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[DEVBLOG#225] Introducing Vanilla Races Expanded - Wasters (Patreon)

Published:
2023-04-18 12:19:47
Imported:
2023-04
Tags:

Content

Hello everyone and welcome!

I come to you with great news! I'd like to really briefly interrupt your schedules Deserters Expanded transmission by telling you about our plans for expansion of another vanilla game xenotype - Wasters!

Wasters are currently more of a nuisance than an actual playable xenotype. They have their silly toxic resistance, but the need to consume yayo (or psycho-tea) makes them incredibly difficult to manage. I just don't feel like there is enough benefits to them, certainly not enough to warrant their upkeep.

Furthermore, it does feel to me that they don't really have the genes that represent 'a human xenotype living in the nuclear wasteland'. I mean, where are the mutations? Where is their uniqueness?

The goal of the Waster mod is to expand on the content of wasters, ensuring they are unique and played differently than other xenotypes. We will do it by adding a mutation system, which guarantees that each waster is entirely unique.

Each Waster will have between 1 and 3 random mutations that completely change the way wasters are played, and makes each character entirely unique. Mutations range from cosmetic changes to actual drawbacks or boons. Below is a few examples:

ACID EXCRETIONS

This mutation makes the pawn sweat thick acid. It has the following effects:

Pawn will leave acid filth wherever they are every 2 ingame hours.

Apparel equipped by this pawn takes 3 HP twice a day.

THIRD EYE

This pawn has an additional eye in the middle of their face. This eye is rendered on the pawn’s head. It provides the following bonus:

Additional eye hediff - Sight increased by 50%.

ATROPHIED ARMS

Arms of this pawn have atrophied heavily, making them extremely weak and easy to destroy, whilst also greatly affecting manipulation.

The HP of both arms is changed from 30 to 10.

Manipulation of the pawn lowered by 50%.

HEAD CREST

This gene is cosmetic only. Forehead of the pawn is adorned with bony crest.

EYE STALKS

This gene is cosmetic only. The eyes of this pawn are protruding on two, crab-like stalks.

POLLUTION REGENERATION

Gains up to Injury healing factor ×400% when exposed to pollution. It scales all the way from 100% to 400% depending on the pollution, similar to Pollution Stimulus.

LITTERBIRTH

Pregnancy with this pawn as either parent is guaranteed to be at least twins. There is also 10% chance for it to be triplets, 3% chance for it to be quadruplets and 1% chance for it to be quintuplets.

BOOM DEATH

Carriers of this gene detonate like a boomalope upon death.

What do you guys think? Do you think it's what you're looking for with Wasters? Or is that a bit overboard and should be toned down?

Files

Comments

Ferny

Pehraps a medically based mutation that either increases immunity for certain hediffs or chances for others?

Nicklovin0571

From a personal standpoint, I think this might be a little overboard, maybe could lean more into the environmental resilience/tox? I'm just saying I think stuff like a 3rd eye is sorta coming out of nowhere a little bit.

Kevin Bromley

I like the ideas with one exception. Acid Excretions damaging apparel is a little much. Clothing/armor can be expensive to create, seems like a very strong negative would need something positive to offset it somewhere else.

Luckybread

Tbh I really don’t know about the idea of acid sweat destroying apparel, I feel like with how annoying it can be to manage apparel hp without mods that it would just be frustrating to give your waster some powered armor just for them to chew through like a third of its health in a quadrum. I definitely like the idea I just specifically disagree with that aspect of it.

TheFalseKing

looks really good however I think what wasters need the most is a way to take pollution with them lika a reverse gas mask or some other piece of equipment to not lose all your bonuses the moment u leave your base. would also be really thematic to have it be resistant to the acid exretions from the xenotype.

Dimitry Minchenkov

Maybe medical operation (2* Glitterworld Medicine), that allows to "reroll" mutations?

ArcaneJellyfish

I love the concept of introducing random mutations but I think from a gameplay perspective they should all come with positives and negatives. That way you never feel like a pawn is a true waste

Steffen Lewis

I like it I would love to see even more mutations, do the mutations occur as a child gets older or are they born with them?

Kat

I like it, I’ve always been annoyed that they were just pirates and hard to actually play. I think boom death might be a bit much - but possibly immediate and enhanced rotting? Or dissolving into toxgas, rather than firey boom…

Matt

Reminds me of the Futurama sewer mutants. A sweaty pawn would definitely get assigned nudist clothing, but I think I disagree with the general sentiment that it's too annoying to deal with. I think it's important, though, that a lot of their random buffs are triggered by being in pollution, while a lot of their weaknesses are triggered by low pollution. I really like the idea idea of a tox mask for raids, too.

