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[Draignean]

Hive Alpha
Link to Core

Discord Link
https://discord.gg/VuEHzxyFJk

You are one of the mirror queens, with your slime filled sequestration cave closest to The Parasitic Forest, The Dried Seabed, and The Howling Crevasses.

The slime you feast on now is not as rich with memory as the first layer that held you close through your gestation-slumber, but it still grants traces and secrets. A mental map of the region, promising strands within your children to manipulate and express, and a hungering drive to regain your halcyon glory.

There is much to do, and little time.

(You can rename your Hive freely at this stage)

It is now the design phase.


Starter Contest: The Map (Art)

As your ingested memories become organic and begin to fade, you struggle hardest to hold on to the map of the region, committing it to mind time and time again. What does it look like?

For this contest you need to draw a map that shows the 9 regions and the 2 sequestration caverns. Have fun, it’s the memories of a giant bug-monster.

The winner will gain a credit to make a design at full advantage. You have until the 3rd battle report to submit a map. Only submissions in the core thread are valid.   

Spoiler: Map (click to show/hide)

Long form explanation of each zone is in the core thread.

Zone of Toxicity
- The Parasitic forest (Side Alpha)  [Width: 9000]
- The Bog   [Width: 10000]
- The Misted Ravines  (Side Omega)  [Width: 3000]

Zone of Fire
- The Dried Seabed (Side Alpha)  [Width: 15000]
- The Lava Rivers  [Width: 5000]
- The Desert of Mirrors (Side Omega)  [Width: 15000]

Zone of Razors
- The Howling Crevasses (Side Alpha) [Width 3000]
- The Glowing Crater [Width 15000]
- The Shattered Badlands  (Side Omega) [Width 9000]

Spoiler: Organisms (click to show/hide)

Grub Production: 4000

Grub
 -Evolution Chance: 68%
 -Available Evolutions:
 -- Digger: 30%
 -- PteroHawk: 30%
 -- Ember: 20%
 -- Murder-Pup: 20%
 -- Grub+: 0%
 -Mutagenic Potential: 0
 - Description: A large, approximately one meter long,  grub of unobtrusive hue. Slow moving and nearly blind, this creature scrapes the surrounding matter for anything it can digest - which, given its robust gastric system, is quite a lot. Robust by dint of its general simplicity, this grub would only be dangerous in large vast numbers or to the already incapacitated.
---> Revision: Grubs constantly produce a slime with slightly controllable adhesion, along them to climb and cling to previously inaccessible surfaces. Slime is also toxic, creating escalating nerve misfires that start at pain and (very slowly) work their way up to spasms and seizures.
 
 Grub+
 -Evolution Chance: NaN
 -Mutagenic Potential: 3
 - Description: A larger variant of the grub, with small plates of carapace bridging out from its fleshy body. Keratinous growths from its body mass can be used like peg-legs to supplement its undulating motion, and a pair of similar spike-growths flank its mouth to aid in gouging out food. It is still, however, nearly blind, quite slow, and barely more than harmless when alone.

Driller
[Efficacy: 4]
-Base Incidence Rate: 30%
-Evolution Chance: 35%
 -Available Evolutions:
 -- Driller+ 80%
 -- Cultivator 20%
 -Mutagenic Potential: 0
 - Description: The Driller is, in most respects, a strictly improved grub. Similar in form, light yet strong carapace segments covered - though the necessities of flexibility mean that each body contains substantial gaps where an adequately soft chitin sub-form could not be produced. The modified rostrum of the Driller grows into a peculiar spiral that incorporates multiple mineral elements, giving it a deep rusty hue and excellent hardness for an organic material. This shape enables a Driller to contort its body and then whip forward, slamming the drill into a hard surface before death rolling its way into building a tunnel - using its peculiar neck flexibility to reset the 'drill' as needed. Vibrational senses in many stiff hairs that poke between chitin plates enable the Driller to detect nearby motion in the air, and to 'hear' a short distance into most solid materials. This enables them to select softer paths through most materials and to detect when ambush worthy prey is near.

Problematically, the driller's method of locomotion, though fast and effective, is very energy-intensive and rarely yields enough to sustain the driller. This is generally solved by sending swarms of drillers into the same hole, so that the tip of the drill, the bit, is constantly starving and being cannibalized by those drillers behind them. This pattern most be done carefully, however, as the suffocation of the swarm in tight quarters is a real danger. In combat, the Driller's senses let it down considerably. While its face is an excellent weapon, it has very little accuracy after an initial ambush - after which vibration and movement will typically arise in a furious clamor.  Too many drillers in an ambush will occasionally result in a death seethe, where the drillers thrust to the surface and thrash around, creating so much debris and movement that the drillers continue to believe that foes exist when none remain. This means that the thrashing continues until the drillers exhaust themselves or they splatter enough of one another to end the cycle.
---> Revision: Vacuole stomachs. A back-evolution of the Driller+, Drillers now have additional stomachs to enable them to survive harsh environments and brave the tunnels longer before expiring.

