Should contradicting mutations exist in the same category?

[Junknown]

I’ve been trying to make a mod where you have the option to start as a fully mutated mutant, and while I was working on it I discovered that quite a few mutation categories have conflicting or outright contradicting mutations in the same tree. While some of the conflicting mutations make sense to be in the same tree (you obviously can’t have two beaks at once), others don’t.

For example, Lupine and Feline both can have anything from pretty to deformed. So what are are furry mutants expected to be; pretty, ugly or deformed?

Raptor has coldblooded and very fast metabolism. This wouldn’t be a problem if the mutations weren’t incompatible, which leads to the question are raptors supposed to be very active and demand higher maintenance or are they supposed to conserve energy but be somewhat sluggish?

Beast has both animal empathy and animal discord. Is beast supposed to make animals friendlier to us or more hostile?

Perhaps I’m the only one who finds this somewhat annoying, so I wanted to hear the opinion of other people on this matter.

[Tazeell]

Well that’s easy, some felines breeds are ugly as sin, some are beautiful. Guess it depends if the batch was made with a pretty cat or not. Probably same logic for lupine though I’ve never seen an ugly wolf it could just be how it merges with the human features. Either they’ll mesh seamlessly or you’ll look like an abomination. Think Skaven vs sexy furry since, I sure know my ratty occasionally flipped between the two.

The raptor one is confusing to be sure. dino’s had very fast metabolisms but heat dependent and all that line deletes it so… I don’t know what beast is supposed to be based off so can’t comment there.

[Litppunk]

Little out of my depth here so someone please correct me if I am too far off base, but;
You can’t have two conflicting mutations at once, so they will overwrite depending on your luck you will get one or the other.

They are mutations, and as such not strictly linear. Cancer is a kind of mutation, luckily the blob sees self-destructive mutations like that as unwanted and culls them So we don’t see stuff like that in game. It is less picky about survival strategies and aesthetics, so its a total crap shoot as to what you get if it is not considered a potentially useful trait.

Whether or not it is useful to/on you currently is also besides the point it is experimenting/ testing on a macro scale for use latter as it wars against bigger foes elsewhere:

(Triffids, Fungloids etc.) We are a backwater peripheral for this war, mere territory to be claimed both as the orignal purpose and to increase resources to use in the fight against each other to decide who rules all.

[Krisu]

I would just put them into negative or positive traits if you could, to give the player some versatility.

[Junknown]

Little out of my depth here so someone please correct me if I am too far off base, but;
You can’t have two conflicting mutations at once, so they will overwrite depending on your luck you will get one or the other.

This is true, and it is exactly the problem i have with contradicting mutations in the same tree. I dislike drinking bottles raptor mutagen only to be shifting between the coldblooded line and the fast metabolism line instead of gaining new mutations.

They are mutations, and as such not strictly linear. Cancer is a kind of mutation, luckily the blob sees self-destructive mutations like that as unwanted and culls them So we don’t see stuff like that in game. It is less picky about survival strategies and aesthetics, so its a total crap shoot as to what you get if it is not considered a potentially useful trait.

A bit off topic but this statement isn’t entirely true as the blob doesn’t see any problems with disintegration

I would just put them into negative or positive traits if you could, to give the player some versatility.

I should have specified that this thread isn’t about my WIP mod, it is meant to discuss whether there should be mutations with opposite effects in the same mutation group (like regeneration and disintegration) or not.

[Litppunk]

A bit off topic but this statement isn’t entirely true as the blob doesn’t see any problems with disintegration

Oh yeah, I forgot that was a thing…havn’t gotten that far before XD Always get killed by indecisiveness before then.

Hmm… Guess it just goes back to mutations are totally random and your progress through the tree can only be vaguely pushed in one direction or another.

[BushElito]

I tried to do a similar mod - actually the same - but ran with similar problems (and some nasty bugs, but that’s beside the point).

I think there should stay a choice. The problem is the randomness, it sucks getting the worse mutation.

In the mod I tried to do I simply gave a choice. You want an ugly or a pretty [insert type] mutant? You then either gain a point or not, depending on the choice.

I stopped making the mod because stat mutations were applying before the game started, and mutations didn’t reset when changing, so I ended up with a lizard tree combined with a bird tree - now that’s a chimera!

[Junknown]

Yeah I encountered a lot of bugs like you mentioned. Stat boosters applying immediately and the mutations not reseting alongside other stuff pretty much render the mod way too buggy to work properly.