Bat wings: They work like and cancel out bird and insect wings.
Blindness: You cannot see further than 1 tile without echolocation. You can only read braille books and can only use terminals that have verbal interfaces so we might as well say that this implies illiteracy until you have an OCR (optical character recognition) machine. -3 dex when walking through sharp terrain. Nearsighted and farsighted can transform into this if you have echolocation traits. Can also be a starting trait for -4 points.
Echolocation: You can see 15 squares at any time of the day, even when blind, blinded, in complete darkness, or boomered. Implies enhanced hearing. Adds 4 to sound while walking when not blind, blinded, boomered, or in a very dark place because you use audible noises for this. Can be taken as a starting trait for 4 points due to neuroplasticity.
Ultrasound echolocation: You can see 15 squares at any time of the day, even when blind, blinded, in complete darkness, or boomered. Implies enhanced hearing. Echolocation transforms into this.
Vampirism: You find blood to be appetizing with a morale bonus instead of a penalty
Other traits:
Quick, Deft, Light Step, Bad Back, Glass Jaw, Hollow Bones, High Night Vision, Extremely Dexterous, Nearsighted, Good Hearing, Disease Resistant
We actually already have bat wings as a bad mutation, they reduce your ability to dodge significantly–which I’m all for honestly. I always imagined them as cumbersome sheets of skin hanging under your arms, like real bats.
You’re thinking “bird with a flair”. Blindness and echolocation could fit into Beast and Chimera. Also, real bats are not human-vampiric, Insect would be vampiric. Mutant mosquitos-who-were-human, anyone?
Whiskers failed because I couldn’t render just the terrain. Mutation-based sonar couldn’t be properly handled. Now it can. I may make another batch of mutations next.
(The other candidates were working on an Asian-looking retreat center in the woods, which might or might not have a Maze-O-Traps culminating in a 300-lb red-hot cauldron of coals at the end; or making guns have a noise_mod entry so we could have integral suppressors/muzzle-brakes/gas-vents.)
Just had a suggestion for an existing mutation now that the active mutations are a thing. What if mutants bearing the shell mutation could pull their extremities inside of it?
The effect of doing so would be a noticed raise in armor as well as an inability to see, move or attack. More importantly however it would provide players with a warm, comfortable and inconspicuous place to sleep.
Thoughts?[/quote]
Storage space might get nerfed. Otherwise, approved.
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Post-thresh expansion. Roomy Shell has more armor & better storage, but your body crowds that out if you take shelter inside. Sheltering drops vision and most functions, but provides some warmth and shelters from wind/rain.
Agreed, that bats aren’t actually blind. Their vision and diet varies by bat species, so nearsightedness would will still work like the Reptilian IR mutation in the reptile branch. I like the idea of vampirism as a bat mutation though.
Also, a few more mutations for the bat category:
Grotesque: Already present in rats, belongs because bats look like flying rats.
Nocturnal: It is easier for you to go to sleep at night than in the daytime. Can be taken as a starting trait for -1 point.
You asked for the ability to shelter in a shell, I approved, and I got some time to slam it out. Both you and Ed liked the vomit idea, I’d floated it way back when as a potential active mutation, and I appreciated his joking about “stealthpuke” (because the player vomits w/o noise or mess) so I made it happen.
I’ve heard it mentioned before, but what about a mutation for Insect that lets the player eat rags/leather patches or just clothing for food?
Speaking of which, Insect is an incredibly broad range of different types of, well, insects. Why not split it up into Moth, Beetle, Ant, Scorpion, Fly, etc? Most of the mutations are there already. I might even be able to do some of the coding.
[quote=“TheFlame52, post:254, topic:3755”]I’ve heard it mentioned before, but what about a mutation for Insect that lets the player eat rags/leather patches or just clothing for food?
Speaking of which, Insect is an incredibly broad range of different types of, well, insects. Why not split it up into Moth, Beetle, Ant, Scorpion, Fly, etc? Most of the mutations are there already. I might even be able to do some of the coding.[/quote]
Mutation: it’s an idea. Can be looked into, shouldn’t be too tough, possible conflict with Internal Furnace.
Branched: depends if you’re talking pre- or post-thresh. Having separate thresholds means needing enough differentiated traits that they can clearly peg the char as Ant and not Bee. Post-thresh, leads to problems where one branch cancels another out. Can look into different post-thresh categories but may not have the time.
(I’ve planned a similar branching for Fish, but only two categories makes it somewhat easier than 5-6.)
Unrelated suggestion:
Post-threshhold lizard mutation that allows quicker regeneration of broken limbs.
Had the idea while thinking about designer drugs in comic book universes; thought of Curt Connors from the Spiderman series and what he set out to do. Figured, we already have lizardmen; doesn’t seem too far-fetched to have lizardmen that could regrow limbs.
Out of curiosity would it make sense to split /all/ the mutagen categories into their own files instead of lumping a handful of them into three books? It’d lower the odds of you finding /the exact one you want/ in a lab on your first try at least.
