[PR] Lizard abilities, wolf heals, and hair powers

[BlackPhoenix]

Are you able to get any of those other mutant races as a spacebux purchase? Has it just been that damn long since I've looked at the Spacebux menu?

[sodly]

I think would be prevalent to point out that most of those servers, if not all, that have the different races are ERP servers, whereas Goon is not.

Just about every TG-based and Baystation-based server that isn't themed after a specific property or RL time period has alien races in character setup, and 'all other servers are ERP servers' would be a hell of a claim.

[BlackPhoenix]

Well I'll be a monkey's uncle, you can. I'm a little iffy on anything like that being spacebux, but if we're going that route for things then I'm less opposed. I worry about the organ harvesting problems that may be caused, but everything has the potential to be abused really.

[Mouse]

I feel it should be noted that skeletons have a MAJOR advantage and disadvantage in that they heal from consuming milk, but can not be cloned without the necroscan module.

They can't be cloned with the necroscan module.  They're hardcoded to be completely uncloneable.

[moonlol]

the disadvantage of skeletons is also technically an advantage since you get 2 free trait points for no extra cost (puritan)

[kyle2143]

Honestly I do get the concern that this would add big changes to a spacebux purchase. Offerring significant gameplay changes for spending spacebux, which is a departure from how we've always handled spacebux.

I have thought in the past that spacebux is a bad thing to have for different races. For one thing, the races aren't as fleshed out lore wise or mechanics wise for my liking. I know people just like them as solely an aesthetic choice, but it's just so boring that way that in that case I feel like they shouldn't even exist if that's all they did.

Maybe we should remove mutant races from being something that players can choose for themselves on round start and go back to only being able to be turned into one via mechanics like chems or genetics in-game.

[BlackPhoenix]

Honestly I do get the concern that this would add big changes to a spacebux purchase. Offerring significant gameplay changes for spending spacebux, which is a departure from how we've always handled spacebux.

I have thought in the past that spacebux is a bad thing to have for different races. For one thing, the races aren't as fleshed out lore wise or mechanics wise for my liking. I know people just like them as solely an aesthetic choice, but it's just so boring that way that in that case I feel like they shouldn't even exist if that's all they did.

Maybe we should remove mutant races from being something that players can choose for themselves on round start and go back to only being able to be turned into one via mechanics like chems or genetics in-game.

This is kinda where I'm at? I get that everyone shits on genetics but like, it being the way you got the weird body types was a good reason for them to have some kind of mechanical changes to me. I try to make a habit when playing gene-man of always giving folks weird body types if they ask for them and I'm able.

[Superlagg]

Honestly I do get the concern that this would add big changes to a spacebux purchase. Offerring significant gameplay changes for spending spacebux, which is a departure from how we've always handled spacebux.

I have thought in the past that spacebux is a bad thing to have for different races. For one thing, the races aren't as fleshed out lore wise or mechanics wise for my liking. I know people just like them as solely an aesthetic choice, but it's just so boring that way that in that case I feel like they shouldn't even exist if that's all they did.

Maybe we should remove mutant races from being something that players can choose for themselves on round start and go back to only being able to be turned into one via mechanics like chems or genetics in-game.

I've been doing this sort of thing for just about the opposite of this, to make them more of something worth picking at roundstart, possibly even through character creation.

[Frank_Stein]

I don't hate this, but I think it's too complicated. Just make it a long cooldown to change colors, or require standing still for awhile. Better yet, make it a unique version of an existing power like Chameleon or Mimic when combined with Lizard DNA

I don't think it needs the whole thing where it's refilled specifically by eating organs.

Personally, I'd love to see lizards get the ability to lose their tails, maybe getting a speed boost until it grows back

[Superlagg]

I don't hate this, but I think it's too complicated. Just make it a long cooldown to change colors, or require standing still for awhile. Better yet, make it a unique version of an existing power like Chameleon or Mimic when combined with Lizard DNA

I don't think it needs the whole thing where it's refilled specifically by eating organs.

I suppose I could move it away from eating organs. It's mainly there cus I already have my lizard eat just about every organ she finds, and I thought hey, maybe I could turn that "quirk" into an actual lizard thing and make it do something.

Come to think of it, something like this (the eating organs or whatever) would be useful to encourage lizard players to do very much non-human things. Basically using game mechanics to get players to do non-human things without outright forcing them.

Personally, I'd love to see lizards get the ability to lose their tails, maybe getting a speed boost until it grows back

I actually made a PR that did that a while back. Every tail-having mutant race could have their tail severed, and they'd become clumsy until it got replaced. It also allowed you to swap around tails, and since they were technically an organ, you could also attach them to a human.

I eventually folded it into a much larger PR that lets mutants get visibly dismembered, which i'm also considering breaking into multiple, more mergeable pieces.

I should probably split the heat-sensitive organs into their own PR, too.

[Frank_Stein]

Yeah, I think just giving organ meats a boost to heal for lizards would be nice. It would tie nicely into the chef if they have to take into consideration the dietary needs of different species in their meal prep.

Cows could get a boost for Veggies and Grains, Skeletons for dairy, Roaches for rancid food, Sea food for Squids, etc...

That could be a good direction to take that in.

[phyvo]

I dunno about lizards changing colors. Seems like one of those features that just a few people will use, maybe it has some light RP value, but is it worth the dev time and extra code? There's also the problem where making mutant races extra special, however you do it and however it's balanced, means that their current tie to spacebux becomes increasingly dumb.

[Drago156]

I dunno about lizards changing colors. Seems like one of those features that just a few people will use, maybe it has some light RP value, but is it worth the dev time and extra code? There's also the problem where making mutant races extra special, however you do it and however it's balanced, means that their current tie to spacebux becomes increasingly dumb.

I mean, superlagg has already put in the time and effort to code it though, no? This thread is to decide rather if that code goes in, if I'm understanding how the PR stuff works.

As for the extra specialness thing I agree, at most just add the color changing thing on its own and nothing else.

[phyvo]

I guess when I'm thinking of extra code cost I'm thinking of the cost of maintaining that code. But since I'm not a maintainer with any experience I can't really say how much of an issue that would be.

If we did tie races to something other than spacebux, which I think makes sense and opens up some nice opportunities (like lizard + alternate jumpsuit or w/e), my objection to giving races greater differences goes away. As long as we keep in mind that we should avoid mutant races being "better" than humans in the metagaming sense and spread out the love between all the mutants rather than giving lizards all the cool toys. I already feel bad that cows/skeletons/roaches have fewer customization options than lizards.

I also think it would be interesting if the current mutants remained mostly human variants but we had the option for other really "different" races that are weirder and more code-intensive. Potentially weirder than plasmamen and vgstation Vox. But that's a whole other thread for sure.

[Superlagg]

Okay, I removed the heat-fucky organs from this PR and moved it to another branch for a future PR.