Ice labs will be pulled into the dev version soon, and at the moment they are identical to regular labs, except they are ice cold. I was hoping some creative forum members could draft some unique rooms, finales, lore, monsters, and loot to go into this ice lab.
Pretty please :3
Well they could have scientist’s frozen in ice blocks that are smashable.
And new creature’s called Ice men or something more creative
Ice Men: They have sharp arms like a sword and crystal clear skin, they look like prisms with the black-goo flowing through its body.
Does piercing damage and melt into tainted water when set on fire.
Frigid Zombies. More brittle and thus take less to kill, are more prone to dismemberment through blunt objects, but have higher bash damage and cut damage. Cannot bite. Moves somewhat slower than a regular Zed. Could also spawn in winter, in both cases because zombies do not maintain homeostasis, and thus there is nothing preventing them from freezing in the winter. Will become a regular zombie if internal temperature is well enough above freezing.
And frozen zombies, which are harmless until thaw out enough to become a frigid zombie if internal temperatures are just above freezing. Best to kill them while they’re in this state, just to be safe.
Oh yeah, I am making temperature affect critters now too. So saying things like “ice zombies are immune to cold, whereas regular zombies are not” is a perfectly legitimate statement!
I like the ideas so far.
Cold temperatures should numb pain, but increase how much cutting damage you take.
Also, frozen corpses suspended in action would be cool
"This scientist is frozen, his mouth open and talking."
"This scientist is on all fours, frozen solid."
"This scientist was screaming before his body was frozen."
"This scientist was holding something up before his body was frozen."
"This rabbit stares nonchalant at you, its body completely iced over."
"This squirrel sits stretched, unable to move from the cold, its corpse preserved."
"This human corpse holds a frozen Zippo lighter. Too bad it's broken."Well, the finale is already set: an active Portal finale with the Coldness coming therefrom.
You could probably have a cryovat rather than the clone-tanks: various critter specimens (such as Amigara Horrors, for instance) kept on ice just in case. Use a computer to retrieve and (in theory) thaw.
Probably would be a greater proportion of cold-weather gear here than in typical Labs: they knew, to some degree, what they were dealing with. Might be able to find some of that (links go to commercial sites, sorry) First Ascent or North Face slimline, low-Encumbrance mountaineering gear.
Someone probably made a freezethrower, knowing Cata scientists…can’t find a good link for the Alice Icewand, though. 
Room full of beer will be funny.
I think what would be awesome is if, despite all their threats, large parts of the labs were just blocked by ice. And that ice contained within it stuff that was even worse.
Also, if we’re talking an active portal at the center to a cold realm, I can think of some good creatures to go with that, I think.
So what do we associate with cold - cutting cold, piercing cold, exhaustion, tiredness, numbing, pervasive, things solidifying, things sliding…
In the cold, everything is predatory. Life is hard, and you survive by killing others or by being so small they can’t be bothered to kill you…
first up:
Sylphs Sylphs are almost etheral beings, that make sounds in the air as they move reminiscent of wind chimes, and appear to be formed of complex patterns, shifting and moving and interlocking. They are creatures of the cold, creatures of a world utterly lacking in easy energy, and despite thier appearances are incredibly aggressive when not dormant. When still, they are almost invisible against the ice, and their clear bodies blend in well with most anything else too - but if disturbed, they strike. They will lock on to sources of heat, and close quickly, draining what heat the target possesses in a matter of seconds - their primary method of attack is the efficiency with which they can pull heat from their surroundings. They will also extinguish flames, gaining energy in the process, and will seek out warmer places, which they will make cold through their presence if the place is warmer than them. When enough energy has been collected and all immediate heat sources have been consumed, they will try to replicate, on the spot. The saving grace is their their adaptation to a cold world means that they will continue to feed, regardless of the costs, so long as energy is available - and it can not hold itself together under high amounts of energy. If it feeds on too much, too quickly, it will shatter. The limitless amounts of energy on the surface are effectively a death sentence.
Mechanics: Starts “dormant” and invisible. Wakes if player tries to enter square, moves next to square in any of the 8 directions, or starts a fire within a map tile. Special actions notes heat sources (including living creatures) on nearby tiles. Will reduce the heat on that tile, putting out any fires or “chilling” any creatures and gaining a portion of the “warmth” in return, assuming the tile is warmer than this creature. Has infravision. When it reaches enough energy, and there are no warmer targets, it creates a copy of itself and both are reduced to baseline temperature. If it reaches a certain warmth value, it will simply die and the heat will be released onto the square it’s on. Moves quickly, but not terribly durable. Attracted to fire and heat. Cannot bash down doors or windows.
