Critter ecology: a proposal to enhance critter behavior and interaction

[Berrik]

The basic thought here: let's make critter interaction more interesting/potentially fun, so that people have a reason to do more with the random roaches/bumblespiders/space mice/bats/etc that end up around the station. Or, at the very least, make their behavior more interesting than it currently is.

This is about critter lifestyle and predation (where applicable).


First off: over time, all critters will eat stuff they like (or tolerate, if they can't find their favorite foods) and use it to grow and reproduce, doing something special where applicable. They can also have dynamic colors like bees can, depending on what they eat! They should only reproduce up to a certain limit per map, as having exponentially reproducing critter swarms would probably be bad! I guess the best way to start this would be to go over the most common ones and what their expected behaviors would be. Obviously to make all this work, AI changes would be neccesary, as well as an increase in their detection range.

Space Roach



Space roaches are harmless, but also useless (at least to spacemen); they prefer nibbling on dead bodies, but will nibble on food left on the floor as well. Some other critters will eat them, though. 

Space Mouse


Another bottom tier creature, also mostly useless like roaches. The bane of every chef, they'll make a beeline for food. Other critters eat these too.

Bumblespider


Now we're talking. These eat space roaches and space mice (and also space-bees!) and when they're sufficiently fed, regurgitate space-silk (which can be used to produce cloth items or sold at the QM) and eggs which hatch into cute baby spiders! They like all sorts of insects but especially baby bee larva, full sized bees, space wasps, and even fermids! Anything they bring down is wrapped in a cocoon and dragged away back into maintenance for a meal. One exception: bumblespiders won't tangle with ice spiders as they taste gross.

Baby spider


Daww, so cute. They eat dead insects and grow up into bumblespiders eventually. While they come from bumblespider eggs, they can also appear through chemistry shenannigans  (spiders reagent on the floor has a chance to create 1-2 of these). 

Space bee (alternately, sea-bee, if you're on oshan)


The bees you know and love. These don't need many changes, other than mabye nibbling at sweet foods/drinks. Should be shaveable for bee wool, which can be used for clothing. Shaving a bee annoys the bee, but not enough to sting you; it won't produce any honey until the wool grows back. Shaving a bee may also annoy other players as well!

Space wasp


Not a common addition to the station, but if they do show up they like to eat full grown bumblespiders.


Most other critters prefer to eat space-men and monkeys and are already appropriately aggressive. Feel free to suggest further critter interactions/utility below! There was a long discussion about this on discord the other day, so hopefully some of the participants hop in on that.

[Technature]

This would be neat.
Would space mice retain their "attack things for no reason" behavior? I would think probably not but then there's no space madness which is always fun.

Also, Space pigs came to mind reading this. Should eat pretty much any food nearby, but eat raw vegetables first. Put in Botany for angry farmers who want to murder you fun.

[Frank_Stein]

Botany could use some animal husbandry

[Berrik]

This would be added on top of existing critter behavior so space mice would indeed sometimes attack stuff for no reason/carry diseases.

[Technature]

edit:Oh god I just thought of cannabis fed pigs

[locusts]

I would argue that Bumblespiders wouldn't go after adult Bees, Wasps or Fermids, simply because they all have effective defense mechanisms. Fun fact, in real life spiders are scared of ants because of their formic acid!

e: Also we have a variety of spiders, and having an ecosystem between them is worth considering. Personally I'd consider having bumblespiders be the "good" spiders that only prey on pests and leave bees alone.

Another real life example is that spiders are cannibalistic, and the gentle, wispy spiders actually prey on on larger spiders by spraying them with spider silk and letting them get tangled up. To translate this into the game: how about regular space spiders prey on all the things you mentioned for bumblespiders (save perhaps fermids), while bumblespiders prey on mice, roaches and space spiders. Maybe they could also prey on ice, clown, cluwne and macho spiders too? Bumblespiders should be everyone's friend.

[Skunkrocker]

I venture to offer an alternative approach to Space Wasps.

Space Wasps are assholes. They will attack and kill literally anything and everything they see because fuck you. They subsist on pain and hate.

Wasps are like honey badgers: they don't give a shit. And they'll hatefuck a yeti or wendigo or space bear or Martian if they see one because they can.

Space Wasps are evil incarnate.

[Superlagg]

I venture to offer an alternative approach to Space Wasps.

Space Wasps are assholes. They will attack and kill literally anything and everything they see because fuck you. They subsist on pain and hate.

Wasps are like honey badgers: they don't give a shit. And they'll hatefuck a yeti or wendigo or space bear or Martian if they see one because they can.

Space Wasps are evil incarnate.

Deploy space wasps to fight the blob, I like it.

[Noah Buttes]

SNIP
Should be shaveable for bee wool, which can be used for clothing. Shaving a bee annoys the bee, but not enough to sting you; it won't produce any honey until the wool grows back. Shaving a bee may also annoy other players as well!
SNIP

You can already use wirecutters or scissors to shear a bee for bee wool. It keeps them cool in the hot space summer.

[LuigiThirty]

Bumble spiders are the cute good spiders though! They shouldn’t attack anything except pests, certainly not bees. The Daddy Longlegs of SS13.