SNake575

I agree with the other comments saying the acid eating clothes and armor is a bit much perhaps instead (not sure how difficult this would be but) they lower the quality one level But other than that I love the idea of mutations.

Owain I Jones

Not to be too negative but if it sticks to this kind of theme, it'll probably be the first VRE module I pass on. I don't think the direction you're going for here is the right one, personally. They aren't Fallout or Futurama style mutants that started out as regular people who had their DNA twisted every which way by an irradiated environment - they've been specifically built to live and survive in those environments. In-game they're described as having been "engineered to thrive around toxins and pollution" in order to " prevent resettlement of post-apocalyptic deathworlds; wasters are living area-denial weapons." So, frankly, I don't think the whole 'assortment of wacky random mutations' thing really fits - if anything, shouldn't they be LESS susceptible to mutating in radioactive environments, since that's where they were designed to live? I personally think the "living area-denial weapons" aspect is a really interesting concept, and something that's totally underrepresented by their in-game mechanics, so personally THAT feels like the aspect to focus on, rather than turning them into the same kind of mutated wastelanders we see in every post-nuclear scifi. Wasters should be build around not only surviving in toxic environments, but weaponising them against other xenotypes. This might make integrating them into a mixed colony a challenge, but that's already the case with a lot of xenotypes anyway. Just spitballing, but perhaps they could have some kind of internal reserve of toxins that function similarly to hemogen; they can absorb it from polluted terrain or by consuming wastepacks, but unlike hemogen it wouldn't be necessary for their survival or drain over time, it'd just be spent on abilities like toxic AOE attacks, to let them really fill out their role as a bio-engineered weapon race. Or maybe rather than directly spending it on abilities, having higher internal tox concentrations would boost their stats, but make them more dangerous for your other colonists to be around by leaving behind tox gas and polluted terrain at high concentrations, turning it into a tradeoff. (Also, just a sidenote - I know Alpha Genes isn't officialy Vanilla Expanded, but I think much like Alpha Memes there's enough connection and integration to its VE counterparts that I feel it can be considered pretty much Vanilla Expanded-adjacent, and AM's Wretches and other weird races kinda already fill the vibe it looks like you're going for with these wackier mutations, which to me is another reason why the concept doesn't quite sit with me and I'd rather see it taken in a unique direction.) So yeah, I'm sorry if this comes across as hostile, because it does feel kinda mean to just write a couple paragraphs about how I don't think this one is for me, but it's my honest take and being able to give feedback is what I'm subscribed for, I guess.

J L

I personally think that mutations miss the point that is that they were genetically engineered to be immune to tox stuff. If they get mutations from them, that doesn't sound like immunity. I could definitely get behind some changes to the race in general, like the boom death being default because like... their body runs on natural chemfuel to ignore the outside gases or something, but random ones seem weird to me. I think a big support to playing wasters would be ways to, as someone else said, bring tox gas with you safely. Right now, every waster is an enemy, so the fact that they pop toxpacks is fine. If you want to have wasters be something that doesn't just have every non-waster faction as an enemy, then that doesn't work as well. Maybe some easier way to make toxpacks / tox terrain so that wasters can "settle" an area and make it better for themselves without *having* to do it via mechanitors.

SuperZoom

I like the mutation idea, maybe you could find some inspiration from the mutation list in the role playing game Numenera

Victor Hamacek

i dont really care that the mutations arent really lore accurate, they sound so fun

Mort Strudel

I want to see a waster faction mod really. Imagine events where you fight for control over ancient terraformer sites, with wasters trying to use them to rapidly increase toxic waste in a radius on the world map while you as the player have to attack the site to turn off the machine or hack it to make it instead clean waste from the aoe. What if wasters could be allied with by activating toxic terraformers, while doing so causes huge opinion debuffs with every other nearby faction? The idea of a global war to toxify or purify the planet is really interesting to me. I know Yayo's Pollution exists but it seems kind of like a sledgehammer approach that doesn't make much sense lorewise (if the wasters could that easily terraform the whole planet, why didn't they do it before you got here?) and makes the world map ugly. Side note, any tool that lets you delete large amounts of pollution from the world map would probably need to give off a huge mechinstor debuff AOE (maybe like halves your number of mechanoid capacity pips while active) because pollution is the main way the game balances mechinators.