Driller+
-Evolution Chance: NaN
 -Mutagenic Potential 3
 - Description: The Driller+ is only slightly larger than the driller, with improved chitin coverage in the form of dozens of small fingernail like ridges between body segments which both serve to abrade the tunnel walls and to protect the fleshy-fleshy insides. The most notable change in the Driller+ is a system of three flexible chitin plates along its length, corresponding with the locations of three reserve vacuole stomachs. One vacuole is reserved to hold air for harsh environments, one reserved to hold pre-digested food back to extend endurance, and one to hold water back for the same reason. This allows the Driller+ to enter much harsher environs, travel much further, and to dig for longer than an ordinary driller.

Ember
[Efficacy: 6]
-Base Incidence Rate: 20%
-Evolution Chance: 35%
 -Available Evolutions:
 -- Ember+ 100%
 -Mutagenic Potential 2
-Description: The straight jump to a hybrid sulfur-oxygen based energy cycle is a feat of evolution that, under normal circumstances of evolution, would be utterly impossible. Under the guiding talons of your intelligent design, however, it’s merely difficult. Externally, the Ember isn’t much to look at. If not moving and in bright light, one could mistake it for a heavily armored grub that was set on fire and burned black. In dim light, or when in motion, the tell-tale cherry glow of the Ember’s internal structure can be seen through the more flexible sections of its carapace.

Considerably better armored than the grub by dint of the insulating carapace that keeps it from freezing to death, the Ember is a nightmarish demon when compared to its progenitor. Any assault by a grub would result in only slight damage to the Ember’s armor while the grub receives serious burns in return. While concerted efforts by multiple assailants could gouge through its carapace, this would also intensify the local defensive heat - though at the cost of dangerously chilling the Ember. While its heat makes standard grubslime much less useful, the Ember is capable of secreting a thick coat when injured. This rapidly plugs the injuries and dries into a new insulating layer -if one much weaker than carapace. In offense, the Ember retains the grub’s bite unchanged but also gains the ability to expectorate a stream of sulphurous bile. This spit can be projected up to ten meters and is scalding, mildly acidic, and slightly toxic. While not enormously fatal, it is extremely painful.

It is very important to note, however, that while a nightmarish demon when compared to a grub, the Ember is still bound by many of the grub’s failings. Its locomotion is slow and simplistic, its vision is poor, and it doesn’t really have any other senses to write home about. Its spit attack is laughably inaccurate at its maximum range, and its body is still quite capable of overheating if exposed to temperatures significantly more extreme than itself.

Ember+
-Evolution Chance: NaN
 -Mutagenic Potential 3
-Description: The elite form of the Ember features an alternative cellular structure, integrating silicon-based anatomy with normal carbon-based structures. The usage of Si-S instead of C-S molecular bonds allows for considerably higher internal temperatures, while cell-walls incorporating hybrid silicate organics tolerate this heightened temperature with much lower thermal degradation. As such, while the Elite Ember is unchanged in size and shape to the standard Ember, it has a resting heat in the low hundreds (Centigrade) and a commensurately brighter glow, higher heat damage, and a sludgier high-temperature spit.
Ptero-Hawk
[Efficacy: 5]
-Base Incidence Rate: 30%
-Evolution Chance: 35%
 -Available Evolutions:
 -- Ptero-Hawk+ 70%
 -- Stomato-Shrike 30%
 -Mutagenic Potential: 0
--MUTAGENIC BOOST USED
-Description: The Ptero-Hawk is the first major step towards reclaiming the old forms of splendor - featuring both legs and wings. While the body itself is distinctly grub-like, its internal structure is a tightly wound spiral of muscular and metabolic systems, capable of a speed and strength of motion far beyond that of its parent. On the ground, the Ptero-Hawk is competent. It’s stride could charitably be described as ‘loping’, being much quicker than that of a grub, but inefficient when compared to the memories of previous organisms who once claimed the land.

This is fine, as the Ptero-Hawk was never meant to claim the land.

A powerful flyer, their membranous wings are capable of vaulting into flight from a standstill when needed and provide good aerial speed (when in a dive or at the cost of a lot of flapping) and excellent maneuverability. Strong rear talons allow the Ptero-Hawk to grip into creatures and tear chunks away, completely lift smaller creatures into the air, or merely to anchor the Ptero-Hawk while it tears into enemies with its sharp-beak.

