What is your favourite creature class and why?

[alation13]

So do most people like carnivores, reptiles or insects?
They all have benefits and downsides, but I would like to know what the playerbase likes to use the most and their reason why. I am not fussed if the reason is anything from "mathematically this group is 10% better because......." or "these look super cool when crossbred". It would just be great to get the communities opinions.

[Zorro]

Well, I think that all 3 groups have advantages and disadvantages. I like the carnivores the last. My favorites, Panther and Black Bear have the smallest litter size possible and a very bad resilence. None of the carnivores has a vision field of 6, you have to add this by mutation.
You need a lot of 'preperation breeding' before you are able to start the real breeding.

Reptiles and Insectoids are close, because each group has interesting unique skills. Insectoids have a low initial life span and are tough to tame. Reptiles have a very good lifespan but average tameness and low magic resistance.

So my list would be:
1. Reptiles
2. Insectoids
3. Carnivores

Although Carnivores are last, I still use them and they are far away from being 'useless'. Due to the different climate zones in the game, I also think that a succesful player should be able to have at least 2 of the 3 groups in service.

[alation13]

Do you ever start with carnivores? I found that they had the highest survivability in the early fights. Or do you use more expendable reptiles and insects and not care if they die?

EDIT: I was just going through some of the species and it seems that the reptiles should have good survivability as well, I will have to see if my sorc can train them well enough.

[Zorro]

I usually dont start with monsters. My first steps are:
- Buy humans until I have 2 warriors and 1 archer in total.
- Outfit warriors with one handed weapons and shields and leather armor.
- Go to the catacombs, select the left most battle (the one with the lowest payment) and fight carefully !
- When the humans get level ups, chose the topmost skill (less action points and energy for movement) and the skill which reduces action points and energy for attacks.
- Never go for bronze or other heavy weight armor in the beginning. Your humans get slow and with the initial high fear values they may end up with ZERO attacks in their combat rounds. Thats very similar to pushing the button 'Surrender'. :-)
- After some turns, your humans should get 2 attacks per combat round. Then I start to play with monsters. If they run into trouble, the humans can save them.
- If I get the option to fight non-lethal fights, I do. Even if I do not win them, there is a high chance to gain xp.
Overall I barely lose monsters. And if it happens to a critical monster, e.g. male or female of my breeding line, I can still load a saved game.
I also think that experience with this game helps a lot. With more experience in this game, you can much better estimate the outcome and the risks of a battle.

[alation13]

For some reason I can't use humans in the catacombs. I am forced to wait until my first monsters grow to adults. I have been doing the early fights with my MC (sorc), an archer and a warrior with shield. That seems to generate a pretty good income at the start. Also I make sure I hire the level 3 archer and warrior as dumping 2 skill points in the combat skills straight away seems to make a massive difference to combat ability.

[SumEdd]

Originally posted by Zorro:

I usually dont start with monsters. My first steps are:
- Buy humans until I have 2 warriors and 1 archer in total.
- Outfit warriors with one handed weapons and shields and leather armor.
- Go to the catacombs, select the left most battle (the one with the lowest payment) and fight carefully !

Are you sure about this?

Fighting using humans in the catacombs?

[Zorro]

I am sorry, you guys are right. It's not possible for humans to fight in the catacombs.
I use my humans for non lethal fights to gain some money, xp for skill ups and reputation. While doing so, I build the necessary infrastructure to breed monsters. For the first battles with monsters, I use the catacombs and try to fight very carefully. Once some of the first monster have gained some xp, I use weaker or newly brought monster to fight. The old monsters just stand by and can help the new ones when the situation gets critical.

[djinnxy]

I like the longevity of reptiles. They are not terribly hard to tame even without sorcerer. I am using archer and it is not a problem. You will have to manage potions and other boosts so they don't go crazy on abomination. I would have to go back and play carnivores again, but it seems there are more fight options that pop up for them. I have not used insects other than for extracting parts.

[alation13]

I have typically been using reptiles for the same reasons, but have been breeding rats for a steady source of meat. As short lived as insects are they look like a "long game" choice as you would need a few generations for them to have enough HP to stand for long in a battle.

[Kestral]

I've been enjoying playing with insects, but yeah the early game is pretty brutal. Once you get a few generations in though and your HP isn't quite so low, they can start to shine. Webbing, for instance, is amazing. A few times I've won battles against monster teams with 3x my HP and way stronger bites using a team of all insects with webbing.
The short lifespan and bad temperature tolerances can be helped with blood injections eventually. But short lifespan isn't that big of a drawback I think, since it reminds you to constantly be raising and training the next generation.

[AoPhoenix]

I am an odd ball, and find both Insects and Reptiles to be superior to carnivores(AKA Mammals) yet eventually I will need to raise some good Mammals. The Insects tend to breed fast, but have lower ceiling to growth, meaning unless you work well on synergy, they will die easily and quickly at high levels. On the other hand, Reptiles are probably better in the mid to late, with the ability to have higher stats, and interesting abilities.

Mammals are nice, and I want to love them more, but until you get some good ones, it is hard to get them going, they can live through more variable temperatures, and their stats seem to have the highest ceiling, but they can be hard to acquire early, a little more expensive to feed, and their abilities can fairly good when trained up.

Ultimately, I think people should just aim for those they like, and get good at raising them.

[alation13]

I haven't played for a few weeks but I found that EVERY class of creatures had some nice pros and annoying cons. For example you can breed "electric skin" for all your reptiles. When buffed up a little that ability is so OP it is not funny. I got to the point of combining High hit points, armour and regeneration with electric skin to force the enemies to literally kill themselves by biting my guys. They moved like slugs and couldn't hit a barn shed, but it didn't matter.

[Mikkiness]

Insects are my fave just for their field of vision - being attacked from behind can be brutal.