Oleg Oleg

Honestly, I feel like mutations with boons/drawbacks would be more interesting than pure boons/drawbacks, as that'd just feel bad, getting a good pawn and they have a (rather crippling) bad mutation, or you get a godlike pawn just as is. Tbh I think I don't even want mutation as much as I'd maybe enjoy something else for them, though I'm not sure what. Maybe they could have resilience all around, able to weather any kind of chemical substances and damage with (relative) ease, addictions not being as debilitating because of that, and overdoses needing a lot more. I'm only one person though, so it's best to look at the other comments to see what other ppl want, see if they agree/want something else/find it fine as is

Chase

I will say that I think the idea of Wasters as “living area-of-denial weapons” should probably be the focus instead of having them receive debuffs (mutations) from living in the environments they were genetically engineered to be immune to. Perhaps instead there should be several tiers of Waster, that were designed based on HOW polluted the death world they were sent to was. My Thought was that there would be 3-4 strains/Tiers of Waster which all have an internal “battery” of pollution that they draw buffs from and draw from when using abilities like sanguophages do, for example: *They would likely have their own names, but I’ll just give them tiers for now* Tier 1: immune to toxic/polluted air AND can breath normal air, receives no buffs or debuffs from from polluted air and do not have a Tox-storage (this one might need some more flavor) Tier 2: Have a modest internal pollution storage which while above 0 grants 10% bonus to manipulation and movement speed (or grants very basic abilities) and a debuff of 15% to movement and manipulation when below empty. Can be refilled with exposure to toxins/pollution or maybe consuming toxic wastepacks (though from a lore standpoint this might not make sense since they are not meant to reduce the pollution of an area) Tier 3: Large Internal Pollution storage which depletes faster than tier 2, but grants 25% bonus to movement, manipulation, breathing, etc. and access to a middle tier of abilities focused on poisoning the environment. When depleted, their movement, manipulation, breathing is cut to 50%, they should be frail while depleted from pollution. Tier 4: Massive Internal pollution storage which depletes exceptionally fast, but these wasters are dangerous, large bodied killers who leave a trail of pollution and death wherever they go. While tox-storage is >0 they leave a trail of toxins, maybe let off clouds of toxins, their stats get a 45% bonus and they have access to potent abilities based around pollution. Finally, they are the only type of waster that takes damage when their tox-storage runs out. They need special masks or to be in clouds of toxins in order to breath. In melee they have toxic attacks and hit like a train. Even Hussars should have trouble going toe to toe with a tier 4 waster in their element. This got way longer than I meant for it too, but I want to make 3 final notes. 1. I think the idea of “home-field advantage” should be big for wasters. 2. I think players should have to change how they play if they want to have a mixed xenotype colony, but also reap some benefit from a waster-only colony (getting to use Tier 4 wasters) 3. you guys are AMAZING and I know that what ever half-baked garbage I suggest here will be incorporated or ignored by y’all in accordance with your vision and I trust that completely! Keep up the good work y’all!

Cameron Hughes-Cheshire

A super mutant sequel mutation would be cool to see. A tougher, stronger pawn that might struggle with intelligence for example. That might be stepping on the toes of Neanderthal though. The mutations themselves look good though! The acid on the clothes would get annoying though, especially as certain combat mods incentivise keeping armour durability high. Having a pawn slowly destroy clothing would be a hassle for sure.

Lennybolt7

I'm going to agree with most people here. They are meant to not just survive, but thrive in polluted environments by design, and mutations while cool, don't fit that design very well. Making them hyper specialized for toxic environments is definitely the way to go. Maybe they don't do as well outside toxic environments, but do significantly better in one? Or since the planets they were designed for probably wouldn't have non wasters, they could be hazardous to be around. Like the filth they give off instead of being trash, is toxic and can cause buildup the same way polluted tiles do. As well as something like causing toxic buildup in social interactions. Idea being similar to people so radioactive that it sustains itself. They're so toxic that it's self sustaining. That's only the negatives but other people have given good ideas for positive things that this could balance out. I'm not usually good with ideas or explaining my thoughts, so hopefully the feedback helps at least!

