Request for mutation ideas

[deadliver]

So I sit here pondering mutations and I realized something...even a diseased (British) brain such as mine (coupled with the Realm of Chaos books) cannot come up with at least 30 mutations within the next 2 to 3 weeks, (which my Pariah project aspires to) I have a job you know! Anyone down to contribute? I am looking for "everyday" mutations, preferably ones that provide an advantage at the cost of a disadvantage. Full credit will be given so mutate away!

In the mean time, please vote.

 

[Opera]

Vote 3. And 5.


Anyway, what about a better sight mutation that would randomly apply a nausea promotion? Why nausea? Well, when I say "better sight" I think "360° sight" or related, so I guess it would be fairly common to have headache and movement sickness. Here are the line as I view it (the name is just for reference sake! Don't get mad at me!):

Byakugan I
+2 visibility range
random chance of getting Nausea I

Byakugan II
+3 visibility range
counter Assassin (they could see this filthy murderer coming!)
random chance of getting Nausea II

Byakugan III
+4 visibility range
counter Assassin
+33% damage when doing defensive strikes
+50% chance of doing defensive strikes

Nausea I
unit is held
-30% strength
-3 visibility range
85% wearoff

Nausea II
unit is held
-45% strength
-4 visibility range
65% wearoff

I tried to stick to a "painful first mutations -> very good last one" scheme. Well, it's not that bad actually. Nausea isn't always active, so...

I'll add more if I find ideas

 

[Vermicious Knid]

Foul Stench...applies minor combat penalties to ALL nearby units, causes unhealth to ALL nearby cities. A mutant you want to throw at your enemies cities and stack of doom, and keep the heck away from your own.

Exploding. Early stages give bonus fire damage, likelihood to become enraged. Late stage becomes an exploding kamikaze unit.


Multiple legs...turn into a centaur. Later stage allow move over impassable.


Melted. Reduced strength, marksman ability (sneaks in through tiny opening).


Budding. Produce units as an after-combat result. Rats, spiders, zombies, whatever


Doppleganger. Probably requires python, but duplicating an enemy unit would be fun.


Voracious. Heals after combat, but autopillages all improvements, friendly or otherwise

 

[WarKirby]

I think, while a unit retains most of it's basic faculties, it should be able to use weapons. But when it's arms morph into huge tentacles, it should sacrifice weapon usage for other abilities.

 

[WarKirby]

But anyways, some nice mutation ideas


Superhuman Sight: +1 visibility range, +1 ranged attack str, +10% ranged attack limit

Massive Brain: +10 spell damage, 30% resistance to magic, -30% strength. (for mages)

Horribly Deformed: Causes fear when attacking, -1 unhappiness in nearby cities, and a penalty to diplomacy when near cities (look at pelemoc's Schemer promotion for example)

Thick Fur: +20% in tundra and snow. +30% resistance to Cold. -25% resistance to fire

Scales: (excludes fur) +40% fire resistance

Cold Blooded: Cannot enter Snow or Tundra. +25% strength in Jungles, deserts, and Burning sands

Gills: Can walk on water, but not enter ocean. Ignores river/attack from ship penalties.

Fins: Double movement in Water

Tentacles: +25% vs Melee/Recon units, +1 first strikes.

Powerful Legs: +25% vs Mounted units, +1 movement, +20% retreat chance

Climbing Talons: Can move through impassable terrain, ignores building defences when attacking (climbs city walls)

Nimble: -20% strength, +45% vs Archery units, +20% retreat chance

Venom Sacs: +1 poison strength, Immune to poison.

 

[deadliver]

So far so good!
Byakugan looks interesting, a sort of cracked out guardsmen. Would be good for killing spies too if they were ever put back into the game.

Vermicious: I like the idea of fear causing mutants, I am hoping to have the mutants cause fear temporarily while go through a mutation upgrade. I like the budding mutation, I will look into that, would be awesome if the unit could randomly spawn potentially any animals. The autopillage looks interesting.


Warkirby, those are all pretty cool mutations, I could see these being the "basic" mutations that I want to add into the game, we really do need more.
Thanks for the ideas so far.

 

[WarKirby]

Moar!

Fast Metabolism: +10% healing rate per turn, -100% resistance to poison. Poisoned promotion is twice as powerful (make a new autoaquire promotion that replaces poisoned)
Slow Metabolism: -5% healing per turn, 50% resistance to poison
Bony Spikes: +10% vs Melee units
Natural Regeneration: +20% healing rate per turn, can heal while moving (powerful!)

There are plenty of possibilities for negative mutations too

Vestigial Limb: -10% strength
Poor Sight: -1 Ranged attack strength, -20% ranged damage limit, -20% strength
Blind: Can't see. (bBlind) -50% strength
Crippled: -1 movement, -40% retreat chance

 

[Valkrionn]

Vermicious: I like the idea of fear causing mutants, I am hoping to have the mutants cause fear temporarily while go through a mutation upgrade. I like the budding mutation, I will look into that, would be awesome if the unit could randomly spawn potentially any animals. The autopillage looks interesting.

The budding mutation could be pretty easily set up to use a postcombatwon tag, that will randomly spawn an animal... Would require python, but it should be a very simple python set up.

 

[Guybrush!]

