A set of Ideas added over time

[darktoes]

On clothing and mutations: A JSON tag already exists allowing clothing to be worn over mutations, and you can see the XL variants of the different survivor armor pieces showcasing this. As far as realism is concerned, yes you could make clothing/armor of any shape and size, but you are essentially following a pattern in most cases so deviating substantially from that might end up causing issues, which is represented by the lower stats of the XL survivor armor. If you want more armor and clothing that fits over mutations it’s just a matter of adding the right tag to a copied version, then making a recipe for it. This would be quite easy for an amateur to do their first PR on if you’re interested in getting into contributing, although a minor discussion might be needed on what armor and clothing could or couldn’t be made mutation friendly. I can’t think of anything offhand except for power armor and hazmat suits.

On more mutations: More mutation trees isn’t a bad thing, but it means making new mutations and mutagens, which can be a whole lot of work. That said, something like a horse or snake might be an issue considering how close it is to existing mutation lines (cow and lizard/raptor) and the amount of overlap it might cause. It might be more useful to actually look at adding sub-mutation branches to the existing mutation trees, or just making existing mutation trees less specific (e.g mammal instead of cow/horse, reptile instead of snake/lizard) and allowing them to specialize once a threshold is reached or just being entirely nonspecific and allowing mutations from all kinds of animals within that category.

Super mutations: Super mutations would basically just be post-threshold mutations, which already exist and are pretty cool. What you describe sounds more like a fantasy version of existing mutation trees, which would probably be better off in a mod rather than the base game, since no real fantasy mutation trees exist thus far (with the possible exception of slime, which really just ties into the Goo, and Elf-A, which you could argue is an offshoot of the Alpha mutation).

[Eastwardrope91]

Pigs also eat meat on occasion. Which brings up an interesting idea. Pig mutation tree. Pigs in real life can eat pretty much any organic matter and are very hardy (Leave a corpse in a pigs pen and it’ll be gone in a day or so). But they are slow and fairly stupid. Might make an interesting mutation tree. That and they have hooves (one of the worst mutations in game in my opinion rivaling even disintegration and it’s precursor).

[darktoes]

Most sources point towards pigs being fairly intelligent and empathetic. Some other interesting mutations for pigs might be something involving their snout, coarse hair or fat.

[Umbra.Animo]

while for two things for the clothing and mutations i was more talking things like horn/ insect antennae. mutations that block a type of clothing like tails block non fabric pants why cant i just make a pair of armored pants with a hole for it. and for super mutations tho were just examples off the top of my head. also for no fantasy monsters. there are nether monsters that are not from the normal world.

[darktoes]

Again, armored pants with a tail hole don’t exist because nobody implemented them. It would be really easy to add a pair with the oversize tag, but nobody has.

They’re Lovecraftian nether horrors rather than LoTR style fantasy dragons and centaurs. I’m not saying you couldn’t, but i don’t think it fits with the current theme of the game, so just making them a mod would probably be best.

[Umbra.Animo]

ok for the fantasy mutations. but with the clothing thing im was also talking power armor

[darktoes]

That’s a balance thing as much as realism. Heavily mutated characters have a lot of bonuses, putting power armour on top of that would be really unbalanced, so it’s left as an advantage for unmutated characters.

That said, it would be pretty much impossible for a survivor to modify power armour to accomodate a tail/horns/massive size and still maintain functionality.

[Eastwardrope91]

Maybe the salvaged power armor could be modded for it as it has no parts to move it. But it probably shouldn’t be allowed for balance reasons.

[darktoes]

Salvaged power armor is a possibility, but it would probably require two sets to make an oversized suit, and it wouldn’t offer the protection of the standard suit.

[Umbra.Animo]

persoanly i feel if your smart enough you could modify the armor. i did add in the orginal posting that forgot here that you have learn how through a book or maybe blueprints that are hard to find and i find locking out a armor just becuase of something that could happen in game with no control is unbalance (yes i know you can self mutate but you also can be mutated through unknown radiated areas)

[darktoes]

It’s less about intelligence and more about tools and knowledge. It’s military-grade powered armor, not something you can take an angle grinder to and expect it to still work afterwards.