ExBeNN

Damn I actually like the idea of mutations, idrc about it not being lore friendly. It just sounds very cool lol

Sondre

I don't think I need to expand on any points regarding the official xenotypes having an 'intentionally genetically engineered' aspect to them. I think you could definitely set aside the mutation ideas and use them instead for a new xenotype that deals with the consequences of adapting to and mutating "semi-naturally" to the prolonged consequences of toxic exposure without being initially engineered to resist and withstand it.

Scott Dockery

I might not be the best person to weigh in, since I think the vanilla xenotypes are fine as-is (except impids). I liked the Sanguophage mod, since that was more about adding Sanguo-related items and "sub-xenotypes" than overhauling the basegame vampires, but I've not been too interested in any of the other VRE mods (at least, not the ones that overhaul vanilla xenos; the entirely new ones are fun). I will say that I like the general concept of giving wasters more variety. I'm not sure random mutations would do much for me; I'm not going to inspect the genes of the pirates I'm gunning down en masse. It might be fun for a general pollution-related expansion (You thought it'd be fine for your mechanitor to put a blighted wasteland onto your map, just because you didn't have your base proper there? Well, now your son has a tail!).

Dom Speziale

Mutations are cool, but I was expecting more in regards to expanded waster content. In a wasteland play through, we’re limited in regards to “theme”. Wasters should have their own culture and buildable tile set. Perhaps utilizing the lacklustre “junk” items in the map would be cool… maybe disassembling the junk provides you with scrap metal, and that can be used to create wasteland themed walls, doors, floors, and decorations to better show off a wasteland themed play through. I also agree that wasters are designed to be tox resistant in lore, and mutations don’t really go along with how they were engineered and designed. Perhaps baseliner pawns could develop mutations if they are around tox enough, whilst wasters stay relatively unchanged by tox buildup.

Jason McGinn

I hope there will be lots more mutations (within the team's time constraints). This theme has the potential for soooooo much variety.

Artemis Martin

Similar to what others have been saying, I do feel that Wasters - designed to live in toxin (which I always viewed as nebulous smog and chemicals, not radioactivity) - getting affected by it like this would be odd, like a whole bunch of Yttakin features that only show-up when they're hypothermic. I think the best way to go about this would be 1. Waster subtype, 'Chimeras' who routinely shift around their genetics, designed in the hopes of being able to theoretically survive any environment on short notice, thus saving the need for corporations to produce specific xenotypes when they could just do it themselves. 2. Mutations part of the warnings that Wasters use to keep others away. They have a chamber they put prisoners and slaves into to forcibly mutate them, and tailor that victim to whatever role they need served around the place. Using toxin packs to induce this, it's a far less civilized - but more accessible - equivalent to the VFE - Ancients superpower system.

chris kubiak

The apparel HP loss of Acid Excretions seems a tad extreme on the initial glance. Does this only apply to skin layer apparel? Ignoring lost due to vanilla deterioration and combat damage and depending on if your pawns care about tattered apparel or not seems that Marine\Cataphract armor would disappear in about a year and flak items seem like they would only last ~2 quadrium's. If this HP loss is all equipped apparel layers my gut reaction would be to insta-banish any pawn with that mutation as I wouldnt want to micromanage their apparel and wouldn't want them wearing good armor day-to-day that Id need to constantly be replacing. Concept\lore wise its super interesting, but unless it only effects one layer or perhaps has the deterioration rate tweaked (like % chance a day to take extra damage or something like 1% hp loss a day). Again, just initial impression thinking about it, maybe it would feel pan out differently in an actual run.

