Suggestions from the Longsleep Revival Briefing

[milon]

Longsleep Revival Briefing

Other than intelligence enhancement, humanity has applied a wide variety of modifications to its pets, crops, livestock, and houseplants. Sometimes these new species become part of the natural environment and thereafter evolve further into a new kind of organism. Some confirmed examples are:

• Boomrat: A bioengineered rat that develops an incendiary chemical compound in its body which explodes upon its death. Originally engineered as a weapon, these creatures are now common in the wild on some planets where wars took place long ago.
• Boomfruit: Probably engineered as a novelty, this explosive plant evolved to be larger and more dangerous until it became the equivalent of a hand grenade, complete with murderous shrapnel. Its explosiveness dissuades predators. After that, people learned to farm the plant, using its explosive fruit as a weapon.
• Whip cactus - Created as part of a military defense system, whip cactus whips out and strikes moving creatures nearby.
• Terraforming plants: Many plants - especially desert varieties - have been modified into terraforming versions that emit far more oxygen than the original species during photosynthesis.
• Rocketrees - These trees form rocket fuel in their cores over many years. They were created as a fuel source and are extremely dangerous in a fire.

We've already got Boomrats. I'd love to see Boomfruit and Whip Cactus especially (take that Raiders!), but any of these would be good additions.  I assume that Boomfruit grow on Boomtrees, which could make for fun times in a lightning storm. 

[Benny the Icepick]

I wanted to brush the dust and cobwebs off this long-dead topic because I just read through the LSRB for the first time in a long while.  I came across the boomfruit entry as well and though, "This would be cool!"

Can you imagine a growing area for boomfruit?  Once planted, the fruits become increasingly volatile (and increasingly dangerous) to anyone passing by.  Good for dissuading invaders, sure, but once they reach full maturity they explode in a fiery mess, wreaking havoc on livestock, colonists, and raiders alike, starting fires and damaging nearby structures.

I can't quite figure out the mechanics of deliberately raised boomfruit myself; anything I can come up with in my head is either extremely overpowered or not worth planting.  Of course, if it grew in the wild and were prolific across the map, it could make for some interesting events.

[SSS]

You could make it a one-use and non-stackable (when equipped) explosive. Rockets are already one-use, so the coding there shouldn't be a problem. Making it a bit less powerful than frag grenades might make it akin to picking up wood logs "in a pinch".

Also, growing it bunched up outside might be a bad idea. One lighting strike and BOOM, there went your field. xD (But then, people might try to use it similarly to blasting charges in their killboxes, so maybe that part is a bad idea...)

It sounds fun, in any case. Heck, a genetic therapy/modification alpha would be awesome.

[Benny the Icepick]

One lighting strike and BOOM, there went your field

That's exactly why I think having it grow wild would be so much fun.  Random explosions, rampaging wildfires, and converting a muffalo into barbecued bits in one puff of smoke!

Of course, would your colonists know well enough to avoid them in determining their paths across the map?  Would their "growing" skill be the deciding factor in whether they steer clear?  When one goes off, would they then alert other colonists, "Don't whiz on the explosive fruit"?

[b0rsuk]

Banana bomb.