hartleyhair
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All right. As you may or may not know, I'm rather a fan of the colour purple, and as such think that there really ought to be a purple Serpent. I have thought about vulnerability, and have come up with the following idea:

Pythons are a purple Serpent that move following the ordinary Serpent rules. Their vulnerability can be changed with Python Vulnerability Tokens - for example, one could pre-place a Python with either Serpent, Rattleserpent, or Adder vulnerability and the play can alter its vulnerability with the tokens (which would work the same way as Tarstuff Tokens).

The Editor interface would be simple - the Python icon would be clicked on to display a drop-down menu of the three vulnerabilities. The distinction between vulnerabilities would be the head (Adder), tail (Rattleserpent) or lack of distinction (Serpent).

What do you think?

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[Last edited by hartleyhair at 10-12-2007 08:07 PM]

calamarain
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hartleyhair wrote:
All right. As you may or may not know, I'm rather a fan of the colour purple, and as such think that there really ought to be a purple Serpent. I have thought about vulnerability, and have come up with the following idea:

Pythons are a purple Serpent that move following the ordinary Serpent rules. Their vulnerability can be changed with Python Vulnerability Tokens - for example, one could pre-place a Python with either Serpent, Rattleserpent, or Adder vulnerability and the play can alter its vulnerability with the tokens (which would work the same way as Tarstuff Tokens).

The Editor interface would be simple - the Adder icon would be clicked on to display a drop-down menu of the three vulnerabilities. The distinction between vulnerabilities would be the head (Adder), tail (Rattleserpent) or lack of distinction (Serpent).

What do you think?

It's a good idea in theory.

However, I don't think a new type is required. What I'd suggest is simply the inclusion of snake tokens. They would switch serpents/rattlers/adders around the same way that tar/mud/gel are switched.

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Someone Else
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I tend to agree.

Garlonuss
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While I tend to agree that a new color snake might be cool, I think we'd need something considerably different to justify it.

I like the idea of the general snake-swap tokens much more because it would be less confusing. If the python were to remain purple the whole time, there would be difficulty in determining its weakness. Sure, the token could have a graphic to show this, but what if there are more than one type of python on the screen? Or what if there simply is no token in the room?

You could put a rattler tail on it when it's vulnerable there, or other such stuff, but the color-coding is by far the easiest manner to determine weaknesses.

If you want a new snake color, I'll listen to any sufficiently different idea you have. (For instance, many people have suggested snakes that split when they are stabbed or can swap head and tail, but those topics seem to die out quickly since nobody can seem to agree on the propper mechanics.)
(Maybe a snake that runs away rather than chases Beethro?)

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[Last edited by Garlonuss at 10-12-2007 08:47 PM]

roach strangler
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It has to have green eyes. (I think it would look cool)

Kevin_P86
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calamarain wrote:
However, I don't think a new type is required. What I'd suggest is simply the inclusion of snake tokens. They would switch serpents/rattlers/adders around the same way that tar/mud/gel are switched.

You mean like this?

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hartleyhair
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Green eyes would be cool.

I've always thought that Serpent Player Roles should be implemented. Somehow.

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Sillyman
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Snake queens and tar mother mothers for Purple snake/tar?
Snake queen: Every 30 turns, produces 1 new snake (Of cyclic color) and grows all snakes except itself. Weakenable by trap, head, or tail.
Purple Tar: Cuttable anywhere, mothers make tarstuff mothers in every adjacent space with tarstuff in it every 30 turns. Maybe if an adjacent space is empty, put in immature purple tar, which when grown upon turns into regular purple tar.

Hmm... Actually, I like that purple tar idea. Now for a name...

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[Last edited by Sillyman at 10-15-2007 03:28 AM]

BDR
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Sillyman wrote:
Hmm... Actually, I like that purple tar idea. Now for a name...

Ooze. Because everyone knows ooze is purple.

calamarain
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BDR wrote:
Ooze. Because everyone knows ooze is purple.

There's only so many synonyms for tar/mud/gel like substances. Here's all the ones I can think of, off the top of my head.

Ooze, slime, gunge, coagulate, glop, goo, gunk, sludge, scum, clay, muck, syrup, treacle, glue, paste, resin, wax, gum, putty.

There's probably loads more, but if you put in an appropriate adjective in front of one of the words, you can come up with several possibilities. e.g.

The Conscious Slime (one I proposed before)
The Thinking Clay
The Moving Gunk
The Endless Resin
The Sentient Wax
The Expanding Sludge
etc.


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Mattcrampy
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I think it was me who decided that Mud needed an adjective. I'm kind of sorry I did, because frankly everything other than Living tarstuff sounds kind of lame and there's a lot more good ideas for tarstuff than there are good adjectives to describe tarstuff.

Although I like calamalamalamalamarain's suggestion of 'Expanding' as an adjective.

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calamarain
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Mattcrampy wrote:
I think it was me who decided that Mud needed an adjective. I'm kind of sorry I did, because frankly everything other than Living tarstuff sounds kind of lame and there's a lot more good ideas for tarstuff than there are good adjectives to describe tarstuff.

Although I like calamalamalamalamarain's suggestion of 'Expanding' as an adjective.