JohnnySlick

I think Wasters are fine, but understandably people feel like they need some good’ole vanilla expandin’ because they don’t integrate well with your average colony. Ideally I would want the mod to address that and more conventionally so like the other race mods; I don’t think mutations make sense in this context nor are needed to make Wasters interesting. I’ll echo someone who suggested a stored pollution mechanic earlier that grants access to special abilities, similar to some of the positive mutations you gave. The catch? Wasters have to both live in thick pollution and secrete it to keep these buffs. This is the dynamic challenge of having Wasters in your colony now beyond having a yayo stash. You’ll have to carve out small sections of your colony where Wasters thrive while curbing pollution’s range and effects on everyone else through various means. Without their own polluted corners Wasters return to their mediocrity and maybe even become unhappy. New Gene/Mechanic? - Natural Polluter: Wasters will pollute the area around them slowly whenever working or sleeping. On their way to jobs, during socialization, being drafted, etc., they automatically “hold in” their toxins for the sake of those around them. However, they can’t do this for extended periods and will be annoyed if they have to. - This should make managing the spread of Waster-made pollution less of a hassle and concentrate it to where your Wasters live instead of anywhere they set foot. While they are “apart” from your colony in a physical sense, they need not be apart in a communal one. - Lone Wasters may get lonely from isolation during work. This creates a risk/reward assessment where the player can choose to add more Wasters for socialization but also incur more secreted pollution. - Perhaps area pollution can scale with a Waster’s stored pollution I.e. a Waster with nothing stored does not pollute the area around them while a very toxic Waster spreads radiation quicker and farther. It could challenge the player to manage Waster toxicity levels according to the spread they can handle. New Gene/Mechanic? - Toxin Deficiency: If Wasters use up all their stored pollution and don’t get to polluted area soon thereafter, their body will start to break down or enter a coma. - This isn’t so much Wasters can’t survive in non-polluted areas as much as Wasters overexerting their pollution-adapted physiology beyond its limits. New Gene - Wastepack Consumption: Periodically, Wasters can consume up to 3 waste packs to fill up some stored pollution and hunger. New Gene? - Comradery: When 4 or more of the same xenotype are fighting close to one another, gain a small boost to damage. - Just trying to emphasize the pirate thing Wasters have going on. New Gene - Pollution Affinity: Wasters are slightly better at construction, planting and crafting when in polluted areas, but only polluted areas. Maybe they can have a small boost in animal training for VAE: Waste Animals specifically? Maybe “being better at X in polluted area” can be a whole suite of genes like weapon affinities in Hussars Expanded so players can make the mutant races of their heart’s desires? New Gene (if highly polluted) - Acid Excretions: For a brief period of time when activated, Wasters leave a corrosive substance trail behind them that degrades the armor of enemies who walk over it. In melee engagements, rapidly degrade your opponent’s weapons and armor. Costs a percentage of Wasters’ stored pollution. New Gene (if highly polluted) - Toxic Leakage: Target an area to instantly toxify it and turned the ground to marsh, slowing anyone within the radius. Combine with well-timed tox gas and it becomes very deadly. Costs a percentage of Wasters’ stored pollution. New Gene (if highly polluted) - Nausea Infliction: Select a target at close to medium range to make them vomit every few seconds. Costs a percentage of Wasters’ stored pollution. New Gene (if highly polluted) - Cockroach Survivability: For a brief period of time when activated Wasters survive or take reduced damage from the next three blows (melee, explosions) that would have dealt major damage to them otherwise. Large cooldown. Costs a percentage of Wasters’ stored pollution. New Gene (if highly polluted) - Pollution Regeneration, your version. Costs a percentage of Wasters’ stored pollution.

Levi Yarra

Having done waster/custom waster-esque colonies, the base wasters certainly leave something to be desired. Mutations certainly could be a good way to remedy that, but I think any negative ones need to be handled carefully, atrophied arms for example just sucks and assuming bionics fix the penalties, it's a matter of whether they are worth the plasteel and advanced components to fix simply reducing the total amount of pawns worth recruiting.