Here's a couple:
Healing Spores : 20% heal rate increase for the stack
Poision Spores : Units attacking the stack become poisoned.
Superhuman hearing : Can see invisible units
Wings : Can fly.

And a string of mutations : Multiple limbs.

Multiple limbs I
20% more offensive strength
20% less defensive stength (lack of dexterity in using multiple limbs, hard to defend oneself)
30% slower heal rate (more sword arms to chop off )

Multiple limbs II
20% strength increase
Can attack multiple times per turn
20% slower heal rate

Multiple limbs III
Can attack multiple times per turn
Can range attack twice in one turn
+1 combat strength
20% slower heal rate

Multiple limbs IV
Can attack multiple times per turn
Can range attack twice in one turn
+2 combat strength
20% slower heal rate

Just a quick idea, don't know if its a good one.

 

[Guybrush!]

Another idea:
Firebreather
Can cast fireball.

Burrower
Can teleport 2 squares.

Apologies for the double post

 

[deadliver]

Another idea:
Firebreather
Can cast fireball.

Burrower
Can teleport 2 squares.

Apologies for the double post

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LwyVFnEjvo

Thank you for the mutations!

 

[Cadaveres]

Beast claws
Cannot use weapons (nor bronze, nor iron, nor mithril)
+1 strength

Chamaleon skin
+20% defense and invisibility if unit has not moved this turn
-20% defense if unit has moved this turn
(needs a turn so the skin adapts to the environment, otherwise the unit gets pretty noticeable)

Infrared vision
Can see Invisible
-1 visiblity range, minimum 1 (can see living beings but cannot see the terrain properly)

Beautiful voice
Can cast the "Singer" spell, which creates a building called "Singer", which gives +1 happiness but does not enable the unit to fortify

Light sensitivity
Blind, -30% defense, cannot attack on open terrains (grasslands, plains, dessert, hills, swamps, sea)
+1 visibility range, +30% defense in covered terrains (forest, jungle, all of the ones in hell except burning sands)


You can also use all the mutations from the "mutation" spell

 

[Honor]

Burning Hands
+2 Fire combat
Cannot use metal weapons
Random chance to start a fire on the tile

Shadowtouched I
+1 Shadow mana affinity
-50% against disciple units

Shadowtouched II
+1 Shadow mana affinity (+2 total)
Can cast "Hide"
Can cast "Mask" (Religion changed to Esus)
-100% against disciple units (-150% total)

Shadowtouched III
+1 Shadow mana affinity (+3 total)
Loses the ability to cast "Hide"
Invisibility
-150% against disciple units (-300% total)

 

[WarKirby]

whoa whoa whoa. +3 shadow mana affinity is insane.

Even +2 affinity is limited only to the most powerful heroes. And +1 affinity for a lv1 promotion is a bit much

 

[Honor]

The fact that mutations are random (so you cannot really base your strategy on one mutation - i.e. convert all your nodes to shadow and pray for the shadowtouched promo), and that the promotion has a huge counter (-300% against disciple units - that's also insane) may justify the +3 affinity.

Or not. Would need to playtest any one of these promos to be sure anyway

Edit: What if Shadowtouched required Esus state religion to manifest itself?

 

[WarKirby]

Well, you used to be able to spawn a death knight from a lair on pure luck before turn 50 too. people didn't like that.

Even with the element of random chance, multiple mana affinity can be ridiculously powerful. And 3 affinity is unprecedented.

 

[Thuellai]

Adaptive I: +50% Resistance to last spell hit by (so someone hit with a fireball would then gain Fire Resistance +50%. If they were then hit by an Ice spell, they would lose Fire Resistance and gain Ice Resistance)

Adaptive II: +100% Resistance as above

Adaptive III: +100% Resistance as above
+10% resistance to all spell types.

Manatap I: +25% Resistance to mana type the unit is standing on (one standing on a fire mana would be 25% resistant to fire magic)

Manatap II: +50% Resistance (as Manatap I)

Manatap III: +100% Resistance (as above)
Can cast first spell of same manatype.

 

[Honor]

Well, you used to be able to spawn a death knight from a lair on pure luck before turn 50 too. people didn't like that.

Even with the element of random chance, multiple mana affinity can be ridiculously powerful. And 3 affinity is unprecedented.

After thinking about the possibility of being able to utilize +4 shadow mana affinity Shadowtouched III Shadowriders, I am beginning to think that you may have a point.

Shadowtouched I
Can cast "Hide"
-50% against disciple units

Shadowtouched II
+1 Shadow mana affinity
Can cast "Mask" (Religion changed to Esus)
-100% against disciple units (-150% total)

Shadowtouched III
+1 Shadow mana affinity (+2 total)
Loses the ability to cast "Hide"
Invisibility
-150% against disciple units (-300% total)

Sound balanced now?

 

[WarKirby]

I really don't think the second level needs affinity either. Being able to gain hidden nationality is a good enough thing to justify taking it.

Oh, if only we could have non-integer affinity. Vehem says it's on the to-do list.

 

[deadliver]

Hmm I think the Shadow Touched promos may be another lineage. Need to think about the affinity, thank you for the ideas!

Oh, if only we could have non-integer affinity. Vehem says it's on the to-do list.

What would that do? Add abilities based off of how much mana you have? Extra promotions based off of mana would be sweet.