Sunday, April 22, 2007

Proposal: I think therefore I am

Quorum 5-0
-Amnistar
Proposer: 25
All others: 5 DNA
Enactor 6 DNA

Adminned at 22 Apr 2007 12:53:37 UTC

Add the following traits to the List of Inactive Traits.  If a trait would be added that shares the same name as a trait already on either list of traits, replace the old trait’s text with the text of the trait found in the following.

Adrenaline
Cost: 75 DNA, 3 Complexity
Requirements: Body Size 3, Brains 2, Appendages 2, Unique Ability 1
Effect: The Lifeform may, each time e makes a Feeding attempt, spend 2 Nutrition.  If e does, e gains +2 Appendages, +2 Facial Features for the purposes of the Feeding attempt and gains +10 DNA if the Feeding attempt is successful.  If the creature during a Hunt targets another Lifeform that owns this trait and uses this trait’s ability by spending 2 Nutrition, the targeted Lifeform loses 2 Nutrition.  The Hunting Lifeform does not gain the normal benefit of the trait in this case.

Arms
Cost: 40 DNA, 2 Complexity
Requirements: Appendages 3, Facial Features 2
Effect: The Lifeform gets +1 to Facial Features for the purpose of all Fight phase rolls.

Digestion
Cost: 50 DNA, 1 Complexity
Requirements: Body Mass 2
Effect: All Nutrition gains/losses from Feeding attempts made by the Lifeform are increased by 1.

Legs
Cost: 40 DNA, 2 Complexity
Requirements: Appendages 4
Effect: The Lifeform gains +1 to Appendages for the purposes of all Chase phase rolls.

Metabolism
Cost: 30 DNA, 1 Complexity
Requirements: None
Effect: The Lifeform may often spend 3 Nutrition.  If e does so, e gains 1 Energy.

Prehensility
Cost: 60 DNA, 2 Complexity
Requirements: Appendages 4, must own Arms, Legs, or Tail.
Effect: The Lifeform gains +1 to Facial Features for the purposes of all Fight phase rolls.

Sentience
Cost: Infinite DNA, Infinite Complexity; Sentience cannot be Upgraded, Advanced or moved to the Active List except by game actions/effects that specifically refer to it.
Requirements: Must have at least 5 of the following Traits: Language, Memory, Nervous System, Reasoning, Tool Use, Tribal Structure
Effect: If the Lifeform has owned Sentience for at least the past 96 hours, e has achieved victory.

Tail
Cost: 40 DNA, 2 Complexity
Requirements: Appendages 3, 1 Unique Ability
Effect: The Lifeform gains +1 to Appendages for the purposes of all Chase Phase rolls.

Tool Use
Cost: 80 DNA, 8 Complexity
Requirements: Brains 4, Appendages 5, must have Prehensility
Effect: The Lifeform gains +1 to all Evolutionary Variables for the purpose of Feeding.  Gains +1 on all Foraging checks.

A peaceful way to win.

Comments

Clucky: he/him

22-04-2007 12:27:15 UTC

I donno…

My problem is the lack of balance that is starting to appear. Right now, it is possible to gain one energy per feeding attempt. This is offset by the fact that you can only have twenty nutrition. Make it possible to lose nutrition at a faster rate, and you make it easier to gain DNA. A lifeform that gets Adrenaline can get +10 without the negative side effect of nutrition++. A lifeform with Metabolism and the power that gives +1 per feeding attempt can gain two free energy per feeding attempt + the DNA earned from it. I was sorta hoping new rules would help to fix the seeming inbalance, (if you notice, over the last couple of days everyone went to put stuff in body mass…) not make it worse.

BobTHJ:

22-04-2007 13:44:40 UTC

for

ChronosPhaenon:

22-04-2007 13:57:42 UTC

for

Amnistar: he/him

22-04-2007 16:33:00 UTC

Best way to fix the imbalence?  Increase nutrition loss.  Becuase as it stands now, nutrition just gets to the 20 cap and sits there, doing nothing.

for

Amnistar: he/him

22-04-2007 17:18:48 UTC

Well, true, you can die from getting more than 20, but it’d be nice if there were some way other than the weekly detriment to lower your nutrition…after all, as it stands now, it takes about 2 weeks to get enough points to increase your attributes.

Axeling:

22-04-2007 18:30:08 UTC

You bring up some good points Clucky.  I think Amnistar meant for falling Nutrition to be the main threat, rather than having too much.  So I think having a trade-off with Nutrition for gaining in other aspects helps provide this feature.  Without ways to reduce nutrition, Feeding becomes a weekly/semi-weekly endeavor (which is not how it seems like people want it with Energy).  I agree that it seems like with Foraging the benefits may stack up quickly, since right now it’s almost guaranteed to succeed.

I think that balance can be attained through some fixes like the following:
-Increase the energy that it requires to Feed.  I think 2 might be two low with two traits that reduce the energy cost.
-Could bring back the DNA loss aspect for feeding, which would provide diminishing returns for over-feeding.
-As Amnistar suggested, provide other mechanisms for nutrition loss, to make spending Nutrition a more dangerous action.
-If still concerned about DNA, can reduce the amount gained from Feeding
etc.

Seebo:

22-04-2007 19:47:23 UTC

for