Rossum

Personally, I'm not a big fan of the random mutations aspect, especially since the lore says that Wasters were "Origionally engineered to prevent resettlement of post-apocalyptic deathworlds" which to me makes it sound like Waster were origionally engineered as living bioweapons kind of on-par with the Insectoids that were designed to combat mechanoids. Basically... I think that Wasters could have at least something in common with Orkz from Warhammer 40k, in that they were designed as bioweapons to fight in a war. Perhaps another weapon someone created to fight mechanoids since Waster's genes make them prone to violence, highly resistant to disease, and they become attracted to the pollution that mechanoids or mechanitors produce. A high-tech faction like the Empire could choose to fight the mechanoids by vat-growing a bunch of Wasters, dump them off in a polluted hellhole full of mechanoids, and supply them with just enough drugs and weapons to build a colony of pirates bent on fighting the mechanoids to steal scrap and components. That, or they could be an attempt to engineer people tough and resiliant enough to survive nuclear deathworlds but other xenotypes look down on them for lacking the tech and infrastructure to build themselves back up and higher tech factions like to pretend they are just savages and pirates to justify driving them off of valuable land. The Lore behind them does kind of sound like something a colonial power would use to justify stealing from or oppressing some less advanced civilization, like if the Empire wanted to exploit some Waster colonies for slaves or resources and justify it by saying these xenohumans who were engineered to survive a deathworld were just "living bioweapons" instead of people. As for game mechanics... maybe there are waster subtypes who's genes encourage fighting mechanoids or engage in combat? Such as: Psychopath or Masochist - They have genes that make them more likely to have traits like Bloodlust, Masochist, Psychopath, etc to make them more prone to fighting. Or they gain some kind of growth from hurting others or being hurt in turn? Kind of like how warhammer 40k orkz love fighting. If a Waster gets in a fight they get some kind of boost even if they got injured. Scrapping material from the ancient machinery - Wasters could be prone to breaking old stuff down to make new stuff, essentially cleaning up the debris of past fights to keep fighting against mechanoids or other threats. Not sure if giving them the Orky power to make scrapped together junk work better would be lore-friendly. But it could be neat if there was a gene that could allow pawns to use certain jury-rigged weapons or create effects that don't normally work. Basically letting Wasters use their latent psychic powers to operate jury rigged energy weapons or something that normal pawns can't use. Drug Dependent Powers and Weaknesses? - Perhaps the good/bad mutations could still exist, but Wasters can keep them at bay using psychite? So a waster can have a random mutation that lets them spit acid or something and it also damages their apparel, but so long as they keep ingesting psychite it keeps they weakness at bay and they can expend some psychite to use their powers? Or maybe they require different drugs or materials to power different things?

Steven

This would definitely expand Wasters and make them feel way more unique! I'm not sure the Boom Death feels really on brand though? Maybe something like a poison or rotgas cloud, or simply their bodies beginning to rot immediately would make more sense? I do like the sound of a lot of these genes though. Litters sound great, the third eye could be interesting, the filth and clothing damage are unique. Lots of ideas here that folks could use in making their own races.

Trevellian

It seems like the xenotype was originally made to be a nuance to adventurers on wasted worlds, so I get wanting to focus on their combat aspects. But I really like the idea of them having unique mutations. I mean, if they're a people who've been living in polluted fallout for ages, they're likely to start showing mutations regardless of their original design intent. And it makes them feel very special and more exciting to run into. Plus, expanding them in ways that aren't intended to enhances their combat prowess specifically helps to make them feel more personable and sympathetic, in my opinion. It could help to expand the idea of them being stuck as scavengers, rather than developing a robust society, like one of the civil factions. And that all helps to the story's drama, which is the point after all, right? I won't lie, the mutations could make them feel a bit like the Mongrels from Patherfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. But you know, not as demonic. haha

Red Lizard

What if these mutations weren't completely natural but instead you could craft a drug made out of waste, which would take as much space as waste and produce it upon consumption or destruction, to be taken by a waster which has a gene that let's them gain mutations. Maybe you could craft more expensive drugs with a lower likely hod of getting a bad mutation or even a better chance to get special mutations like ones related to acid , one to body mutations, and another for health benefits like a heart that works better in pollution.

Mielga

the idea of having toxic "sweat" can be useful, but doubt it would be in the scope of the mod: 1 the sweat is a mutation that hits a small number of wasters 2 it degrades normal clothes and gives them the tainted mod (wasters dont care about taint, everything around them is tainted/polluted) 3 they can craft different clothes and armor that are not subject to degrading but instead use the tox-sweat as a resource 4 the armor uses the hemogen mechanic but uses the tox excretion instead as fuel, the regular clothes use the tox as a melee contact effect 5 the armor, and special tox range weapons (spewers) uses the warcasket mechanic where multiple weapons and armor parts give more abilities than any one of them on their own, and if the user of the tox armor has the sweat, the "ammo/mana" of the gear degrades at a bare minimum (dune fremen stillsuits meet red alert 2 desolator troops) 6 you can harvest the tox from the pawns with the mutation to fuel the tox armor on regular wasters or other pawns i mean, pollution is something the wasters have adapted to, but that does not mean that they do not process it, and a few other mutations could have their own way of dealing with the pollution processing, like the poluxkin have their own way

Stultus

Let's see. Wasters are supposed to be "Living Area Denial Weapons". They make places uninhabitable simply by virtue of existing. perhaps you could make it so that Wasters slowly pollute their areas over time? I think you should continue with the mutation idea, it works for a genetically engineered blight species, who will rapidly and uncontrollably reproduce, and start raiding places they haven't been yet. It works narratively, as these hateful mutants have multiple reasons to lash out at the world around them, they need the resources, and they need an outlet for the agony of being a Waster. Force all Wasters to have Major Cell Instability, speed up their reproduction capabilities somehow, and buff their Pollution Stimulus. Maybe some kind of friendly interactions with Insectoids, seeing as both are engineered species that thrive off pollution.

