bread for generations to fight the apes. One nicheling from your main breeding pair gets badly hurt and is on its last day. You quickly breed them and land the famale on a nest. The night passes and one of the parents dies. The baby? It was supposed to be perfect, right? It has gills and a webbed paw 😑

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1 hour ago, Bucket Friend said:

I think Spacecat is talking about the experimenta mutation system.

Random mutations would be fun for some genes, but only for some genes. Pattern colors and such, but no genes that affect the gameplay too much.

Imagine having a tribe of flying bearyenas bread for generations to fight the apes. One nicheling from your main breeding pair gets badly hurt and is on its last day. You quickly breed them and land the famale on a nest. The night passes and one of the parents dies. The baby? It was supposed to be perfect, right? It has gills and a webbed paw 😑

Maybe you could choose what traits can't get mutated, much like you can choose the traits you don't wanted your starter pair to have.

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15 hours ago, Applesauce said:

I see your point and that morphing into frogs thing sounds annoying. I didn't think the type of mutations depended on the environment. I still think they should add them back in, but they should be completely random, despite what biome your in. So your could get gills in the burning savannah or lean body on a snowy island. Also you should be able to decide how rare mutations are in the sandbox settings. So say you want to make a specific percent of your nicheling be born with mutations. You want around 1 out of every 40 nichelings to be born with a mutation. You'd enter the ratio of Mutated nichelings (1) to the number of normal nichelings (40). Of course, this is only a chance so not every 1 out of 40 nichelings with have a mutation. There might be 2 out of 40! Or none. The conclusion is that you can customize the ratio of mutated nichelings to non-mutated nichelings. You could do 1:40, 0:0, 2:50, or if your crazy 100:100, which now that I think about it is the same as saying 1:1. 

Yeah, I loved the first versions with a few random traits here and there, but the experimental mutation update was a mess. It's surprisingly hard to get right if you add causality to happenstance. Or just simple issues like age increasing the chance for bad genes. 

I'm just actively against standing on a beach tile and getting bad hindlegs. Specifically. Quickly. Stripes staking up by clearing grass? Cool. Normal paw getting webbed after swimming? I... guess. Random eye clour? Finally! But some parts just went overboard. (Please note: I don't remember if that gave you webbed paw in the experimental version, these are made up examples). 

Or, well, to the point, whether it's active or random, there needs to be some line in practice. I've used consoled random genes for challenges. It can be a lot of fun. But it depends if you want that as a game mode, in the type of idea you're after, or adding details to the game. 

If it is a game mode like blind genes, logic limitations don't matter as much. If it's not, I'd expect to see medium body produce lean bodied offspring occasionally. Allowing that on heat body would break the game (again). 

Meaning, I can't say I'd prefer one or the other. Having some new life added to the game would be great. We only have one challenge mode, why not another? ... but crossing these two has been bad. It just turns out better if you go all in one way or the other. I'm glad that it didn't stay, though the game could have been better if they'd went in a clear direction.

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