N.B.: These are migrated notes from the Pure Hatred Trello, so they are written in terms of game design. This whole article needs a rewrite for the wiki-style of Kanka.
Origin
Appearance
Google search MangoWorms. NSFL
Pale, vascular, glistening flesh is a good creepy aesthetic. Like a zombie's dick.
Development
Cherub
Freshly born, with a normal set of bodyparts. Small and nearly harmless. Might rely on simple tools to be effective.
Still a little gross and goblinlike, but also slightly cute and babylike.
Tend to populate the surface and very topmost levels of the cave system.
There should be a few different base genotypes that represent beginning character selection. Offer different starting playstyles, but that will depend heavily on what sort of perks and abilities we throw in.
Also, consider options for gender dimorphism:
- Females begin with Marsupial sac, serves as bio-preservative inventory for body parts
- Males begin with _____?
Cherub Heteromorphic Tendencies
Bully
Probably the simplest start. A big, tough Cherub capable of pushing the others around pretty easily himself.
Adult
The adult and heavily grafted form of . Generally quite large and covered in an array of grafts. Tend to roam the deeper levels.
I like Cherubs for the beginning phase, so maybe follow an angelic/demonic naming structure? Since they're customized bodies maybe we'll make a name generator that treats the anatomy as a seed. That will allow people to discuss different body construction strategies consistently, e.g., "Seraphim will have an easier time in the mid-levels, but once you're near the bottom you may want to transition into a more Belphegoric configuration."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zabaniyya
Adult Heteromorphic Tendencies
Behemoth
Need a rename. Basically a member who's gotten so large they're immobile, so they bribe/enslave others to do their bidding. Could be a cool boss or something.
The one I'm imagining has found a way to generate themselves, but needs [SOMETHING] from the ChitHouses. Their servants cart the ore to the CHs and bring back the reward, in return for a suckle on mommy's Soma teat.
Defeating this boss could be an endgame branch - by ceasing the production of , the Player would end the purpose of the mining colony and free the from LodeStar's oppression.
Maybe that's the "good ending."
Skinwalker
Yuka's idea about a small parasite who can hijack nervous systems to lead to a stealth-style playthrough. This will require modeling behaviors in a complex and emergence-friendly fashion. Idea reminds me of Shapeshifter from Streets of Rogue. Maybe allow small changes to host organism, but other species are less resilient to that sort of thing. This would allow the more socially-permeable later levels to pose their own challenges, due to more fragile hosts.
Mass produce cherubs from your womb for use as projectiles, cattle, warriors, servants, suicide bombers, torches, decoys, canaries, incubators. Might play a lot like a summoner-type. Maybe a giant maggot-type anatomy. Yuka suggested a beehive-like body exterior with incubating wombs, cherubs squirming inside like larvae.
Biology
Alimentation & Digestion
For simplicity's sake, simplified to Simple and Complex nutrients.
Simple nutrients allow you to keep surviving and exert energy, and to a minor extent heal injuries (though complex nutrients are better for this). A larger and more complex body has higher simple nutrient needs.
Complex nutrients allow you to grow, heal, mutate.
Water needs may not be modeled.
Simple nutrient sources: fungi, fatty tissue, sunlight if you've grafted photosynthetic parts and have an appropriate mutation
Complex nutrient sources: meat, Automat MREs
Limbs tend to consume Simple nutrients for maintenance, and Complex for growth. Brains have relatively extreme Simple nutrient needs. Organs are highly varied in their needs, but lean more toward Complex nutrients
Circulation
Integument
Immune System
Musculoskeletal System
A broken or fractured bone will heal quite quickly - though a normal healing rate for an RPG/roguelike, we can brag that it's 100% realistic.
A shattered bone will be digested by the bloodstream. If this occurs in a limb, the muscular system will take over, turning that portion of the limb into a more prehensile, tentacle form.
A bone can be inserted into a tentacle to turn it into a limb. Through regular flexion during the healing process, the body will detect the need for a joint, and develop cartilage and bursae accordingly. Inserting a bone is as easy as breaking the skin and shoving it in.
Enamel, Keratin, bone and chitin are treated as the same substance, for simplicity. We'll need a name for this stuff.
Nervous System
The nervous system is incredibly robust. Once a limb is grafted, the generation and repair of sensory and motor nerves is almost immediate. By the time the limb itself is healed, it functions as a normal part of the body (allowing us to completely ignore nerve functions at least for now).
Reproduction
Respiration
Psychology
LodeStar Resource Logistics Group's xenobiologists have assessed and grouped Protean responses to LodeStar ChitHouses according to the BaAaslof-Mlrm-Smith-Troueaieñg Xeno-Retard Assessment Scale[1]:
Ultra-Retarded
Not capable of sensible interaction with environment. Generally screams and defecates until it dies, not interacting with automat.
Mega-Retarded
Generally fearful of automat. Extremely rare cases include attempts to attack it, but construction is robust enough that this is moot. However, if a Protean kills itself attempting to attack the automat, its decaying biomatter may deplete its maintenance clock. Ensure that minor security measures are deployed to subtly deter this behavior.
Retarded, Semi-Retarded, Meso-tarded
Tolerate but do not understand automat. May accidentally activate its functions, but do not understand cause/effect relationship enough to repeat it to a statistically significant pattern.
Semi-Unretarded, Unretarded
Begin to identify cause/effect relationship, can reliably bring ores if rewarded with rich foods and drugs. May attempt to enter cargo compartment, being killed in the sterilization process. Though this will reduce the automat's rate of ore-remittance, it serves to eliminate the too-curious specimens who may cause issues with the machinery. The Analytics department has assessed this as a preferable loss, so *the outer cargo shells are to remain unlocked when deployed to *. Please continue to seal all inner cargo storage containers per usual SOP.
Mega-Unretarded
Caution: highly variable behaviors. This is perhaps the most diverse group in the species. While they lack the high intelligence of the Ultra-Unretarded, they also tend to have a slightly lower level of aggression. Some will purchase tools from a ChitHouse fabricator, making them extremely high producers of ore. However, they will often contrive to trap and kill other high producers, effecting a long-term net negative in remittances. We are hard at work considering a legal (or at least concealable) method of terminating or punishing Anti-Social Proteans.
Ultra-Unretarded
Extremely Dangerous: human- or higher-level intelligence. Capable of dissecting or hotwiring automat to access contents, or repurpose components for other uses. If an Ultra-Unretard is detected in the vicinity of an automat, please terminate and dispose of the specimen. Luckily, Ultra-Unretarded specimens have only been detected near the bottom of the cave complexes, too deep for intergalactic regulators to observe our activities.
[1] BaAaslof, D.; Mlrm, J.; Smith, K.; & Troueaieñg, A. (2420). *A Xeno-Retard Assessment Scale for Labor Allocation & Threat Assessment*. ULISIS Journal of Xeno-Retard Studies, LXIX, 21-67.