Mild frustration: There's no way to make any of the entity stuff caste-specific, is there?
Things I am considering: Making them alcohol dependent. Alcohol could be pretty good fuel, so it might be that with straight water they're not getting enough, and become sluggish. . .
Another thing I am trying to sort out: I don't want the non-combat castes being in the sieges as much as possible. This shouldn't be an issue for the Walker, who will have a very low population percentage, and they can certainly soak up some damage (even if the damage you cause will be fatal fairly early in the fight), but the Slider will be a problem. They're meant to hold a significant section of the populace, but I really don't want them taking part in sieges if it can be helped. If it can't, then there should be a way to ensure they're armed properly when they head into a siege.
Also, does anyone know if size will affect Sliders' hauling speed much? I don't want them being lightning fast and suddenly crawling slower than the walkers under the burden of their <steel table>.
Which brings me to another thing: There's bound to be a way to make fire above and beyond the most dangerous thing a Plantfolk can face.
Some comparison tables with the currently existent races (based on certain assumptions):
Size:
Slider - Just under one kobold.
Thresher - Dwarven
Snapper - Human
Walker - Maybe 130-170% Human size.
Speed:
Slider - two (maybe three) urists
Snapper - 1.1 urists (justification: Encourage their rapid attacks)
Thresher - .95 urists (justification: They will more than likely end up tougher than the average dwarf. Just a slight nerf).
Walker: .5-.6 urists - maybe less, depending on their efficiency.
Specials:
Thresher will not have an easily severable "head", Slider will.
Snapper's bite is poisonous. - Want to find a way to get it to use weapons /and/ bite attacks. Snapper's defenses will leave something to be desired (which is intended). The poison will likely be necrotic.
Walker will have absurd defenses (multiple layers of bone-tough defense to work your way through), but if grievously injured are probably best fed to the magma pipe. Will live 300yrs minimum if left to their own devices. I'm trying to find a way to make them very attractive workers in addition to their nice investment bonuses.
Saprolings:
I don't want to call them this, but they will be basically mouths with bodies, with strong bite attacks. They'll move quickly, but they're going to have absurd turnover rates. High birthrate will offset this. You'll definitely be wanting to use these guys, if only to protect your framerate from a saprolingsplosion - And to avoid manipulating this, there isn't much point to butchery.
Wurms: Obviously, we'll have to have some mounts for these guys. Only a wurm would be heavy-duty enough to carry the odd walker into battle, and that would be a sight to behold, I should think.
Looking for ideas for further plant races, if they can be worked in. Also looking for ideas for special plant weapons.