Vore War V39

[Njux]

I don't know if this was pointed out but it seems that the enemy AI never again recruits the leader once he loses him.

Also it is hard to know which one of your units is the leader if you play with the new sprites(or old for that matter if you don't use clothes)if you have a lot of units.

EDIT: Also looks like the lamias have their weight gain broken?

[DollyFailFail]

While I wait for GreenSlime to finish what he's working on with my thing, I'll just be working on making the Crypter Queen as I wait for their Collars to at least be made optional. I've been inspired by a particular set of images I saw on Discord, so in addition to now knowing exactly how I want to do the Queen(Or King I suppose, this concept would work as both unlike the previous one), I'm also going to be making an extra thing using the same basic shape as the first.

[Aurilika]

They are certainly corrected in 14C. And I think I was an idiot and played 14A instead of the newest version at the time I commented on this.

That's all right, I'd rather things be reported so they can be checked out rather than just staying hidden.

Oh yeah, when buying for all villages the subjugation pens visually count only the proper villages, but you lose money as if buying for ALL villages, including the ones that are your race(and they show up in the villages' tooltip so you DO buy them, even though they're useless on your originals(I guess if an enemy team takes the village THEY could then immediately hire your race, but who would want that? They're only $50, so if the AI wants to hire your race, it will next turn(assuming they're making enough))).

Okay, I'll make sure that that gets fixed. They're actually destroyed when a village changes hands so they wouldn't be able to automatically recruit from your village anyway.

I don't know if this was pointed out but it seems that the enemy AI never again recruits the leader once he loses him.
Also it is hard to know which one of your units is the leader if you play with the new sprites(or old for that matter if you don't use clothes)if you have a lot of units.
EDIT: Also looks like the lamias have their weight gain broken?

I just tested in it a small game and they seem to resurrect it just fine. Their current reasoning tends to not resurrect the leader until the next time they recruit / next time they make an army, perhaps that is what you noticed. It's certainly possible there's a bug though, so if you see them not have a leader, and make a new army and still not have a leader, I would say it's very likely a bug.
Maybe I should add a particle effect or give them a fancy border or something to fill in the gap until new leader outfits exist, and perhaps keep it around anyway.
Well, their weight gain only affects the skin portion, they use their tail as a second stomach to store prey so both it and the stomach are different depending on the amount of prey. You can technically change it back to the old system with the external flags, but I'm going to promote it and stick it in the actual content menu for the next update, because I'm getting a fair number of questions on it.

as I wait for their Collars to at least be made optional.

In the next patch I will have changed it to the way that I think GreenSlime intended for it to be set up, where that metal collar is just one of the 4 mouth types.


Edit:
Since the poll timed out, I'll go ahead and post the results here and delete it so that it's not cluttering up the page with all of those extra options.
Race Properties (all Races get traits that positively or negatively affect them) - 58
Additional Unit Types (This hinges partly on sprites, but can be done beforehand) - 31
Basic diplomacy system - 29
Allowing races to be individually customized in terms of spawning (being able to set Cats to only spawn as furry males, etc) - 19
Improved Create Tactical options (Allowing mixed race armies, and more control) - 12
Refining the UI (such as the Unit customization screen) - 12
AI (Improving the strategic AI mainly, but some attention to tactical as well) - 7
Improved Map editor functionality (such as editing armies or units) - 7
Village happiness system - 6

So race properties will be the next larger project I'll work on, then I'll work on additional units, diplomacy and race customization. I'm also working on sprite implementation at the same time(clothing, goblins, fixes) , and several other smaller tasks. I'd still like to get more feedback on possible race abilities, but I probably could do it with what I have now.

[HS]

Few more trait ideas.