Perhaps most importantly. The Ptero-Hawk has greatly augmented psionic ability and moderately increased (though still animalistic) intelligence that allows it to act as a psionic forward relay for the queen. Sharp-eyed, the Ptero-Hawk can provide enhanced vision of the terrain and the enemy to the queen as any other member of the swarm, but it’s also capable of holding a register of basic instructions and criteria from the queen. This enables it to react immediately to what it sees and provide directions for other creatures in the swarm. These instructions are simple but can be relayed nearly immediately based on what the Ptero-Hawk sees in the field.

Ptero-Hawk+
-Evolution Chance: NaN
 -Mutagenic Potential 4
-Description: The Elite Ptero-Hawk is a beefy creature, with nearly three times the wingspan of its ancestor, dramatically increased musculature in its legs and wings, and heavy, reshaped beak with an axe-like front that allows it to quite literally hammer its way through heavy armor before opening its sharp mouth to bite into the innards. While somewhat less maneuverable in the air by dint of its size, the Ptero-Hawk is just as fast in flight. Its psionic abilities are modestly improved, capable of providing stronger and longer-lasting directional signals - but more importantly, is a vicious streak of animal cunning in its intelligence. While it has no ability (or concept) of going beyond its queen’s instructions, it can be very nearly clever in its method of execution.
Murder Pup
[Efficacy: 4]
-Base Incidence Rate: 30%
-Evolution Chance: 35%
 -Available Evolutions:
 -- Murder Pup+ 100%
 -Mutagenic Potential 3
-Description:  The newly evolved creature, identified by the curious mnemonic ‘Murder Pup’, is an example of a moderate success at something only moderately difficult. The six-legged creature is marvelously quick and agile - particularly compared to what it came from. Capable of leaping great bounds, sprinting over most terrain, and clambering up and down moderately steep faces by a combination of strong limbs and piton-like claws. Its eyes provide it redundant and highly accurate depth perception which greatly facilitates its ability to make leaping attacks.

Its hairs, unfortunately, don’t live up to expectations. While, when combined with the natural slime secretions, they provide a thick barrier against biological contaminants, their matted slickness means that don’t ‘poof’ enough to provide good protection from blunt impacts, and the lubricating slime means that anything moderately sharp can push the hairs out of the way to strike flesh below. Against slashing blows, the hair is effective, and it does a fair job of filtering large particulates, but the biological complexity brought on in increasing its strength means that it doesn’t shed out as quickly as hoped.
The pack link is an effective expansion of the grub’s own increased awareness, allowing for limited impression sharing from between pack members. While not as accurate as Alpha Entity’s mosaic, it allows pack mates to act and react as a group to accomplish their directives.

While somewhat lacking in armor penetration unless it can get a running start, the Murder-Pup does a good job against soft targets. Slashing talons and gnawing teeth go far, particularly when the Pups work together, and her downward stabbing still maintains decent penetration against thicker targets.
Murder Pup+
-Evolution Chance: NaN
 -Mutagenic Potential 3
-Description: Outwardly extremely similar to the ordinary Murder Pup, the Elite features minor musculoskeletal changes that allow it to better orient its body into a ‘diving’ position when performing leaps - focusing its bladed forelimbs to a single point and mechanically locking its joints for better initial contact damage and penetration. Much more importantly, however, is the fact that each elite Murder Pup is, in a manner of speaking, born pregnant. Each elite carries a partially developed clone inside its body, held in bio-stasis until necromones released by the Elite being killed awake the infant within. At this point the infant will rapidly begin chewing its way out of its parent, using its remains as biological material to fuel its greatly accelerated development. It will be combat-capable in minutes, and, given sufficient food, fully mature within six hours. Newly ‘born’ pups also contain dormant inner entities, but the enormously increased cancer risks from the breakneck cellular division required to enable the infant’s meteoric growth rate typically mean that it’s only 2 or 3 rebirths before the Murder Pup is seriously impeded by prolific tumors.

DRILLER EVOLUTION
Cultivator
[Efficacy: 4]
-Base Incidence Rate: 20%
-Evolution Chance: 25%
 -Available Evolutions:
 -- Cultivator+ 100%
 -Mutagenic Potential 3
-Description: The Cultivator appears, at first, to be a grub-like regression of the Driller. Its expanded flesh largely free of the the Driller’s streamlined armor and somewhat bloated in appearance, while the driller’s refined headshape has been lost in favor of a singular gaping maw - though that maw is filled with independently muscled grinding ‘teeth’ that do preserve the driller’s head shape, among other specialized forms. Primarily a scavenger and waste disposal system, the cultivator has additional scent/taste receptors embedded within its mouth to sample and classify the materials it grinds to dust, as well as a modified system of tongues and sphincters that allow it to semi-separate the material it pulverizes into various specialized stomachs for efficient digestion.

