Rawbark

[Gazz]

I saw the Parish Tumbleweed topic but essentially that's just another brain-eating zombie suggestion.


So I decided to design... something different.

To fully grok the suggestion it is required to click this link and let it run in the background.

• Rawbark is a plant.
  It is most commonly seen as some sort of tumbleweed rolling by.
  
  
• It's branches are covered in small hooks that cling to loose plant parts... or small animals... which join the rawbark on it's journey.
  
  
• For a while.
  All collected organic material is also injected with highly efficient enzymes and eventually digested.
  
  
• When the ball stops rolling it slowly dies off because it can no longer collect food.
  
  
• The enzymes are unique because they allow near complete digestion of anything, resulting in a major increase of nutrition value.
  
  
• Smart animals use that by (carefully) stopping a rawbark and stealing some choice bits they can reach from the outside.
  
  
• Human settlers may decide that it's a good idea to learn from this example.
  Plant a patch of potatoes (or even any sort of alien and inedible food) and let a few bushes of rawbark do the harvesting by rolling over it.
  After letting them roll around for a while, you stop and harvest them.
  
  
• Stopping them is easy if you spike them, using a harpoon-like gun that literally nails them to the ground... until they rip free again.
  
  
• Since those guns would be short-ranged, riding animals are the preferred mode of travel while tending such a herd of shrubbery.
  
  
• Ten gallon hats have been proven to increase both aim and the "stun" duration while doing so.
  At least in the telling.
  
  
• The most common upgrade to the spike guns is increasing the magazine capacity to 6.

As a closing statement, all that's left to say is Yeeeeeehaaawww!

[starlight]

lots and lots of quote

What about Carnivorous Plants?

[Noxmutagen]

Hey no one can say whats wrong or what isn't.

This is a cool xenobiology idea. Yeah I can dig it.

I'd like to see carnivores plants too.

[AspenShadow]

It's a very interesting theoretical biology exercise, I'm certain it's possible to work out any kinks in logic there may be in the final design to the standards of modern science. Like the Boomrat is similarly capable of being explained in real-world terms.

Carnivorous plants have always been an enjoyment of mine and may indeed end up being what I donate to the game-world for my Designer reward. The one thing I will caution; as Ty cautioned me of the same thing, is to try to not make creations too complex or in need of too much extra scripting such as the 'domestication' of Rawbark Tumblers for faster crop harvesting. Otherwise I'd say the coolness factor of the plant outweighs the extra effort needed to make it a non-static type of vegetation.

I'm hoping non-static flora makes it into the game at some point anyway, primarily for the Creeper Vines (http://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=182.0) that I'm not sure I want to waste my reward on.

[Gazz]

The point here is that it's not "just another enemy (in plant-form)", health hazard, or harvest-able resource.

It requires the player actually engaging with it. Maybe guiding the mostly (?) wind-propelled tumblers towards vegetation you want cleared or towards very nutritious food... and then having your "cowboys" rope, throw and brand 'em. =)
You, too, can be a tumbleweed rancher!

But most of all it sounds more interesting than sending a colonist to harvest a resource patch.

And I bet you've never seen a tumbleweed stampede before.