Drops: “Shards” - these will break down in high heat, 80+ temp days, but can be used to make an incredibly sharp piercing weapon, “Sharp Spear”. (which will also break in 80+ temp days)
Collaborative effort between Me, Pthalocy, and kevingranade:
The Wendigo
The Wendigo is not a creature. It is a way of life. By which I mean a parasite. Creatures in or near a cold lab has a high chance to be ‘infected’, an invisible status that makes them far more aggressive. Their meat will be infected as well, and the player will gain the Wendigo status if they eat it - and maybe if they get bitten by a creature with it and survive. Eating body parts or fetuses from the ice labs may result in the same effect.
The Wendigo parasite will take about a day before you see the first effects - your character will (slowly, but increasingly) get hungrier, faster. You will need to eat more, and more often. Meat, fresh meat, will be the only thing that can truly contain your hunger, and even that is temporary. You may not need food as much as you feel you do, but you WILL need more of it, and you will suffer morale penalties if you can’t keep yourself fed.
[quote=“GlyphGryph, post:9, topic:2816”]Collaborative effort between Me, Pthalocy, and kevingranade:
The Wendigo
The Wendigo is not a creature. It is a way of life. By which I mean a parasite. Creatures in or near a cold lab has a high chance to be ‘infected’, an invisible status that makes them far more aggressive. Their meat will be infected as well, and the player will gain the Wendigo status if they eat it - and maybe if they get bitten by a creature with it and survive. Eating body parts or fetuses from the ice labs may result in the same effect.
The Wendigo parasite will take about a day before you see the first effects - your character will (slowly, but increasingly) get hungrier, faster. You will need to eat more, and more often. Meat, fresh meat, will be the only thing that can truly contain your hunger, and even that is temporary. You may not need food as much as you feel you do, but you WILL need more of it, and you will suffer morale penalties if you can’t keep yourself fed.[/quote]
Blood Filter.
Actually with all the cold-tiles that would be designed for the labs, they’d be easily implemented into liquor or grocery store back rooms, assuming the store still has power. Multi-purpose! But still mostly for killing you dead.
And if you don’t happen to have one? B)
[quote=“GlyphGryph, post:9, topic:2816”]Collaborative effort between Me, Pthalocy, and kevingranade:
The Wendigo
The Wendigo is not a creature. It is a way of life. By which I mean a parasite. Creatures in or near a cold lab has a high chance to be ‘infected’, an invisible status that makes them far more aggressive. Their meat will be infected as well, and the player will gain the Wendigo status if they eat it - and maybe if they get bitten by a creature with it and survive. Eating body parts or fetuses from the ice labs may result in the same effect.
The Wendigo parasite will take about a day before you see the first effects - your character will (slowly, but increasingly) get hungrier, faster. You will need to eat more, and more often. Meat, fresh meat, will be the only thing that can truly contain your hunger, and even that is temporary. You may not need food as much as you feel you do, but you WILL need more of it, and you will suffer morale penalties if you can’t keep yourself fed.[/quote]
So in other words its a wired reflexes + Internal Furnace
Actually with all the cold-tiles that would be designed for the labs, they’d be easily implemented into liquor or grocery store back rooms, assuming the store still has power. Multi-purpose! But still mostly for killing you dead.
And if you don’t happen to have one? B)[/quote]
Royal Jelly. And if that doesn’t work, finally get a working Code:Blocks and make the necessary changes.
Re detahramet: No, it’s basically just a practically-unavoidable penalty status, so far as I can tell. (At least for melee fighters.) If there’s any benefit to Wendigo, I missed it.
Which is why the Oppose flag is sitting around where I threw it.
Well if it speed up your character, making them attack and run faster, then one can easily hunt down and suplex a few squirels. Actually you could probably treat this Wendigo virus as a mixed blessing. As time goes on, your character becomes insatiably hungry, but also quicker, as GG said, but perhaps your strength perception could also increase with time, but at the cost if intelligence dropping slowly. You would become more resistant to food-borne illnesses and poisons, able to eat tainted meat with no real penalty beyond moral, but even moral starts to decrease less from eating uncooked food. As time goes on, uninfected NPCs start to agro against you on site, or run the fuck away. Eventually your moral will drop if you haven’t gone to hunt recently, initially starting at maybe once three days or so, down to if you haven’t hunt within the last hour. Hunting, or more accurately, killing things, would give a minor stacking morale bonus, +1 or +2 per kill, though that can increase in time. Basicly as time moving on, the more bestial you become, at the cost of complete and total alienation by anyone you ever meet that isnt as you are, at the cost of higher need for nutrition, and the cost of intelligence.
Perhaps the virus should be able to spread through bites? i guess it would depend on the lore around it.
If The Wendigo is a parasite that likes cold, maybe keeping yourself warm should kill it.
