Make Boomalopes and Boomrats great again!

[Aleksh]

Boomalopes and Boomrats aren't very good farm animals, so I thought i'd give ideas to change that!

How about an event where boomalopes and boomrats start randomly combusting, making boomalope and boomrat farming risky, especially when playing Randy Random. It puts people on edge every time one of those fuzzy wuzzy things enters the field. They should also rarely explode at random. After some testing, this would kill off all tamed boomalopes and boomrats if one blew up next to another(and not because it would kill off some pawns). Ignore this.

Like other farm animals that have wool growth and such, boomalopes and boomrats would shed their sacs. The sacs, like the game explains, contain volatile chemicals, which can be used for numerous things. The sacs can't be used as they are, so they need to go through special processing, which would require a special workbench that specializes in chemical items. You would have to research the workbench, and after researching it, it would open up a few more things to research, each thing doing different things, like clothing, building tools, weapons and machinery. It could be two things:
[1] Each category of items would require their own workbench, thus giving players the idea of making a special room for it. Thus expanding their base.
[2] Each category of items would be available at the current workbenches you have available, such as machining, electric tailoring, etc.
If you wish to slaughter boomrats or boomalopes, they would blow up no matter what. How would you get meat without harming anything? Pawns with taming of 12 or higher can extract the sacs safely. It's like how chefs extract poison from pufferfish.

Possbile items you could make:
- A generator which runs on the chemicals. Like a power plant of some sort. Dangerous to be around.
- Weapons and traps that spread toxic chemicals around the field it was shot, and dissipate after a while, such as smoke grenades and rocket launchers.
- Clothing that gives extra immunity against explosives, but gets damaged after every explosion by a little. A suit that does not give benefit against melee and ranged, but explosives instead, making it good for slaughtering if one has no high taming. Gives immunity when near a power plant.
- Floor and wall tiles that are extra sturdy against explosives. You would need a lot of juice to make one, though.

Gives Boomalopes and Boomrats more meaning, don't you think? I really like their design, and really want them to have a more special role than most animals. Right now they're mostly used as suicide bombs... Mods do give these animals some use, but this is a suggestion to the game itself.

[mumblemumble]

This already exists in the form of heart attacks, death by old age, berserk colonists, raids, electrical fires, ect.

An event strictly to blow them up would be TOO much a kick in the nuts, breeding takes a long time, and them all blowing up due to RNG would just be over the top

[Aleksh]

The event is just to balance out the other positive things that you could possibly do with the Boomalopes and Boomrats. While you are right about breeding, the material you get from them would be a worthy investment for things listed, like weapons and such. Them blowing up due to RNG is like when manhunter packs come, ancient ships crash, etc, it's random and unexpected, and wouldn't always happen.

[Pax_Empyrean]

Taking on unnecessary risks and giving the storyteller a venue through which to blow up your guys is not very smart. Merely having the damn things around at all is sufficient risk.

In Combat Realism, you can milk them for a component in incendiary munitions, molotov cocktails, etc. They don't blow up randomly and I'm still wary about putting them anywhere that isn't a stone barn. If they had some additional source of explosions I wouldn't bother.

Random events that can just kill your dudes aren't fun.

[Aleksh]

The event does seem unfair, but you take it as if it will kill pawns when it occurs, which is a bit too extreme. It would be like a dry thunderstorm with much less lightning, if that makes sense. I guess I could suggest that they won't spread fires when they explode, due to some kind of malfunction in their system, if that makes it better.
Suggestions are suggestions. The mod you talk about has it's own way of giving Boomalopes use, which is mainly for weaponry(i think. i don't touch mods much).

[mumblemumble]

not really, if the event hit when a pawn was nearby, he WOULD die.

Not to mention all the cattle dead, resources burned, walls blown up, furnishings destroyed, other animals killed, possible heatstroke from fires, ect.

Just not a fair event.

[Aleksh]

You guys take the event in a very extreme way. Boomalope and Boomrat explosions don't kill pawns in a matter of seconds, and they don't kill animals that fast either. I doubt you would put Boomalopes and Boomrats in the same spot as your other farm animals, nor inside your house or near your walls. The only thing that might happen is just some terrain being burned, and in an extreme case half the map, which isn't bad unless trees are scarce. If the event popped up and Boomalopes were near your home, you would go there with your pawns and be ready to extinguish fires, or not if there is rain.

[Pax_Empyrean]

The only thing that might happen is just some terrain everything being burned

Fixed that for you.

[Aleksh]

I changed the suggestion a good bit. I did some testing with the explosions and such, and the event is unfair, just not because the reasons you posted. I do hope this is an improvement!

[SpaceDorf]

I like the idea of making the weird things useful. I never used combat realism so the idea is new to me, but amazing

[dyl000]

I changed the suggestion a good bit. I did some testing with the explosions and such, and the event is unfair, just not because the reasons you posted. I do hope this is an improvement!

I'm curious, what was the reason that it was unfair then?

[Aleksh]

You couldn't make farms with them because they would chain-reaction combust. Even if you seperate them a far distance, you would still loose at least one male/female, so farming would be impossible.

[SpaceDorf]

While they burned down their own food I guess

[Aleksh]

You could say so, but I would assume that pawns would go extinguish it right away, since it is a farm. I guess that is a downside to it, if they can't extinguish it in time.