In terms of normal edible matter, the Cultivator is an efficient eater, capable of heightening the relative nutritional content of its meals while still breaking down many threatening toxins within the food - though far from all. When ingesting inorganic rocky matter and earth, the Cultivator uses a  series of stomachs that act as chemical leaching bathes, extracting trace mineral content to supply a surprisingly wide variety of micro-nutrient necessities, but no gut bacteria has yet been isolated or woven that would enable the Cultivator to reach a positive energy balance by this process alone. These micro-nutrients, however, are put to good use enriching and supplying a wide variety of symbiotic life that lives sheltered beneath the Cultivator’s remaining chitin.

During its daylight cycle, the Cultivator either burrows to the surface of its own accord or signals nearby drillers to accomplish the same, and opens the plates of its back armor to reveal a small but significant hidden garden which rapidly unfurls and greets whatever light is available. Supported by a mineral enriched ‘soil’ specially craft by the cultivator, these plants are highly exotic and efficient photosynthetic life forms, serving as biological factories to turn the raw glop the Cultivator ingests and leaches into a rich and complete food product - which is then secreted back into vacuoles within the Cultivator for later dispensation to the swarm.

While it largely meets its design goals, the cultivator’s communication ability is somewhat lacking, and can only make the broadest of directions to the Drillers. This isn’t helped by the fact that it’s primitive scent receptors, though sufficient to help it tell when it’s eating something good, and when there’s something good already on the ground, have difficulty determining which direction good food is when it’s still embedded in the earth. The Cultivator’s stomach system, likewise, is highly functional, but still vulnerable to many hazards, and the tongue system used to filter food items often fails to be 100% accurate when sorting through the materials pulped by the Cultivator’s teeth. Its portable garden, while efficient, is also not yet a perfect eco-system, and doesn’t integrate properly with native bioforms in order to leverage them to full effect.

Cultivator+
-Evolution Chance: NaN
 -Mutagenic Potential 3
-Description: Larger than an ordinary Cultivator, principally in length, the Elite form is similar in most respects. A bit hungrier, a bit better at sensing exactly where the tasty scents come from, and a bit faster at eating as a general rule, the primary difference in the Elite cultivator is an expanded set of honey-vacuoles with muscular linings, external valves, and small internal organ capable of rapidly secreting hundreds of small seeds into the vacuole. Once the cultivator reaches its honey capacity, it will inject seeds into one of these special vacuoles and vent it, spattering everything in a wide cone with a thick layer of fertilized biomatter which, on contact with the air, rapidly blooms into a thick lichen-like mat of quasi-vegetation. This vegetation is imminently edible, and contains fibrous roots that are capable of infiltrating many soft materials and supporting the plant as a separate life form - given sufficient water. While this is useful in externalizing the honey in a stable state, it also enables the elite cultivator to rapidly blanket the dead in a layer of plantish matter that will slowly but steadily help eat them to continuously supply more food.
PTERO-HAWK EVOLUTION
Stomato-Shrike
[Efficacy: 5   (3, 1, 2, 3)]
-Base Incidence Rate: 30%
-Evolution Chance: 25%
 -Available Evolutions:
 -- Stomato-Shrike+ 100%
 -Mutagenic Potential: 4
-Description: The Stomato-Shrike is big, powerful, and somewhat awkward. As large as a Pterohawk elite, and with an evolved armor coating, the wingspan and musculature of the Stomato-Shrike is greatly improved to facilitate the new scale and weight. Some sacrifices in armor coverage have to be made in order to accommodate graceful flight, and there are notable gaps where the wings connect to the body and where the wing fingers hinge.

Her frontal arms, long and thin as they are, provide excellent reach with their talons, but have a fragility that makes them very difficult to use for more than fly-by swipes at soft targets. Her mouth parts are heavily reinforced, with a pecking beak capable of skewering smaller targets or fishing for the innards of weakened targets. Her primary weapon, of course, is her peculiar back legs. Designed to unite into a single flying wedge, heavy with carapace and laden with internal reinforcement, it provides the Stomato-Shrike with a potent mixture of crushing and piercing impact damage. When it can line up, which is where the issues start happening.