Man Eater - (Female only) - Voracity bonus against males, smaller bonus against herms. - Would require some permanency on genders to work though.
Paleo Macho - (Male Only) - Voracity bonus against females, smaller bonus against herms. - Same as above. - Named after a comment relating to a fad of eating live animals that took place in US some eight years ago.
Frog Gut - Significant bonus to voracity but a heavy penalty in being able to hold your food down. - Named after the ability frogs have to readily eat things in a blink, but not always hold them down that well.
Sticky Tongue - Able to use the vore ability from two, perhaps three squares away instead of just from directly next to the prey.
Biter - Unsuccesful attempt at vore counts as making an additional unarmed attack, which will hit or miss as normal.
Vegetarian - The unit cannot eat other units. Perhaps a small health bonus as consolation price?
Awe - Melee attackers have to make a will check against this unit's will to go ahead with the attack. Perhaps something like 50 + attacker's will * 3 - defender's will * 3 percent chance of passing? - Stolen from Dominions.

Also, after thinking about it a while, it might be best to have any racial traits be chosen randomly from a pool rather than have the same one for every unit, except for things like the Harpy flight. Wider selection would actually make things easier to balance, I think, plus it would allow for some otherwise OP traits to simply be more rarely picked. An army of cats jumping far away after each attack would be OP, but few doing so could be countered with specific speedster units meant to chase such bouncers. Makes for immediate variety too!

Edit: One more idea. Collector - Instead of killing the "digested" unit, the collector has a chance of capturing them and adding them to nearby friendly town's hireable units, where they start with one health point. - I think this would suit Crypters rather well. For balance the chance of capture could go down with the captive's level, meaning weaklings would be easily converted, strong units not. Failed capture would still mean normal gurgles for health recovery, while a succesfull attempt would keep taking space for the rest of the fight.

[DollyFailFail]

Alright so the Crypter Queen may take longer than I had initially estimated. It only just now sunk in how large the new sprites are.

[Turbotowns]

Frog Gut - Significant bonus to voracity but a heavy penalty in being able to hold your food down. - Named after the ability frogs have to readily eat things in a blink, but not always hold them down that well.
Sticky Tongue - Able to use the vore ability from two, perhaps three squares away instead of just from directly next to the prey.

We might as well just make a frog race! XD
(wouldn't mind that though since frog girls are cute as hell, and frogs are expert preds)

Alright so the Crypter Queen may take longer than I had initially estimated. It only just now sunk in how large the new sprites are.

Lol, good luck! I hope she's as complex as my Slime Queen! XD

One more idea. Collector - Instead of killing the "digested" unit, the collector has a chance of capturing them and adding them to nearby friendly town's hireable units, where they start with one health point. - I think this would suit Crypters rather well. For balance the chance of capture could go down with the captive's level, meaning weaklings would be easily converted, strong units not. Failed capture would still mean normal gurgles for health recovery, while a succesfull attempt would keep taking space for the rest of the fight.

Oh!~ I REALLY like THAT one!

[LostSoul13]

I've got another bug report:
Editing world settings mid game causes existing non-predator leaders and non-predator mercenaries to lose their ability to vore. This does not affect newly created mercenaries.

[Turbotowns]

I've got another bug report:
Editing world settings mid game causes existing non-predator leaders and non-predator mercenaries to lose their ability to vore. This does not affect newly created mercenaries.

Wait... if they're non-predator to begin with... then they NEVER had the ability to vore, they literally had nothing to lose. Though if I recall, Auri made it so that leaders ALWAYS have the ability to vore...

[DollyFailFail]

Lol, good luck! I hope she's as complex as my Slime Queen! XD

The main problem is really that with the new sprites being as big as they are, I'm not sure if I can actually fit the idea I had into one tile. For the other thing that I was going to use said idea for that works fine, for the leader of a standard playable race though, I'm not so sure. At the same time though, after a short while of thinking on it I had realized that being that she would be so big, I might need to make an alternate version that is much closer to the normal for when racial traits are disabled. Just so that my first version can take up a proportionally accurate amount of belly space.

I also may need to ask GreenSlime for help with some aspects of it once I hit a block in terms of my own artistic capabilities.

[Aurilika]

Few more trait ideas.

