I don't know what to think about the whole DNA mixer-thing, but I do like the idea of mutations, maybe from some sort of mutagen found on heavily industrialiced or scientifical planets, and maybe in some rare "UFO" crash site encounters. You could either use it instantly on yourself ( Holy shit dumb idea ) or save it for investigation and learn more about it and what would it produce, maybe even learn how to make it and extract specific DNA from some creatures ( You want lizard scales, but you dont want claws, as that would maybe provide a debuf making it slower to reload guns ), and it shouldn't be something you need to advance, some players might even want to avoid it, as it should be quite risky. I would like it if most of the mutations weren't just straight out positive or negative, for example mutating some sort of chitin insect-like armour, it would reduce your movement speed, but provide some good protection, or mutating night vision from DNA extracted from night-time creatures, it would make it much easier to explore caverns and see during the night, but it would lower your precision during daytime, and mutating wings won't let you wear some of the heavier armors, but mutating something like weakness wouldn't give you anything positive while reducing the mele damage you make, and mutating something like superhuman streght ( RARE ) shouldn't have any bad effects while incresaing you mele damage and what not. The proces of mutating should be somewhat long, not too much, and it should have some negative effects, like pain, ocasional paralisys and maybe blindness, depanding on the mutation that you are developing, but once its developed, those side effects should stop and let you enjow your wings/claws/NV/fire breath/fur/chitinous armor/poison or lament about your tentacle arms/general deformity/weakness. Also, being heavily mutated would cause some initial negative reactions from NPCs, even maybe up to hostility. And just FYI, I would really hate vanity mutations that don't actually make sense.
You dont need to advance it. You CAN advance it. Actually, you can use it on yourself, or test it on your pets to see what effect it have. Actually, i do like the idea of mutations that increase something and decrease something. Gradual Mutation... Good idea. Reactions of NPCs was an idea i had, however i dont know how it could work. Actually, i was thinking that if you took the other branch of the Technologic Tree, the Pararell DNA Track Creator, some humans could confuse you whit animals. Vanity Mutations depends on what kind of power you get. If you have an tail, people can see the tail. If you have Fire Breath, they cant see, as it is not an physical/outside body change.
Maybe to keep DNA stable you need to splice with similar creatures, for example if you wanted to fly and breath underwater it would be better to splice with a flying bird and a penguin, than with a bird and a fish even though this would only let you hold breath for a long time this would still be better because similar DNA would be less likely to rebel. And maybe rather than mutating yourself you would have to "grow" a mutant, which you could then control rather than mutating yourself. (Also Platypuses acts as universal DNA stabilizer.)
So, if you have a Platypuse in your DNA, you would be able to use whatever types of DNA you want, at cost of a DNA Slot? I like the idea, but not the one of growing mutants.
You are a naming god! Personally I would call it Peckon but. Love the idea what do you think of this? Use captured creatures to extract DNA from them, you can research and study the DNA learning its structure and things from it (like a research tree that requires X amt of DNA from Y monster to unlock) than you can apply different aesthetic or even physical improvements to yourself and your pets/companions (if their willing) I could even see people asking you to unlock features from certain creatures for your companions cause they want that feature. Just a little thought on a way this could be implemented. Personally love the idea of growing your own mutant minions that you can brain control. Maybe you could use them and send them on missions where, based on the DNA they were grown out of would improve or decrease their effectiveness on certain tasks. Agree with the platypus DNA thing, although I dunno why it has to be platypus DNA.
In my opinion something that is a DNA mixer should be kept simple. Like mixing with a fire based creature will give you fire resistance and a small vanity effect like horns instead of full scale DNA mixing.
Right. Actually, about the second, i already got something nearby to it, which is selling DNA vials to players so they can use it. Brain Control, means that the mutant is paralyzed, but may still think. I think words you search for are Mind Control. I like Platypus
:O I meant for your NPC companions lol Yeeeaaah I meant mind control - the process of controlling anothers actions and thoughts. Lol nice catch I like platypuses as well, but why does it have to be that? I'd think it would be better as some sort of "blank" DNA like you could get from a common mobs (including animals like the platypus)
Would probably be good if they had simple and complex versions, complex leads more into cool aesthetic combo's where as your simple is where you get all your buffs and such, thoughts?
I like that idea and maybe for some more advanced buffs, flying for example you would gradually grow wings and once they are done growing you can fly and before that you can only kind of glide. Also platypus was mostly just because they look mis-matched .
Lol, i imagine me in PVP, agaisnt someone who doesnt know anything of DNA Mixer or Pararell DNA Track Creator because he just cheated items (It happened a lot in Terraria), and then i say: Give me a second, i go away until he cant see me, and come back as a giantic dragon and eat him. LOL.
This ^. It would have so many awesome possibilities. Although it would probably be hard to implement into the game.
Also, check my new thread The Circle of Life, since i think that if both of those get added, they would be a nice complement to each other, while Circle of Life being about how animals work whit the other animals, and how you can manage to evolve creatures by changing the creatures they normally hunt, the terrain, etc, and this one is how you can use those animals to make yourself evolve. http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?threads/the-circle-of-life.5553/
This makes me think of Bioshock. So in essence, It's like alchemy, you could choose a common skill in DNA and focus on making that skill more powerful, concentrating and raising the effect. Yet you want to be careful and not mix any negative effects. and Vanity DNA changers sound great to me... For one.
Something I would like with this would be DNA research, as in, you can make DNA, it would give you specific abilities, but it would have random side effects. Or it just does random stuff, some good, some bad. so you can have a shot that makes you heal 10 times as fast, but it stuns you for a long time, and afterwords it poisons you.
Maybe you could create your own creature by combining two or three or four of them! http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?threads/combining-creatures.6008/
Two random players encounter... Player 1: Hey, what your doing? Player 2: Im just feeding my popvirwurmoon!
let's see here, pop, that is probably a poptop. vir, is that a virorb? wur, what is that? moon is the bad moon. did we get that right?
