Alright, so a few days ago I was thinking about some new features of Thrive and suddenly came upon some ideas on how to revitalize an older concept for a pilus upgrade, the long awaited straw pilus.
From a gameplay perspective, designing the straw pilus can be challenging as it must contend with the very much capable and effective base perforating pilus. Why bother stealing a few resources from another cell when you can just slice them open like a visceral pinata? The solution; Making the straw pilus more resource efficient at the cost of only harming one creature at a time.
So, I’ve devised the following concept as an ideal for the straw pilus.
Hunting with Straws
A straw pilus works quite differently from the classic perforating form. Instead of slashing and poking several cells at once, the straw pilus can only target a single prey item at a time. When a straw pilus collides with valid prey, it will “bind” the user to the prey and begin transferring the contents to the user. All the while, the prey will begin taking gradual damage and potentially even risk starvation if enough resources are stolen. This allows a predator to efficiently drain resources straight from the source instead of mopping up the diluted remains from a popped cell. At any point, the predator can release their prey by using the unbind hotkey.
There is no restraint in relation to size, and even the tiniest straw pilus wielding cell can hunt the largest prey. If the predator has a larger mass than it’s prey, they will be able to drag them around, and the prey will be quite limited in their options to escape. This can be seen as a “game over” state similar to engulfed digestion. If the prey is heavier than the predator however, the predator will be dragged around with their prey instead.
This sound pretty rough for prey… So how can they defend themselves from this new threat?
Avoiding The Straws
There are two primary ways to disconnect a straw user from it’s prey. The most reliable is spinning rapidly and vigorously. High turning speeds will eventually dislodge the predator. The higher your turning speed, the faster you are able to potentially dislodge them. Otherwise, taking any form of damage will also dislodge a straw user. Those loose toxin clouds might have a user after all!
Silica and calcium carbonate membranes may be potentially resistant or outright immune to the dreaded straw.
Possessing stored toxins could potentially make you an unhealthy snack for predators, unless they have some means to safely store or process it.
The major catch here is that if the predator is larger than the prey, there may not be much the prey is able to do, effectively resulting in the aforementioned “game over” state should they not get lucky.
This concept would bring a new and exhilarating form of combat to Thrive, open up more predatory options for cells unable to engulf, and make hh really want to have my head for devising something that requires physics collision calls akin to the colony binding system disaster of 2021.
Now, as much fun as being able to latch onto prey is, my biggest fear is how this would interact with the binding system in general. What happens if multiple straw users stab the same prey? Form a conga line reminiscent of basic food chain diagrams? Worse still, straws being used in conjunction with colonies?? There is a lot that could go horribly wrong. But if done right, it would be a wonderful mechanic, at least in theory.
All feedback is welcome.