Man Eater - (Female only) - Voracity bonus against males, smaller bonus against herms. - Would require some permanency on genders to work though.
Paleo Macho - (Male Only) - Voracity bonus against females, smaller bonus against herms. - Same as above. - Named after a comment relating to a fad of eating live animals that took place in US some eight years ago.
Frog Gut - Significant bonus to voracity but a heavy penalty in being able to hold your food down. - Named after the ability frogs have to readily eat things in a blink, but not always hold them down that well.
Sticky Tongue - Able to use the vore ability from two, perhaps three squares away instead of just from directly next to the prey.
Biter - Unsuccesful attempt at vore counts as making an additional unarmed attack, which will hit or miss as normal.
Vegetarian - The unit cannot eat other units. Perhaps a small health bonus as consolation price?
Awe - Melee attackers have to make a will check against this unit's will to go ahead with the attack. Perhaps something like 50 + attacker's will * 3 - defender's will * 3 percent chance of passing? - Stolen from Dominions.

Also, after thinking about it a while, it might be best to have any racial traits be chosen randomly from a pool rather than have the same one for every unit, except for things like the Harpy flight. Wider selection would actually make things easier to balance, I think, plus it would allow for some otherwise OP traits to simply be more rarely picked. An army of cats jumping far away after each attack would be OP, but few doing so could be countered with specific speedster units meant to chase such bouncers. Makes for immediate variety too!

Edit: One more idea. Collector - Instead of killing the "digested" unit, the collector has a chance of capturing them and adding them to nearby friendly town's hireable units, where they start with one health point. - I think this would suit Crypters rather well. For balance the chance of capture could go down with the captive's level, meaning weaklings would be easily converted, strong units not. Failed capture would still mean normal gurgles for health recovery, while a succesfull attempt would keep taking space for the rest of the fight.

It's a good list of traits, thank you. Seeing the vegetarian in there makes me realize I should probably convert the 'can not vore' from the way it is now into a trait. For one, it allows some sort of offset bonus, and it also makes it more obvious why the unit can not vore (or a way to notice that if it's on an enemy unit)

As for randomly chosen from a pool, I'm not sure about that. I feel like it would be better to simply have the preset traits, and then have traits assigned by unit types, and possibly have them pick a single random trait. That way people have a better feel on the properties of the race, and also prevents rolling a junk unit that you then immediately dismiss (which I suppose is realistic, but not particular good gameplay) I'm open to having my mind changed though.

The collector is an interesting trait, a much more balanced version of the charm I had in mind for the succubus (though she'd be an expensive mercenary). I think you could tweak the chance enough that it could work as a race trait. I'll keep that in mind.

We might as well just make a frog race! XD
(wouldn't mind that though since frog girls are cute as hell, and frogs are expert preds)

Definitely could work. I remember somebody suggested a giant frog monster at one point, too.

I've got another bug report:
Editing world settings mid game causes existing non-predator leaders and non-predator mercenaries to lose their ability to vore. This does not affect newly created mercenaries.

Ah, good catch, I'll get that fixed.

The main problem is really that with the new sprites being as big as they are, I'm not sure if I can actually fit the idea I had into one tile.

Well at some point, and I don't remember when, I boosted the scale of tactical units by 20%. I think it was partly because I had left space for big ears, but didn't need as much space in that regard as I thought. I could potentially scale them back to normal (Right now, the default is so that each 160x160 character sprite matches to one grid space, but as I said it's also boosted 20% currently and offset 16 pixels, so the bottom exceeds 10%, the sides 20%, and the top 30%). It would be a simple change, I'd just need to make a decision. I did notice that the new harpies noticeably exceed the upper border when they're attacking, so perhaps this would be a good time to reset it.

[DollyFailFail]

Well at some point, and I don't remember when, I boosted the scale of tactical units by 20%. I think it was partly because I had left space for big ears, but didn't need as much space in that regard as I thought. I could potentially scale them back to normal (Right now, the default is so that each 160x160 character sprite matches to one grid space, but as I said it's also boosted 20% currently and offset 16 pixels, so the bottom exceeds 10%, the sides 20%, and the top 30%). It would be a simple change, I'd just need to make a decision. I did notice that the new harpies noticeably exceed the upper border when they're attacking, so perhaps this would be a good time to reset it.

