Ideas for a draconic mutation branch [WIP]

Game Talk The Lab
1

I recall the idea has cropped up before in a few threads, and I’m sure tentative homebrew mods have been toyed with (hell, I’ve played with the idea too), but I’m not sure if anyone’s uploaded or PR’d definitive work on the concept, nor have I seen a thread dedicated to discussing the idea.

So I’ll start by giving a few ideas on adding such an idea, possibly as a mod, and what might suit it.

First off, bat wings. As it stands these are a derpy non-category trait that doesn’t seem to cause any encumbrance or hinder clothing, but DOES give a nasty -3 to dodge. It might be an interesting idea to add an additional trait that develops from this, as proper dragon wings. Since .json only gives us control over some things like stat mods, wetness penalties, and how ugly it makes us, we could easily make this a cosmetic trait, and simply imply that the character has gotten used to moving with said wings, but can’t fly with them.

As for other ideas, anything more involved would require source edits. It would be amusing to have them as valid professions as well, solely for demonstration and testing. We could also consider just how draconic said mutant could become, with two possibly interpretations.

chao__s_default_form_by_chaosvolt-d3j1mhl.png807×608

Two convenient images to demonstrate what I meant. In the case of mutant characters we could have more extreme mutations be post-threshold, which a draconic mutant trending towards essentially just a human with wings/tail/etc before reaching the threshold, then developing to a larger form resembling a bipedal dragon.

EDIT: Toying around with ideas for it, I has a mod now. Gonna dropbox it for the time being, unlike the last mod I offered up, I don’t think this really warrants a PR.

Dropbox Page Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tqg9a26bwhwgubx/Dragonblood_Test.zip?dl=0

Direct Public Link: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/89427928/Dragonblood_Test.zip

2

Would this be an alternative chimera with wings?
Or are you aiming to a more “fantasy” dragon aka NOT an animal?

3

More fantasy-like to some extent. Fire breath won’t be a thing yet, but general traits granting the appearance would be interesting.

4

From view point of other mutations, I think the “dragon” mutant would look like the latter example. Most mutations mutate quite heavily how your character looks like.

Reason I’m pretty much against dragons is that they cover what lizard mutation covers + fire breath (Dragons breath fire!!), wings (All dragons fly!!) and added strength (Dragon is stronger than lizard!1!).

Currently you can get quite dragonish with mutations so you could think that a scientist would combine some dna to make winged lizard which would not breath fire but would be closest to dragon you could with splicing. With this you could make dragon mutation who would be mitch match of different animals. No fire breath though. You could get lase gaze, almost as easy to justify with SCIENCE!

5

Maybe. I kinda like the idea of the anthro form, and ideally all the really !!FUN!! mutations in general, being post-threshold.

I’ll admit I’m not sure about fire breath either. Right now the only new trait this implementation of the idea has is a cosmetic wings trait. Fire resistance or such might be interesting maybe.

The idea of a dragon-like mutant category would be interesting as a variant of chimera or lizard though. We already have beast variants and numerous other mammals as categoriy, whereas non-mammal categories are rather generic.

6

I’m planning on adding a spitter zed -style acid attack one of these days. When I do, you could go the route of black chromatic dragons in Dungeons and Dragons, and have your dragon-mutants barfing concentrated acid on their foes instead of fire.

7

Ah, that could work quite well. Definitely the mad-science take on dragonbreath.

8

After trying out this mod I came across a bug, when trying to mutate the ‘Dragon Wings’ when not using the Dragon Blood Profession.

Edit: To be honest, it was an easy fix, Remove the requirement of the Bat Wings and done.

Ivu7dtK.jpg1440×888

9

Oh wow that is horridly derp. I tried to tweak it to ensure that it would be a one-way mutation, but oh well. :V

10

Fire breath could be made in a way similar to bombardier beetles in real life.

If you had a two-bladder system with swallowed gasoline in one bladder and an igniter in another you could be a fire-breathing dragon.

11

Possibly. The sooner we get more jsonized mutation properties, the sooner one can muck about with things like this without having to PR it. o3o

For now though, wings should be fixed.

12

I’m planning on adding a spitter zed -style acid attack one of these days. When I do, you could go the route of black chromatic dragons in Dungeons and Dragons, and have your dragon-mutants barfing concentrated acid on their foes instead of fire.[/quote]

Shit that was exactly where I was gonna take my suggestion.

Though I had an idea for wings being more like really thick leathery hand things, so they’d prove defensive rather than mobility-granting. Maybe you could hunker down under your own tanky wings turtle-style, but not get the storage bonuses? Either way it’d be a great argument for why you can’t fly with them, that also lets them be more than cosmetic. Big free umbrella.

13

Ooh, also potentially useful. owo

14

I had a different dragon character I designed once, modeled like a mix of bear, alligator, mole and badger. It’s wings were pretty much huge shovels to assist with burrowing. Is there a potential use for that ingame?

15

Beargatmolger? o3o

And maybe, body parts that count as having tool qualities are always neat. Being able to use talons and similar for low/negative quality butchering is a common suggestion.

16

What about basing some of it off the Dark Wyrms you encounter in Mines? A winged-lizard-nightcrawler hybrid that can both burrow and spit acid sounds realistically draconic. And exactly like something a government scientist looking for funding would cook up, digging to move around undetected and undermine enemy fortifications, the utilization of acid to destory equipment and vital infastructure while simultaneously useful to maim instead of kill enemy personnel. I’d fund it.

17

Hmm, could be an interesting idea. o.o

18

That helps to keep it in line with existing content too, making it comparable to an existing mob spawn. As cool as classic looking dragons are, they’re also kinda plain as-is, so this spices it up a bit and makes it distinctly CDDA.

19

True, though fire is gloriously !!FUN!! and thus fire breath with be way more of a double-edged sword to actually use. You’d need to choose between burning the wicked enemies before you, versus not toasting your house/forest/city/planet.

20

Perhaps you could split it into two separate Mutation Categories? One could be a more traditional fantasy inspired Dragon mutation branch, that’d work well with the other fantasy mods already in the lineup. Then we could have a more Cataclsym appropriate lizard-worm hybrid (‘Drake’ maybe?), the solar sensitivity line of traits would mesh well with balancing a character who could spit acid on demand and dig through just about anything.