[MERGED PR] Rework of the creeper plant and introduction of the tumbling creeper m...

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[hydroponics][rework]




About the PR
This PR introduces a new mutation to the creeper plant and reworks how creeper replants themselves.

The creeper plant now replants exact copies of itself, retaining stats, plantgenes and splices. Beyond that, instead of a flat reduction of plant life, the creeper now deals reduceable damage to sorrounding plants. If a creeper mutation plants a seed on an adjecent tray, it will plant a non-mutated variant of itself (this means the new mutation will replant creeper instead of tumbling creeper). Also, it won't replant itself if it has the "seedless" gene.

The creeper gains two possible genes: stabilizer and invasive growth. The invasive growth gene strain makes the creeper more aggressive towards plants. However, if it is spliced into other plants, these plants begin to show the creepers aggressive spreading behaviour as well.

The tumbling creeper plant is a new mutation that adds an interesting dynamic into the plant:

If harvested, it will yield no seeds but tumbling creeper bushes:

These devilish cousin of tumbleweeds are special: While on the ground and unrooted, they try to fling themselves 3-7 tiles with a cooldown of 15 seconds. When they hit a suitable hydroponic tray, they have a 50% chance to root themselves into the ground.
While rooted into the ground, they begin to attack nearby hydroponic plants and replant new creeper in the respectable trays.

Their use is more devious, however. They can be rooted into the ground manually with a 2 second action bar when a garden trowel is used on them.

Once rooted down, any person who moves into the creeper and is above walking speed suffers 12 damage and a 2 seconds stun while being forced onto the ground.
If a human slips or is thrown into a tile with the creeper in place, their flight is stopped, the creeper is destroyed and the person in question suffers 20 damage and a 3 second stun. All damage from the creeper is reduced by "chest"-melee-resistance of the victim.

These stats scale with plant stats. The damage scales with endurance up to 150 endurance. The damage value of stepping into is 8-18 and when thrown into is 16-30.

The creeper can be uprooted by using a snipping tool on it with a 2 second action bar.

Because of the newfound dangerous abilities of the mutation and the normal behaviour of the creeper itself as already very aggressive, the seeds for this plant were removed from the seed dispenser. Instead, you can find this plant in the pool for strange seeds now.

Why's this needed?

This PR gives the Creeper a vaible use while staying in tune with its self-spreading behaviour. The tumblercreepers can be very obnoxious if left unattended in a botany department. Beyond that, they are a perfect fit if a bartender wants to create a western-styled bar.

Since #12407 was not theme-appropriate but the mechanics were considered interesting within the community, this PR tries to add the mechanics of the PR while completely changing the theme. Also, the mass-production is much harder.

Since the plant yields no seeds, is a somewhat robust grass and replants non-mutated creeper, the use of mutagenic chemicals, either in tray or infusion, is the most efficient way to grow this mutation.

The scaling with stats and inherition of splices is meant to be a challenge for veteran-botanists, akin to potato batteries. Infusion spam is impossible without splicing a high-stated plant onto creeper and the possibility for the plant to generate the stabilizer gene increases the difficulty additionally.

The move of this plant to strange seeds was made due to feedback pointing at the plant being very antagonistic in nature. Since NT probably would not like them on station, they were moved to the loot you can aquire for botany in the form of strange seeds. Many of the plants in the pool are either very valuable (rock) or quite antagonistic (peeker), so this place fits the creeper quite well.

Changelog

Code:

changelog
(u)Lord_Earthfire
(*)Added the tumbling creeper mutation to the creeper. These devious cousins of tumbleweeds can be used as devious traps and fling themselves across the room onto new hydroponic trays when not taken care of!
(+)The creeper plant was removed from the seed dispenser and can now be found in strange seeds
(+)The creeper plant will pass splices, genes and stats onto planted creeper
(+)The creeper plant now has 2 new possible plantgenes: stabilizer and invasive growth.

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