What I meant is that the sprite would most likely need to be more than 160 pixels in terms of at least width, possibly also height.

[Aurilika]

What I meant is that the sprite would most likely need to be more than 160 pixels in terms of at least width, possibly also height.

Ah, well the 160 is just an arbitrary number that can be different for each sprite sheet. If you wanted a more detailed sprite, like 256x256 or any other square size but still have it fit in a single tile, you can just specify that. Then, I'd just change that number when importing a sprite. All of the mainline sprites are 160x160 but there are various other sprites around in the terrain that are 32x32 or 64x64 or even 75x75 (That's the size the scat sprite came in and I didn't want to damage it by scaling it, so I just left it as is)

[DollyFailFail]

What I meant is that the sprite would most likely need to be more than 160 pixels in terms of at least width, possibly also height.

Ah, well the 160 is just an arbitrary number that can be different for each sprite sheet. If you wanted a more detailed sprite, like 256x256 or any other square size but still have it fit in a single tile, you can just specify that. Then, I'd just change that number when importing a sprite. All of the mainline sprites are 160x160 but there are various other sprites around in the terrain that are 32x32 or 64x64 or even 75x75 (That's the size the scat sprite came in and I didn't want to damage it by scaling it, so I just left it as is)

Well you see, it's not necessarily that the sprite is detailed as it is that it's big. I suppose I might as well say the idea itself, basically the Queen(or King if that's what you want) is directly attached to a mobile throne. This allows them to get away with having a body that is more sleek and elegant, since their tech level at the time their bodies were made wasn't good enough to make a body like that which was also capable of walking under its own power.

[LostSoul13]

Wait... if they're non-predator to begin with... then they NEVER had the ability to vore, they literally had nothing to lose. Though if I recall, Auri made it so that leaders ALWAYS have the ability to vore...

It seems that along with the leader always being able to vore, the mercenaries were supposed to be able to as well, and if not then I guess this is also a bug. Either way, having the vore and stomach stats disappear mid game on these units is kind of annoying, especially if the player or AI had chosen to put levels into these stats.

[CoinToast]

More Trait ideas, because why not (some of them may be repeated or accidentaly stolen):

Hivemind: This unit gains more points the more members of the same specie there are on your side of the battlefield.

Hive Brain: This unit counts as 3 units for the hivemind trait.

Natural leader (X): X being the level of the ability, this unit gives raises the stats of all other friendly units.

Coward: This unit can run from the battlefield on its third turn. It doesn't benefit from the effects of the race leader.

Tummy Master: This unit can vomit at will.

Fragile: This unit has less HP and Defense than average, and cannot raise them as fast as normal units.

Sick (X): X being the percentage of sickness. This unit can never raise HP above a given percentage.

Eternal: This unit respawns in the closest town after dying, with one level less.

Racist: This unit will always side with the armies of its own race, as long as said race is still in play.

Free Spirit: This unit has a speed bonus when not carrying any weapons.

Paralyzer: This unit can paralyze enemy units.


And for some more game-breaking stuff:

Rangers: An army composed of these units, or whose leader has this trait will suffer no penalty from crossing a forest.

Pacifist: This unit won't harm other units.

Destroyer: This unit can destroy a tree, fence or building.

Dryad: This unit can create a tree, as long as it does not completely blocks the path from an unit to another.

[Aurilika]

It seems that along with the leader always being able to vore, the mercenaries were supposed to be able to as well, and if not then I guess this is also a bug. Either way, having the vore and stomach stats disappear mid game on these units is kind of annoying, especially if the player or AI had chosen to put levels into these stats.

Yes, both of those are bugs, leaders and mercenaries are always supposed to be able to vore regardless of race settings.

As for the whole species abilities some of them are hit and others are kind of a miss, it would be wise if we could pick and choose abiltieis for some of the species from a list of compatible abilities. For example some species would have the option of being a vegetarian which would make some members unable to vore but gives them a stat boost in exchange. Essentially it lets us customize the races abilities with abilities that that would make sense for them. That said if players want to use unrealistic abilities they could feasible have an option to turn that off and select from any species ability even if it doesn't make sense, like humans that can fly.