While reasonably aerodynamic in level flight, there’s no getting around the fact that the Stomato-Shrike is big and heavy. This means that, when on final approach, it’s very difficult for the Stomato-Shrike to significantly change course. Likewise, the abdomen twist needed to bring the ‘legs’ to bear in mid-air completely disrupts the flight profile, focusing the Stomato-Shrike entirely on not crashing completely rather than on aiming. Even when it hits, small and soft targets don’t really provide enough resistance to adequately slow the Stomato-Shrike, and, despite reinforcement, a collision with harder varieties of ground can still irreparably shatter the Shrike’s rear legs depending on speed and angle. If it misses its target, the Shrike has to desperately unroll in the air and pull out of its maneuver pre-impact, or risk smashing its body into the ground. 

In short, while potentially devastating against something big, heavily armored, and slow, the enormous risks in regularly utilizing the Shrike means the queen has to pick targets quite carefully and accept that many Shrikes won’t make it back from the first pass against mobile targets in hard terrain.

Stomato-Shrike+
-Evolution Chance: NaN
 -Mutagenic Potential: 4
-Description: The Elite Stomato-Shrike is… curvier than its predecessor. Where the ordinary Stomato-Shrike hurls itself at its targets like a stiletto or an épée, the elite variant on its final approach maintains a hooked appearance, with the concavity of the blade facing upwards. This, on normal impacts, means that the Shrike will slide upwards during impact and that overpenetration collisions or near misses will hopefully result in a gentler, rolling collision. The elite variant doubles down on this, however, with a triple row of chitinous ‘warts’ that extend with dozens of nodules from the base of its ‘neck’ down almost to the tip of its abdomen. Beneath their external chitin, these warts have internal cartilaginous shock-absorbing structures very similar to that of the Shrike’s bones. When the elite shrike detects that its attack run will fail and it doesn’t have a good chance to abort back to the air, it makes a single powerful flap with its wings accompanied by a muscular spasm that simultaneously tucks in its arms and wings and curls the body into a spinning ball configuration. In this manner, the elite Shrike can connect with the ground and bounce several times - potentially still cannon-balling into its target - and can unfurl its wings either at the height of a bounce or after it comes to rest.

[Draignean]

Turn Index
Design 1: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=177892.msg8236227#msg8236227
Design 2: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=177892.msg8238548#msg8238548
Design 3: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=177892.msg8241759#msg8241759
Design 4: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=177892.msg8245072#msg8245072
Design 5: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=177892.msg8253697#msg8253697

Spoiler: Revision Log (click to show/hide)

+Grub
Grub Slime
Efficacy: 5 (4)
Causing grubs to secret slime from their pores is a simple matter. Tweaking the toxin balance is more difficult, but quite manageable given your humble objectives. The slime you settle on is colorless material whose toxic effects are a by-product of keratin generation, and cause swelling and local pain with immediacy. Long term exposure to the toxins (for those not immune) has progressive neurological effects with painful twitches that progress to agonic seizures. However, this takes a considerable time, and would likely only result from multiple ingestive exposures rather than a single tenacious grub crawling around. The adhesion tweaking trick is as much a physical trick of flattening its body to maximize surface area as it is a chemical change, but the two together to allow grubs to (slowly) climb and cling at unnatural angles.

Grub Hormone Doping
[Efficacy: 6 (6)]
While the design of grubs is already well optimized to produce higher forms of splendor,  there are always improvements to be made. Careful and iterative changes to the formulas provided by your ancestor-mother-clone memories enable the grub diet to be more carefully tailored to your current needs, yielding significant improvements in basic evolution rate.

Grub Evolution Rate: 50% ⟶ 62%

Brood Nests
[Efficacy: 5 (5)]
The newer nurseries designs within the sequestration cavern prove to be both an aesthetic triumph and a modest practical success. The newly augmented cavern walls stare down with thousands of dark holes and bulges like empty eye sockets, and within each the miracle of life that is the grub matures and (hopefully) undergoes radical metamorphosis within the greatest of comfort and care. 

Grub Evolution Rate: 62% ⟶ 68%

Advanced Grub Matter
[Efficacy: 5 (4)]
Enhancing the Grub’s instinctive awareness of the relative position of psionic speakers, as well as increasing its ability to understand how to get where its speakers want it to go, has positive (albeit limited) results. Allowing them to relay slightly more data back to the speaker is quite simple, and results in the speaker being able to immediately revise their projected data with a more detailed version that incorporates better spatial refinement. Increasing the grub’s ability to follow commands, however, is reliant entirely upon the speaker having some common data to sure. For the Alpha Entities commands, this provides a modest increase to the complexity of motion the can induce in her hordes - as she is able to draw on a mosaic of information from all members of the horde - but other psionic speakers will have to be able to personally have seen the obstacles in order to improve the grub’s guidance. Without that, the modifications only enable existing psionic markers to be held a little longer without reinforcement.