[quote=“detahramet, post:14, topic:2816”]Well if it speed up your character, making them attack and run faster, then one can easily hunt down and suplex a few squirels. Actually you could probably treat this Wendigo virus as a mixed blessing. As time goes on, your character becomes insatiably hungry, but also quicker, as GG said, but perhaps your strength perception could also increase with time, but at the cost if intelligence dropping slowly. You would become more resistant to food-borne illnesses and poisons, able to eat tainted meat with no real penalty beyond moral, but even moral starts to decrease less from eating uncooked food. As time goes on, uninfected NPCs start to agro against you on site, or run the fuck away. Eventually your moral will drop if you haven’t gone to hunt recently, initially starting at maybe once three days or so, down to if you haven’t hunt within the last hour. Hunting, or more accurately, killing things, would give a minor stacking morale bonus, +1 or +2 per kill, though that can increase in time. Basicly as time moving on, the more bestial you become, at the cost of complete and total alienation by anyone you ever meet that isnt as you are, at the cost of higher need for nutrition, and the cost of intelligence.
Perhaps the virus should be able to spread through bites? i guess it would depend on the lore around it.[/quote]
Now if the character actually got bonuses to DX and ST, even with the IN penalty and hunger problems, that would bear thinking about. As it stands, GlyphGryph only specified an aggression boost for the critters, and a hunger boost for the player.
(I would be curious how the parasite infected meat sealed in clone tanks, incidentally. Probably a Blob-in-groundwater type of argument.)
well, perhaps not kill it, but slow its rate of advance maybe?
Or, its possible its a parasite that goes dormant in the cold, and because those that are infected with it have to eat more, the body temperature would rise with increased metabolism, so there is a very real chance that keeping yourself warm might actually help it to grow.
[quote=“KA101, post:16, topic:2816”]Now if the character actually got bonuses to DX and ST, even with the IN penalty and hunger problems, that would bear thinking about. As it stands, GlyphGryph only specified an aggression boost for the critters, and a hunger boost for the player.
(I would be curious how the parasite infected meat sealed in clone tanks, incidentally. Probably a Blob-in-groundwater type of argument.)[/quote]
Perhaps the DX and ST bonuses should be extremely minor, +3 after several weeks maybe? as for the INT penalty, it has to be very, very severe, -9 after several weeks? Of course this all applies to critters that are infected with it also. Just think about it, Bears with final stage Wendigo! Or, if they can infect netherbeasts, just imagine Jabberwocks infected with Windigo…
Are you doing anything with ice affecting movement? As in, you go slipping and sliding over icy patches formed from spilled liquids or condensation.
Melee attacks could have automatic knockback (on both participants) in such areas. You could maybe introduce a Spiked Boots item that cancels or mitigates the effect.
New monster suggestion: Blobcicle. These are Blobs that have become frozen into a semi-crystalline form. They’re still active, but they really don’t like the cold and are driven to warm up any way they can.
A Blobcicle will go after any living being it sees, for its warmth. Their crystalline form inflicts cutting damage as they huddle in for warmth, but they also steal body heat, inflicting a hefty penalty to the warmth rating of whichever body part they strike, which persists for several minutes.
Slippery floors sound like a good idea.
Anyway, ice sculptures, just because. Maybe even animated ice sculptures that attack you and drop chunks of ice when killed or smashed.
Ice that improves the morale bonus from drinks. 
’this is a well-crafted image of the London Tower bridge in ice. It glistens with menacing spikes of SCIENCE.’
As to parasites, it should be relatively simple for something to infect you even in a cold environment through open wounds or airborne spores, but what’s likely to happen is that you leave the lab and they thaw, initiating the incubation stage…
Perhaps something that gives you a ‘cold-dependant’ trait.
[quote=“KA101, post:13, topic:2816”]Re detahramet: No, it’s basically just a practically-unavoidable penalty status, so far as I can tell. (At least for melee fighters.) If there’s any benefit to Wendigo, I missed it.
Which is why the Oppose flag is sitting around where I threw it.[/quote]
It’s very easily avoidable once you figure it out, and it has the same cures the other diseases do - it’s honestly more easily avoidable than (for instance) the fungal disease. If you read the lab computers in the cold lab, you should learn quite a bit about it and how they managed to treat it. It’s something that’s manageable, and takes plenty of time, giving the player a chance to respond to it (even if they won’t originally know what caused it until they’ve had a chance to figure it out).
Also, it doesn’t like the cold so much as it tolerates extreme code. It much prefers a nice, warm host. Like, for example, the…
Fur Worm
This large, multi-tile creature is covered lots of cushiony, thick hairlike material. It slides through the corridors of the cold labs looking for it’s next meal. It’s capable of burrowing through ice, slowly - but it usually only does this so as to build a comfy little home for itself, safe from the predation of the larger creatures on it’s home plane (thankfully, creates we don’t have to worry about here).
Mechanics:They can be encountered roaming around, or waiting in their burrows to see the player walk by and rush out at them. Good landspeed, very damaging attack. Cannot move “backwards” but only needs a 2-tile wide corridor to turn around in.