I was planning on likely just having a file you can edit to manually assign things to races if you didn't agree with my choices, but perhaps an in-game race customizer like you say has merit as well, probably with different perks costing different amounts, like the custom races in master of orion, or galactic civilizations.

More Trait ideas, because why not (some of them may be repeated or accidentaly stolen)

Definitely more interesting and unique ideas in there. Some only have tangential uses but could be fun (like tummy master).
I'm curious about the pacifists though, whether they would exist solely as decoys, or if they'd have like healing or support magic. I'm also picturing a dryad and a destroyer battling it out. As you say though, dryad is potentially game breaking, particularly if you had an all ranged army and left only a single narrow passage as a murder zone.

[GreenSlime]

Man, that's a lot of abilities. I feel like most of them will fit individual units more than races (making entire race stupid is a bold move). Time to think of implementation, I guess.

INDIVIDUAL ABILITIES
Can appear on any unit. Sometimes unit will have two positive abilities - in that case, a negative ability is generated. I don't think giving unit ONLY negative ability would be wise, as such units will be prone to immediate dismissal.

Smart - less exp to level
Dumb - more exp to level
Resilient -1 to all incoming damage
Strong - more melee damage - this one could be both individual and racial
Weak - Less melee damage
Feral - Inability to use normal weapons, but unarmed attack deals 6 damage.
Loyal - Honestly, this ability is a hot mess of unfinished, dubious and proposed mechanics. So instead let's just say this unit doesn't need money.
Easy to vore - A flat chance increase?
Pack (stat) - A more all-encompassing version of pack hunters - this unit gains (stat) if units of the same race are nearby
Escape artist - Greatly increased escape rate
Fast digestion - Prey take damage faster - not really flat stat bonus...
Slow digestion - Prey take damage slowly - ...or penalty so it can stay.
Berserk - Attacks twice, but does not dodge attacks (dodges vore as usual) - Fixed so life expectancy of berserker would be higher than that of a paper plane in a firestorm.
Defensive stance - Bonus to defense if not attacked this turn - formerly known as stealth.
Intimidating - Enemy units within 1 tile get accuracy penalty
Thrill seeker - the lower hp gets, the better stats get
Protector - will take damage intended for adjacent allies - this one could be VERY weird.
Marksman - Bonus to range - I like bonus to range better than "Critical hit" mechanic.
Ravenous - Gains bonus to voracity if no units are in stomach - nooooot sure about this. Flat increase, even if conditional, feels like a cop-out.
Frenzy - Receives bonus stats with each unit killed - (probably) less broken version of Frenzy.
Artful dodge - Additional flat 15% chance to avoid any attack or vore attempt coming their way (applied before hit roll)
Adept learner - All stats are favored, randomly get 2 points in 2 stats with level up
Tempered - Increased resistance to projectiles. Decreased resistance to blows. - A weird one. I'm not sure where it's applicable or desirable. But honestly it might be cool.
Diehard - Unit will always survive with 1hp a blow that would otherwise kill it, unless they have 1 hp. - should probably specify that they don't surrender too, otherwise good, if kinda weak.
Surgical strike - Any attack by this individual will leave the enemy with 1 hp, if the blow would have killed them otherwise. - Probably exclusive for no-surrender games, otherwise inapplicable. Hey there, Adell.
Unruly - This unit does not get leadership bonuses - feel like this one's easier.
Hatred (X) - X being a race, this unit will have its offensive stats increased against x race. However, this unit will have those stats decreased when fighting alongside members of x race.
Favorite meal (X) - X being a race, this unit has a bonus on vore skills on x race. - these two are good.
Nauseous - This unit has a higher than average chance of vomiting any unit. - Essentially any unit in its stomach is an escape artist? Fun.
Power ceiling (X) - This unit cannot surpass level X. - Big oof.
Tasty - This unit is tasty and eating it doubles HP regeneration. - always good to have these three.
Disgusting - This unit is disgusting and eating it does not provide HP regeneration. - always good to have these three.
Man Eater/Paleo macho/Futa eater - Voracity bonus against opposite gender or futanari. - You know what, CONDITIONAL stat bonuses are fine.
Awe - Adds Will/5 to defense. - This one's easer to implement. And yes, STATIC STAT BONUS. I'm not really happy with this, suggestions are appreciated.
Collector - this one's a lot of text - could be universal trait.
Incompetent in (Stat) - for this unit the associated stat never appears as stat increase. Cannot be favored stat.
Natural leader (X) - X being the level of the ability, this unit gives raises the stats of all other friendly units. - I was thinking on how to give normal unit leadership in a way that's not broken and here it is, I guess.
Coward - This unit can run from the battlefield on its third turn. It doesn't benefit from the effects of the race leader. - Gotta have some negatives too, right? This one's pretty debilitating, though.
Sick (X): X being the percentage of sickness. This unit can never raise HP above a given percentage. - I guess it's SLIGHTLY different from flat stat penalty
Eternal: This unit respawns in the closest town after dying, with one level less. - Neat, it's like mini-leader.
Free Spirit: This unit has a speed bonus when not carrying any weapons. - Could be nice for vore-focused units and ferals.
(Terrain) Walker - Army with this unit can move through specified terrain with no penalty
Constrict - When grappling another unit, deal 1 (+STR) damage to it every turn