+Driller
Vacuole Stomachs
Efficacy: 5 (5)
Applying the driller+'s holding stomach mutation backwards is a simple process that equips every driller with a not inconsiderable internal supply of resources. While their form of locomotion means that the additional food supply is merely delaying an inevitable end, the air and water stomachs provide valuable improvements to longevity during the creation of longer and deeper tunnels.


Driller Iron Gut
[Efficacy: 5 (2)]
The combination of stronger acid and and toxic slime is tricky, since the original design of the slime was specifically created to break down harmlessly during digestion, but a new formulation is evolved that incorporates the desired hybrid approach. The stomach acid itself is intensified modestly, slightly widening the range of digestible materials and significantly increasing the rate, and the mucosal lining of the gastric system, end to end, is designed to incorporate a toxin derived from grub slime. While these together likely won’t provide total immunity, they’ll make the Driller’s innards no more vulnerable to fungal infection than its external carapace.

Sensible Sensing
[Efficacy: 6 (6)]
Enhancing the resolution of the nerves attached to the guide-hairs, as well as significantly improving the ganglia responsible for processing and categorizing the impulses from said hairs, yields excellent dividends. While the ability to distinguishing between motion created by a fellow driller and motion created by something that looks like a fellow driller but actually wants to kill you is tricky, the encoding of a rote series of sensory motions to scan the air allows the drillers to identify one another even in very close quarters and a seething environment.

Outside of seethe prevention, the sensory refinement allows a considerable increase in detection accuracy against moving targets, quite helpful in tracking targets on the surface while remaining below ground. In addition, the enhanced vibration sense gives the driller a better understanding of the soil around, providing a small but respectable increase to their digging ability.


+Ember
Active Thermovision
[Efficacy: 7 (7)]
While the ember is hot stuff (and knows it) the trick is to let it know how hot (or not) the surrounding area is. Modified dermal chitin at the front of the Ember, with covering plates of heavier insulating chitin, allows the Ember to project a thermal spotlight forwards. Heavily modified versions of the grub’s own light receptors can then pick up either reflected IR from the spotlight, or pick up the residual trace of absorbed and re-emitted energy.

The thermal spotlight system means that, once ‘scanned’ a given entity or terrain object will continue to be visible to the ember. An innate knowledge of its own spotlight intensity and radius also gives the Ember the ability to instinctively infer multiple properties of the target, such as density, distance, heat capacity, etc. This should not be mistaken for intelligence, and is as automatic as the triangulation used to infer depth in front-facing eyes. Still this allows it to spit much more accurately, and to aim for the areas where heat will be absorbed fastest.

Without the thermal spotlight to provide a source of known heat, the thermovision is markedly less able to discern additional information about the target. It is still quite good at picking out shapes and targets as the Ember’s brain, while tiny, is capable of filtering out most of the ‘noise’ heat from its own body and focuses instead on the reflected heat.


+Murder Pup
Pup Slime Mane
[Efficacy: 5 (4)]
The altered secretions of the Murder-Pup provide notably increased survivability against blunt impacts, distributing impact energy and leveraging the strength of the hairs along with the modified slime chemistry to instantly transform the slimy fur into a thick rubbery mat. Piercing strikes, however, are less impeded - with sharper and slimmer and slimmer weapons still able to slide through without greatly activating the novel slime.


+Stomato-Shrike
Stomatofins
[Efficacy: 5 (5)]
While resulting in an almost frilled appearance on land, and a serrated appearance during level flight, the addition of multiple additional maneuvering surfaces to the body allows for considerably finer control when on final approach. Owing to them being primarily in line with one another during level flight, the fins provide a considerably smaller bonus to maneuvering when the Stomatoshrike is not curled under to execute a direct ‘sting’ attack.

[Happerry]

As the Ancient Spirit of Evil I declare for the Alpha Hive. What pretty (big) teeth the queen has after all.

[Kashyyk]

If we wanted to specialise specifically for our first three regions, I had a few ideas.

Thick, lifeless growths such as chitin or calluses would act as a form of armour whilst preventing the fungus spores from being able to dig their roots into actual flesh. The extra mass might help keep steady in the  Crevasses,  although it might cause us to overheat in the Seabed.

I suspect burrowing would be a good way to avoid the heat of the Dried Seabed, and could also be a way to avoid the fungi. I imagine we'd need some high-grade digging skills to get through the Crevasses that way, but it might give us the ability to dig into the walls like a climber's piton.

