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[Doomshifter]

As for laser-proofness, living cells dont make good enoguh mirrors for that to be a good way, but ablative armour might work. Some kind of volatile mucus secreeted that boil of before it can get warm enough to do harm. Easy to track as a game mechnic to.

I was joking about the mirrors!

Can we just fortify ourselves, maybe build some concrete walls and such using wooden boards as moulds, then we can get to messing with genetics.

[Ochita]

The **** did all this bull**** sprouting come from? I'm disappointed in you guys, so far you've not been this bad.

Mind your own language Armok. And calling us this bad, for just expressing idea's against your own. Seriously. >:I You're doing a great job at making people angry at you.

In other news, I think the best course of action is to finish the fencing, and then fortify it, leaving a gap for people to enter and leave. We could look at doing photosynthetic skin while the workers are working.

[Doomshifter]

We could possibly start trying to make bricks. If we get mining, we might even be able to carve solid-stone bricks and use the cement as mortar.

[Armok]

We need money to do almost anything, and selling clone rights is the fastest way to get that. The experiments are just that: experiments. We need to start now because growing clones take a long while, we can make fences during the many turns the clones are just growing. It's not a question about priority, it's a question of scheduling to do both.

Also, photosynthesis isn't as useful as you seem to think. There is a REASON plants don't move around much. Photosynthesis even with a shape optimized for it and constantly in the sunlight don't produce all that much energy compared to eating. A photosynthetic clone not eating would have to just sit and sunbath for much longer than it could move around. It's still worth doing as an emergency solution, but it's not a priority, especially as we have plenty of food at the moment.

[Monkeyfacedprickleback]

It wasn't about food so much as a resitance to lasers, Plus I think we can one up nature. Pfft plants are Last century. We'll see how the Gm handles it though.

[Armok]

Photosynthesis does not protect against lasers. At all. If anything it'd be extra sensitive. And while nature does many things in stupid ways photosynthesis is not one of them and making any improvement on it ever in a game like this seems implausible.

[Flying Dice]

The photosynthesis isn't intended to replace food, it is intended as an extra measure that will provide a bit of excess energy to suppliment our food resources. We're increasing our population, and we need to have enough food. That said, the problem I had with some of your suggested clones, Armok, wasn't that they were abominations, but that they don't do anything we couldn't do as well or better with a normal clone. A small, monkey-like clone might be good for scouting, but apart from that it wouldn't be as good at resource gathering, and wouldn't be sellable. We need to look for two kinds of improvements: ones that will increase the efficiency and productivity of the colony, and ones that will sell well. These will mostly overlap.

Suggestions:
> Work on developing camoflagued skin. (colony)
> Work on developing improved eyesight, possibly with a natural zoom, and hand-eye coordination for sniper/scout type combat clones. (both)
> Work on developing night vision, for combat clones and miners. (both)
> Work on developing endurance and an internal nutrient storage pouch-organ for workers that can eat up a large meal, and then work for a long time without eating or sleeping. (both)

Heck, we could probably start growing modified sex-slave clones to sell, if nobody has ethical problems with that.

Also:
> Buy concrete blueprint. (if not already done)
> Complete the fencing and panelling of the wall.
> Begin making concrete.
> Continue mining.
> Buy mineral scanner (if we have the yollars for it).

[Armok]

The monkey clone is good for forest or microgravity combat, and for installations in hard to reach places. It is also small making it lower cost, and it does have effectively 4.5 arms even if it sometimes must use some for locomotion.

Maybe I'm assuming to much realism, but camouflage, photosynthesis, better eyesight, etc. are all things nature has already worked hard on. This means that a) we know from previous examples how hard they were to solve, namely very hard, and b) if we get our hands on DNA from the creatures who did evolve it naturally we can just copy it from there saving a lot of work.

Also, I took it as kind of a hint that all the examples the GM gave of posible changes were morphological. Even if it didn't make sense, biochemical changes are much harder to judge fairly and balance.

We already have SEVERAL "internal nutrient storage pouch-organ": the stomach, the liver, and all fat tissue. That said, making a clone with an enlarged liver for more medium term energy storage IS a valid suggestion. Making obese clones on the other hand...

I'm OK with a "pleasure model" clone, although we should probably wait to see what the GM thinks before actually going as far as to suggest specific features.

But ok, I'll make another design to see if it's better liked...

> Übermensch Beta 0.1:
* About 30% larger than a  normal clone
* Massive amounts of testosterone: increased muscle mass, aggressiveness, masculine appearance, impressive beard, etc.
* Accelerated metabolism: stronger, faster, heals better, more energetic and less prone to fatigue, but requiring more food, especially meat. Might also result in overheating.
* Enlarged liver, for toxin resistance and storing food.
* Large eyes: plain improving is hard, but enlarging should give us higher resolution (which is functionally equivalent to zoom, but without the loss of peripheral vision) and light sensitivity. Larger risk of things hitting eyes, sensitivity to to bright lights, and more expressive face are side effects.
* 6 arms: because why not? 4 worked well.
* Myelinated nerves: this insulation results in thicker nerves, take up more space and resources but reaction speed and coordination is better. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myelin )
* Thick, dense bones: heavy, and takes long to grow, but protective and resilient.

Camouflage and night vision pending for once we get genomes for things that already have those properties.

[Taricus]

Also Vetoing the Übermensch. We don't need clones going on 'roid rages. ALSO vetoing the pleasure clones.

We need more efficient muscle mass, not just piling more on a clone.

[Monkeyfacedprickleback]

I'll vote for the Übermensch, not because I think it'll work (putting too much untested stuff in all at once will cause massive instabilities) but because it makes a good research case. I think we'll wind up with a horribly mishapen blob incapable of keeping it's heart beating for more then a couple seconds. But thats the first try. Practice makes perfect and we need to practice. Pluswe should learn at least one skill from the attempt. and we can always feed the genetic failure back into the cloner to recycle it into something useful.

Now is a fairly good time to experiment on the more outrageous stuff. Later in the day we won't have enough research time and we'll keep putting it off so we can, "fortify just a bit more" and "make some better weapons". We should play to our strengths. Have the clones do the heavy lifting while we do the heavy thinking.

[Armok]

These clones seem pacified enough that I don't think 'roid rages will be a problem.

Also, we can't just make muscles "more efficient". Evolution has tried that for billions of years and I don't see us having any advantage that'd let us do better. The closest we can do is the increased metabolism I already included, making it more size efficient at the cost of energy efficiency.

[Taricus]

Evolution didn't try hard enough, so we'll do it instead.

We can't afford any experimentation right now due to needing all the cloning pods working on getting more clones produced, preferably workers and combat versions, but basics are alright.

[forsaken1111]

I like how Armok is deciding what we can and cannot do rather than letting the person running the game decide.

[Geen]

Photosynthesis clones could be like The End in MGS- Slow, but able to live off of sun for days, and blending in with the plants. Plus, slower heart rate = less sway = more accuracy. I support everything in the name of !!SCIENCE!!

[Armok]

I'm not deciding anything. I just seem to be the only person here who knows basic biology and respect the GM enough to assume he'll at least try to make things realistic.