ABILITIES THAT ARE EXCLUSIVELY RACIAL
Prolific breeder - bonus pop growth - This is bunnies.
Slow breeder - penalty to pop growth - Since fast breeder exists...
Regeneration - unit always restores 1 HP per turn.
Decay - unit always loses 1 HP per turn
Flight - Ignores obstacles when moving, but must land on an unoccupied tile
Pounce - When equipped with a light melee weapon unit has range of 2 - debating whether to make this one universal.
[Active]Slime toss - Ranged attack, 2 damage, reduces maximum MP of unit hit by 50% next turn (does not stack)
Gelatinous body - Resilient and Easy to vore rolled into one.
Aquatic - Army speed x2 in water, but x0,75 on land
Overclock - Damage dealt by weapons this turn x 1.5, deals damage to self equal to 10% of max HP - not sure about making it a universal racial ability, but could appear on some crypters.
Maul - can attack in melee twice - more powerful version of Berserk (or, rather, version without downsides) - it's okay since it's on mercenaries, right?
Imitator - The individual has a chance to replace this trait with one of the traits of a consumed prey - same as Overclock, only on SOME slimes. Slimes with maul, anyone?
Why would you eat that - This unit is outright hazardous for your health and eating it decreases HP. - always good to have these three. This one is reserved for some very unusual races
Draw in (X) - Able to use the vore ability from (X) squares away. - made more neutral and applicable for more types of monsters.
Biter - Unsuccesful attempt at vore counts as making an additional unarmed attack, which will hit or miss as normal. - Probably racial.
Prey species - This unit cannot eat other units, but gains x1,5 exp and recovers health out of combat 2x faster - Applied to units that can't vore.
Paralyzer - Attacks of this unit have 20-30% chance to nullify target's MP for next turn. Vagrants?
Metal body - Resilient and Disgusting rolled into one.