I'm gonna mention flight again, just cos I think it's important. Whilst it won't cope well at in the Crevasses, a good enough flyer could just go over the Jungle, and it'll help us cross the Seabed before we succumb to the heat. It'll also be very useful in most of the other regions.

Finally, an idea I just had re: the Jungle. A grub that can self destruct, with acid, explosives, etc. Combine it with the chitin above and it can force its way into the thickest fungi thickets (say that 3 times fast), before demolishing the area and clearing the way for our other organisms. Can also be used as your standard suicide bomber in combat, and would be a good first step towards launching the volatile substance at things.

[NUKE9.13]

Alright, here's an idea for something that should work well in all three regions we're moving into. Slime protects from fungal infection, provides a cooling effect in the dry sea, and reduces the chance of being blown away.

Slimer: T1 Organism (Evolves from Grub)
The Slimer resembles a Grub in form, but is constantly surrounded by a thick layer of slime. Said slime is somewhat toxic to everything but the Slimer itself- plants, fungi, and animals alike. This can be used both defensively (ain't nothing going to want to touch/eat it) and offensively (a Slimer can crawl over an enemy to poison them). Offensive use will likely be somewhat hampered by the Slimer's slow speed and poor vision, inherited from the Grub. The Slimer is somewhat more mobile than the Grub, however, in that it can tweak the adhesiveness of its slime coating to climb things the Grub could not.
A Slimer is completely enclosed by slime. The slime is permeable to most gasses, allowing the Slimer to absorb oxygen from it, and the Slimer will first coat anything edible in slime before swallowing it, slime and all (the digestive system of the Slimer is designed to quickly recycle slime thus consumed).

[Kashyyk]

I want to guess that is more like a Revision/ easy design,  otherwise it won't be until gen 10 or so that we start seeing proper scary things.

Anyway, an idea. Not particularly optimised for a specific region, but more as a general grunt unit that isn't a grub.

Evolving from the Grub, it is still approximately 1 meter long, but instead of undulating it runs on six limbs, the rear and central pair ending in a claw/hoof, whilst the front two end in tough bone in a vague blade shape. It has four camera eyes, above a maw lined with short, sharp teeth. Most of the combat ability involves scything away with the front blades whilst biting and ripping with its jaw. Its head, shoulders and back are armoured in light carapace that should at least delay any damage, but this beast is intended to be cheap and plentiful.

[Draignean]

Alright, here's an idea for something that should work well in all three regions we're moving into. Slime protects from fungal infection, provides a cooling effect in the dry sea, and reduces the chance of being blown away.

Slimer: T1 Organism (Evolves from Grub)
The Slimer resembles a Grub in form, but is constantly surrounded by a thick layer of slime. Said slime is somewhat toxic to everything but the Slimer itself- plants, fungi, and animals alike. This can be used both defensively (ain't nothing going to want to touch/eat it) and offensively (a Slimer can crawl over an enemy to poison them). Offensive use will likely be somewhat hampered by the Slimer's slow speed and poor vision, inherited from the Grub. The Slimer is somewhat more mobile than the Grub, however, in that it can tweak the adhesiveness of its slime coating to climb things the Grub could not.
A Slimer is completely enclosed by slime. The slime is permeable to most gasses, allowing the Slimer to absorb oxygen from it, and the Slimer will first coat anything edible in slime before swallowing it, slime and all (the digestive system of the Slimer is designed to quickly recycle slime thus consumed).

This is indeed easy. While the slime gained by a design is certainly more advanced, you would likely be able to gain toxic slime on the grub with a revision.

[Draignean]

I want to guess that is more like a Revision/ easy design,  otherwise it won't be until gen 10 or so that we start seeing proper scary things.

Anyway, an idea. Not particularly optimised for a specific region, but more as a general grunt unit that isn't a grub.

Evolving from the Grub, it is still approximately 1 meter long, but instead of undulating it runs on six limbs, the rear and central pair ending in a claw/hoof, whilst the front two end in tough bone in a vague blade shape. It has four camera eyes, above a maw lined with short, sharp teeth. Most of the combat ability involves scything away with the front blades whilst biting and ripping with its jaw. Its head, shoulders and back are armoured in light carapace that should at least delay any damage, but this beast is intended to be cheap and plentiful.

This is also an easy/simple design.