Plus there's the whole pun of the "living tar". And Awakened Mud and Forbidden Gel don't sound too bad

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Jacob
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"Living Tar" is a pun? I don't get it?

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Garlonuss
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Jacob wrote:
"Living Tar" is a pun? I don't get it?

Not so much a pun as just a play on words from sayings such as "Beat the living tar outta him."

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BDR
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Is it wrong that I thought instead of "the living dead"?

Garlonuss
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BDR wrote:
Is it wrong that I thought instead of "the living dead"?

I wouldn't say "wrong." But "misguided" maybe? "Maldirected?" "In error?" "Wrong?" something along those lines.


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hartleyhair
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BDR wrote:

Sillyman wrote:
Hmm... Actually, I like that purple tar idea. Now for a name...

Ooze. Because everyone knows ooze is purple.

But it has to be three-lettered...

"The Miss-Spelled Ooz".

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Anson
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calamarain wrote:

BDR wrote:
Ooze. Because everyone knows ooze is purple.

There's only so many synonyms for tar/mud/gel like substances. Here's all the ones I can think of, off the top of my head.

Ooze, slime, gunge, coagulate, glop, goo, gunk, sludge, scum, clay, muck, syrup, treacle, glue, paste, resin, wax, gum, putty.

There's probably loads more, but if you put in an appropriate adjective in front of one of the words, you can come up with several possibilities. e.g.

The Conscious Slime (one I proposed before)
The Thinking Clay
The Moving Gunk
The Endless Resin
The Sentient Wax
The Expanding Sludge
etc.

Purple Food Dye?

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Zaratustra
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Maybe a snake that must be killed by getting it to bite its own tail.

Optionally: Double-Headed Snake - can go both forward and backward.

Briareos
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Zaratustra wrote:
Maybe a snake that must be killed by getting it to bite its own tail.

A snake like this that is shorter than 4 tiles would be unkillable - I don't think that's such a good idea.

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[Last edited by Briareos at 10-24-2007 08:38 AM]

Chaco
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Briareos wrote:
A snake like this that is shorter than 4 tiles would be unkillable by getting it to bite its own tail - I don't think that's such a good idea.

Don't forget we still have bombs, bridges, Fegundoes, hot tiles, builders, etc. that can also kill snakes. In the meantime it's a totally invulnerable snake, though, I agree. But then aren't serpents totally invulnerable snakes if you don't have a dead end handy?

More importantly, though, any snake that has a length of an odd number of tiles is still going to be invulnerable, since the head and tail are always going to be on the same-colored tile, and the head cannot move more than two spaces at once.

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[Last edited by Chaco at 10-24-2007 02:51 PM]

Someone Else
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That just makes it harder to build with, and causes more impossible rooms. But if it could eat monsters like an adder, then the parity would change and make it possible in more different situations. I think it should be able to kill other ones by biting their tail.

Briareos
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Chaco wrote:
Don't forget we still have bombs, bridges, Fegundoes, hot tiles, builders, etc. that can also kill snakes.

Not if the requirement is that it must be killed by biting it's own tail. That sounds pretty solid definitive to me...

np: The Orb vs. Meat Beat Manifesto - Insane (Battersea Shield)

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Chaco
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Someone Else wrote:
That just makes it harder to build with, and causes more impossible rooms.

Rooms are only impossible if the architect makes them impossible - it's easy to make an impossible room with a single roach.

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Someone Else
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Right. It's just sometimes difficult to count the number of tiles the snake is long, so there are more accidentally impossible rooms.

Chaco
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Someone Else wrote:
Right. It's just sometimes difficult to count the number of tiles the snake is long, so there are more accidentally impossible rooms.

Actually, due to parity, you can always just lay down default checkerboard tile down on the snake's head and its tail - if the checkerboard is the same color on the head and the tail the snake is odd length and thus unkillable, but if the checkerboard is different color, then the snake is even length and thus killable.

It's more difficult than adders, serpents, and rattlesnakes, for which length doesn't much matter, but it's doable.

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Sillyman
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I have another idea for the whole colored snake/tar discussion... Mixing colors! We have R/G/B already, why not mix them? The current gel/adder would be actually Green+Black, to keep things flawlessly consistent. Mix two colors, and you have both of their vulnerabilities. Add Black, and you have the gel/adder special feature. White would be, perhaps, my special idea for purple? Black or White by itself is, of course, invincible to cutting.
To summarize:
Red/Green/Blue=Primary colors, the vulnerabilities of Tar, Mud, and Gel.
Magenta/Yellow/Cyan=Secondary colors, two of the primaries mixed together.
Gray=Tertiary, all vulnerabilities.
White=My previous ideas for purple, or another suggestion, invincible.
Black=Eats monsters/Only grows connected tarstuff, invincible.
Light Red/Green/Blue/Magenta/Yellow/Cyan/Gray=My previous ideas for purple, or another suggestion, vulnerabilities of the color that was lightened.
Dark Red/Green/Blue/Magenta/Yellow/Cyan/Gray=Eats monsters/Only grows connected tarstuff, vulnerabilities of the color that was darkened.
Of course, to implement this we would need another widget in the editor, but oh well.

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UrAvgAzn
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I agree with the snake token idea. If tar/mud/gel have one, so should snakes.

Keep posting,

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