ABILITIES THAT DO NOT APPEAR IN THIS LINEUP (for various reasons - I'm not saying they can't ever, but they definitely have flaws or room for improvement).
Voracious - Bonus to Vore - individual buuuuut I don't like abilities that are straight stat boost, as you could simply cut out the middleman and give them that stat in first place.
High Capacity - have more stomach capacity than their stomach stat would give them - redundant now
Small- same
Slow - reduced movement and dodge -Stat penalties, basically.
Quick - increased movement and dodge - Stat bonuses, basically.
Defensive screen - obsolete with Pack Will
Pack protection - obsolete with Pack Defense/Pack Will
Hunger of the Horde - obsolete with Pack Strength and Pack Voracity
Tough scales - obsolete with Resilient
Wrap - At the end of the turn attacks every surrounding enemy unit for 1(+strength) damage. Does not attack surrendered units. - This one could or could not appear, depending on whether grappling will be implemented.
Summoning call - a nightmare to balance for sure.
Constrict - grapples a unit, restricting their movement and dealing 2 damage (with usual bonus for strength) per turn - shelving since it IS something any unit should be able to do.
Assimilator - The individual has a chance to acquire a trait of a consumed prey - extremely strong and snowbally.
Horde - Army doesn't use moves to create a new army, new army starts with the same moves as the parent army minus 1. - okay what.
Disciplined - Army appears closer together when entering tactical mode. - Can't shake off the feeling it's a waste of ability slot.
Frog Gut - Significant bonus to voracity but a heavy penalty in being able to hold your food down. - obsolete.
Hivemind/Hive Brain - This unit gains more points the more members of the same specie there are on your side of the battlefield. - Pack, but broken. Maybe for some very annoying monsters.
Tummy Master: This unit can vomit at will - not sure how it is applicable
Fragile: This unit has less HP and Defense than average, and cannot raise them as fast as normal units. -replaced with incompetent
Pacifist: This unit won't harm other units. - why.
Destroyer: This unit can destroy a tree, fence or building. - Could be nice for large units, but as of now I don't really see the point.
Dryad: This unit can create a tree, as long as it does not completely blocks the path from an unit to another. -either OP or finicky.

[ouphe]

Can we shift the lamia tail stomach thing so that it gains weight/size in the same style as breasts do instead of/in addition to a counterpart to the stomach? Otherwise it seems to exist for just a moment and then vanish back to skinny-tail again.

[CoinToast]

My main aim when thinking on abilities is to expand the dimentionality of the play space, or less arrogantly put to make as many lateral moves and viable strategies as possible. That is why many ideas I've had are of the "but why" variety, they are intended to create more variety on the gameplay.

And the outright stat increase abilities are intended as racial traits, or exclusive-race traits. Tempered for example was intended for crypters, or future chitinous or golem races. Hive mind would be for ant or bee girls if there are any in the future, and assimilator could work on a metroid-like monster unit. I tried to limit myself on the easiest to code abilities with a low/zero magic theme (key word: tried), otherwise the ability to create temporal obstacles a-la protoss, enemy teleportation, minion spawning, healing and multi-attack in a single turn would have been there.

So far and beyond special skills there are 4 main focus that skills can influence: Stat growth, stat effect on the battlefield, influence on other units and influence from other units. The first 2 make for a rock-paper-scissor mechanic (only more so), while the other 2 allow the possibilites to explode but also add complexity. Which is why I'm wary on abilities that influence or get influenced by other abilities directly.

Special skills can be specially potent in altering the game balance, but I suspect they are also harder to code. And to generalize.

And on the redundant abilities, maybe similar names could be used as race-variants (pack vs hive mind, tough scales vs resilient) or as levels?

[Aurilika]

Many Things

Okay, I feel like I have a decent pool of traits now, (people can still suggest things though).

Structure is still up in the air but I'm leaning towards going for the trio of Racial traits/abilities, Unit Type traits/abilities, and random traits. The randoms would be smaller effect, and could be race specific, or just general.

Can we shift the lamia tail stomach thing so that it gains weight/size in the same style as breasts do instead of/in addition to a counterpart to the stomach? Otherwise it seems to exist for just a moment and then vanish back to skinny-tail again.

Yeah, the next patch will provide a more clear option to keep it or switch back to just using it for body weight.

My main aim when thinking on abilities is to expand the dimentionality of the play space, or less arrogantly put to make as many lateral moves and viable strategies as possible. That is why many ideas I've had are of the "but why" variety, they are intended to create more variety on the gameplay.

It is nice to have a variety. I appreciate the outlandish ones as much as the more concrete ones, because it gives variety. They may not all be in the core game experience, but traits will eventually be assignable by the user, so having interesting and unusual picks out there help to spice things up.