You can get PA incompatible mutations easily enough, yes, but purifier is as common as, if not more common than, mutagen and mutation causing things. Most of the incompatible mutations are quite strong, so getting them is usually going to be a reasonably fair trade for not being able to use power armor. It seems fair to me to restrict the strongest armor to largely unmutated characters and if you get a mutation by accident you can easily purify it away.

[Eastwardrope91]

But the power area also still works for the strongest mutation in class of armour and life; Medical. This means practically nothing can harm you(on top of armour levels that stop all but the hardest of attacks). So it is a bit unbalanced for medical/alpha and same such.

[darktoes]

Medical protects you mainly against pain and acid if memory serves. Two things power armor already pretty much protects you against, so using them both together makes absolutely no difference. The unbalanced version would be a post-threshold Ursine mutant, who has a ridiculous +12 strength (or whatever it is) walking around in tank armor as well. Medical, Elf-a, and Alpha are designed as offshoots of humanity, they capitalize on the advantages a baseline human has like endurance, durability, and dexterity. Something like the Ursine mutation tree is designed as a specialist. It funnels the player into a specific playstyle while giving them mutations that make that playstyle easier/actually practical.

Letting characters with any mutation wear power armor has two main effects:

1. “Base” humans become weaker, since one of their few advantages over mutation lines is now gone.
2. Makes all the mutation lines even stronger than they are (and most of them are VERY strong).

This would lead to a severe imbalance as Ursine and Chimera mutants are suddenly the undisputed best combat build. Maybe they can’t use vehicles, but they’re a walking tank on their own and have no need of it. I might be exaggerating a bit, but the actual idea is true.

Recap: The human’s advantage is their ability to wield tools and wear armour, giving them versatility. Mutants’ advantage is their massive baseline stats and natural weapons/armor, making them specialized, but extremely good at what they do (usually melee combat). Letting all mutants wear power armor is a step away from that balance, and another step towards an unbalanced mess of a game.

[Eastwardrope91]

Medical give you the TAAAAAANKK mutation(think that’s enough a’s) and regeneration along with slot of other health buffs making you immune to pain and enjoy it as well as preventing acid damage. The description for it on the Wiki is something like this tree let’s you take a shotgun blast and laugh it off it also makes you immune to any illness infection or otherwise.

[darktoes]

Wiki says solidly built but not TAAAAANK, though it still gets a good 60% extra HP. That said, that’s the point of medical. It makes you a tank. So putting more tank armor over the top doesn’t actually make as much difference as, say, taking a glass cannon (Raptor, Bird) and putting tank armor over the top to cover the few weaknesses they have.

[Eastwardrope91]

A tank with tank armour is … Super Tank? Either way it makes you unkillable. Being unkillable is kinda OP. Just saying. But I agree with the idea that mutated people shouldn’t get shiny power armour. It’d kinda make sense if the power armor checked for humanness seeing as the scientists knew that their were things that are humanish so they would make their strongest weapons and such keyed only too human genes. Having it like prethreshold is fine for it(if you can wear it physically) so only none mutated people could use it so you don’t have unkillable tank god.

[darktoes]

A super tank is still a tank. It just builds on the strength rather than covering the weakness like you get with a glass cannon in power armor. If they’re unkillable that’s a problem with the armor itself or the strength of the enemies.

Checking for “humanness” sounds like a pain in the ass and kind of stupid honestly. The way it works is fine in my opinion.

[Umbra.Animo]

ok fine people are asshole and dont want mutations to have armor guess no one likes logic fine whatever

[Eastwardrope91]

I never said they couldn’t have armour I just agreed with the idea of them not having power armour at least not the most powerful incarnations.

[Wayticus]

Sure lets add it so you can craft power armor, what do you think the requirements should be?

I’d say 10 elec, 10 fab, 10 mech, high computer skills, some first aid, and the facility is at the bottom of a military bunker, full of soldiers, grenadiers, and bio operators of course. Some wearing power armor themselves.

For an over sized suit you would need at least twice the material for a regular suit, and would have to go gather a lot of resources. Seeing as you can’t just tear a circuit board apart and add it to another to make it bigger, got to extend/create all the internal circuits.
What special tools will be added to the game to work on the suit, can’t use a basic welder won’t work for that armor addition, basic solder iron won’t work for the micro connections, and since it would most likely be based on optical connections, not at all.

So many other things to consider that would be needed, not sure if it would be worth the effort for players to make a suit that far into the game to fit their god like mutant cyborg.