Rhaenys

Does this mean still births are deadly?

PaperClipChip

I love it. The wilder the better.

LilShrimp

Make them spread pollution everywhere. Give them a Yayo type effect in polluted environments, and have them start polluting the area (similar to mortar raids)

stifledyawn

Atrophied arms and acid excretion definitely seem excessive. A colonist that's half as effective sounds like a guaranteed banished pawn or organ donor. Acid filth doesn't sound too bad but 6 damage to clothing daily makes pawns with the acid excretion mutation a nightmare to micromanage, even with mending or restoration. Some clothing items have <100 HP which means they'll need to be replaced after about a week to avoid the tattered clothing mood debuff. These particular mutations sound like more of an automatic disqualification than something to play around. You were probably surviving well enough without such pawns and you can probably continue to do so without them on the team. This next idea in particular might be too wide in scope to add anytime soon but maybe the mutation system should have some sort of "point value" similar to the xenogene metabolism efficiency system. With some combination of positive mutations there should be a roughly equal value of negative mutations to balance it out. As an improvised example: Pollution regeneration = -5 points Near sighted = 2 points Creepy breathing = 1 point Night terrors = 1 point Bad odor = 1 point One very good trait + four negative traits = 0 points This might be a bit too stable for what are supposed to be mutations but if such a system is implemented in some sort of better way it would leave room for weighing up the pros and cons of having a particular waster pawn in the colony rather than easily just dumping a broken pawn or being gifted with a good pawn within 1 to 3 random mutations, with the positives and negatives balancing out a waster with 3 mutations or maybe even 10 mutations

Rossum

Actually, the mutations aspect sounds like it could be used in the Biotech gene modding in lieu of definite advantages/drawbacks. For example, there could be a Greater Mutation (positive)gene, a Greater Mutation (negative) gene, etc. Placing one of these genes in a genome gives the pawn a random positive or negative mutation along with the given metabolic efficiency change. So, when creating a collection of genes, instead of carefully balancing the pros and cons, you can just dump in some mutations to fill out the required metabolic efficiency and get a much of random mutant traits that are (roughly) worth the genes. It could also be neat if germline wasters have the capacity to capture baseline humans (or humans with just germline genes) and infect them with a sort of crude xenogerm to turn them into slaves or "dregs" or something. Like, they could have a xenogerm that includes genes that make a pawn able to survive in toxic environments, and makes them docile so they can't escape from slavery or break out of prison, and the rest of the gene is just random mutations for the metabolic efficiency. So, in addition to the "main" waster xenohumans, they can have a bunch of slaves made from captured baseline humans who have been forcibly changed so they can survive in the wasters polluted cities and work as slaves. These xenogerms might exist as items the players can come across, and if they come across pawns with these "waster slave" genes in them they could choose to use genetic engineering to remove the xenogerm to remove the negatives. So, one of the waster xenotypes could intentionally kinda suck because it exists specifically to put onto slaves so they can work in toxic environments while also mutating them.

Piano of Pain

-The acid excretion may be a bit too annoying to be enjoyable. -Th third eye sounds like a really cool aesthetic -The atrophied arms seems fitting, but it would completely turn a lot of people off from recruiting/playing as them. Maybe this could be a treatable or curable condition. That way, we would have some incentive to invest time into them and keep them around. -head crest sound good. And it matches their skeletal aesthetic -Eye stalks doesn't really make a lot of sense to me. Not a fan personally, but others may disagree. -Pollution regeneration is really fitting. Surprised that's not already vanilla. -Litterbirth is fine. That would be a fun gene to play with. -Boom death is interesting. I think that having them explode with toxic gas, at stink, or even spreading pollution would be nice, instead of generic boomalope fire.

John Anderson

I look forward to using these guys in my deserters playthrough. That being said I'm hesitant about really brutal negative mutations. I don't like wasters though. Maybe the negatives could have a mixed bag effect, or some way to remutate out of them? Having some really solid survival talents like maybe low food consumption or no need for sleep would make me more interested in using wasters. As I said, in my games I have just never had waster genetypes end up being worth using