[NUKE9.13]

Driller: T1 Organism (Evolves from Grub)
The Driller is longer and thinner than the Grub (2m long, but roughly the same body mass), and covered in segmented carapace from head to tail. The carapace on its head is especially thick and sturdy, and has a drill-like shape. Combined with an ability to rotate its head back and forth with considerable strength, this allows the Driller to, you know, drill through dirt and softer rock types. The carapace segments behind its head are designed to push detritus backwards, or into the Driller's mouth (situated on the underside of the body, behind the head) if it contains worthy nutrients.
The Driller can move with surprising force- after all, it has the power to break rock-, and can injure foes simply by thrashing around at them. Unfortunately, its eyes are purely vestigial (hidden underneath its carapace) in favour of improved vibrational senses, so its above-ground combat skills are unlikely to be inspiring. A swarm of Drillers ambushing foes from below could be a serious threat, though.

Dig under the forest, dig under the seabed, hopefully even dig through the canyon? Pretty basic, but good potential for further evolutions, I think.


E: This is a Normal design, per Draig on Discord.

[Man of Paper]

Gurgitator: T1 Organism (Evolves from Grub)
The Gurgitator is slightly shorter and fatter than a Grub. It is covered in tiny hairs to help it sense it's surroundings, a beak-like mouth strong enough to crack stone, and a stomach that breaks down everything it eats and deposits the remains in a thick sludge out the rear end. Gurgitators use their excrement to create nests for the rest of their kind. They prefer a diet with a fair mix of organic and inorganic materials. They also enjoy belly rubs.

[Twinwolf]

Peeker: T1 Organism (Evolves from Grub)

Grubs are... less than intelligent. Indeed they probably wouldn't do much of anything but eat and die without our direction. If we are to battle our opposite number, then that level of broad strokes control is inadequate.

The Peeker is significantly larger than your average Grub, at about 1.5 meters long, and has a solid amount more bulk in the form of armor plates. It's name comes from an array of eyes on stalks dotted across it's body, giving it a wide degree of vision. It is modestly more intelligent than a Grub, with it's primary function is to give Us a greater degree of information on the field, and better ability to direct the hordes quickly and efficiently. It can hold it's own in a fight, but generally is worth more kept alive to direct it's lessers.

[Man of Paper]

Drifter: T1 Organism (Evolves from Grub)

Drifters are the same size as grubs, but have a thick layer of chitin bands on their underside. Protruding along the bands are spherical chitinous growths held in place with lubricated air sacs. Once a Drifter starts moving it can "release the breaks" on the chitin balls, allowing them to spin freely and increase speed. The Drifter can start movement and accelerate thanks to flexing muscles and manipulating their air sacs to roll the chitin balls manually. 

In order to prevent blindly slamming into every object from here to the end of time, the Drifter uses a complex olfactory system to detect predators and prey via smell. A single mucus-protected slit on the top of the head opens up to let the Drifter get deep, sweet, information-filled breaths.

[Kashyyk]

Basically the Slicer Beast+, I think this would be a good base for pretty much every other vaguely combat-oriented evolution (which would be most). Essentially a Hormagaunt/Zergling.

Evolving from the Grub, it is still approximately 1 meter long, but instead of undulating it runs on six limbs, the rear and central pair ending in a claw/hoof, whilst the front two end in tough bone in a vague blade shape, that can be swiped and slashed hard by powerful shoulders muscles. It has four camera eyes, above a maw lined with short, sharp teeth. An oversized adrenal gland and strong back legs allow the Alphaling to leap ten meters, and combined with its blades can use them both for a devastating charge and to traverse difficult terrain. The body is covered in light carapace, with the back and head more heavily armoured.

[andrea]

SO, I was thinking we should give some thought on how we want to structure our evolutions tree, since which branches we want to have will greatly inform the choice of our T1 designs. We don't want too many T1 designs, because it limits our experience (since it doesn't translate across evolutionary branches). However, we also likely want to avoid having just one T1, since each tier has a decreasing chance of evolution and so we would be left with a considerable quantity of generalists, without being able to fully exploit our branches.

Here I propose a function based tree. It involves 3 tier 1 designs, the branching off in several roles. T2 onward should be considered an approximation, since we don't yet know how we shall need to move from there. There is room for more specialists of course, if we need to do radically different stuff. Things like flyers, diggers, walking chemical factories. Odd things that don't really evolve from other branches.

The idea is having a strong core that can handle most standard stuff, then further specialized for terrain or function.

Spoiler:  Functional Flowchart (click to show/hide)

[andrea]

And double post time! here is a competing proposal: mobility based.
The theory behind it is that if we branch into different types of mobility, those branches are going to have very little in common, since they will need different senses, weapons and in general bodies.
It will lead to reinventing the wheel a few times, but that is probably inevitable. Overall, it is starting to grow on me. Credits to powder miner.

Spoiler:  Mobility flowchart (click to show/hide)

In both strategies, I feel that the driller could be a suitable opening move, allowing us to bypass some environmental hazards. So I am currently inclined to vote for it.