This is admittedly somewhat of an edge-case, but there is the possibility that after achieving the Odyssey ending where you turn off the Mechanoid hive that no more Mechanoids will show up thus rending it somewhat difficult to get nanogel. Of course, you could just build and deconstruct mechanoids, but that seems a little counter intuitive.

I know you said directly making nanogel in the gestator would be too easy—I agree—but maybe research tp learn a recipe on the fabrication bench that requires similar materials to a mechanoid would be sufficient?

Or a drain casket for mechs 🤣

Originally posted by ArrowSucks:

This is admittedly somewhat of an edge-case, but there is the possibility that after achieving the Odyssey ending where you turn off the Mechanoid hive that no more Mechanoids will show up thus rending it somewhat difficult to get nanogel. Of course, you could just build and deconstruct mechanoids, but that seems a little counter intuitive.

I know you said directly making nanogel in the gestator would be too easy—I agree—but maybe research tp learn a recipe on the fabrication bench that requires similar materials to a mechanoid would be sufficient?

Or a drain casket for mechs 🤣

Yeah, I’ve actually considered this case and you’re right, directly producing Nanogel would make playing as a Nanomorph way too easy. That’s exactly why, as you mentioned, there’s a working method: building your own mechanoids and then sacrificing them. That was one of the intended mechanics from the start.
And yes, reaching the Odyssey ending where you shut down the Mechanoid hive is deliberately meant to be another challenge for Nanomorph gameplay.

Originally posted by Lored:

Yeah, I’ve actually considered this case and you’re right, directly producing Nanogel would make playing as a Nanomorph way too easy. That’s exactly why, as you mentioned, there’s a working method: building your own mechanoids and then sacrificing them. That was one of the intended mechanics from the start.
And yes, reaching the Odyssey ending where you shut down the Mechanoid hive is deliberately meant to be another challenge for Nanomorph gameplay.

Fair enough! I appreciate the clarification that it is an intended gameplay challenge.

I know that it is likely a lot of tweaking, but it would be really nice to replace the "Genes Updated" text with a message specifying which genes updated.

Originally posted by KrusherJr:

I know that it is likely a lot of tweaking, but it would be really nice to replace the "Genes Updated" text with a message specifying which genes updated.

That's what I wanted to do from the start. But, unfortunately, using the full gene name makes the message too long.
If I find a compromise, I may make individual messages.

Originally posted by Lored:

Originally posted by KrusherJr:

I know that it is likely a lot of tweaking, but it would be really nice to replace the "Genes Updated" text with a message specifying which genes updated.

That's what I wanted to do from the start. But, unfortunately, using the full gene name makes the message too long.
If I find a compromise, I may make individual messages.

"<Pawn Name>'s <Skill> gene has ranked up!" ? I don't know if you can link pawn name in but what's the character constraint?

Originally posted by KrusherJr:

Originally posted by Lored:

That's what I wanted to do from the start. But, unfortunately, using the full gene name makes the message too long.
If I find a compromise, I may make individual messages.

"<Pawn Name>'s <Skill> gene has ranked up!" ? I don't know if you can link pawn name in but what's the character constraint?

It looks fantastic, but unfortunately it doesn't work that way. Most of the genes names have to be written manually.
And if you add the pawn name, the message becomes too long.

After some thinking I got kind of inspired by Wh40k's necrons and thought it would be cool to have nanomorph specific weapons, like a trophy weapon that fires a beam to rip apart enemies like a gauss flayer while refilling a nanomorph's nanogel on kill, or a anti-materiel weapon that uses nanogel to create powerful armor/building busting beams. Maybe even weapons that can 'prime' an enemy and explode when you use viral nanite swarm/breach or vice versa where the abilities prime the enemy and the weapon causes the explosion.

Originally posted by RosÉ:

After some thinking I got kind of inspired by Wh40k's necrons and thought it would be cool to have nanomorph specific weapons, like a trophy weapon that fires a beam to rip apart enemies like a gauss flayer while refilling a nanomorph's nanogel on kill, or a anti-materiel weapon that uses nanogel to create powerful armor/building busting beams. Maybe even weapons that can 'prime' an enemy and explode when you use viral nanite swarm/breach or vice versa where the abilities prime the enemy and the weapon causes the explosion.

Sounds cool. But...
It doesn't fit the concept of Nanomorphs. They are more refined, elegant, mysterious, not tin cans with piu-piu guns(like Necrons from WH40k).
Also, technically, it sounds too overloaded and too imbalanced. And I'm not sure I can implement something like that.

Originally posted by Lored:

Originally posted by RosÉ:

After some thinking I got kind of inspired by Wh40k's necrons and thought it would be cool to have nanomorph specific weapons, like a trophy weapon that fires a beam to rip apart enemies like a gauss flayer while refilling a nanomorph's nanogel on kill, or a anti-materiel weapon that uses nanogel to create powerful armor/building busting beams. Maybe even weapons that can 'prime' an enemy and explode when you use viral nanite swarm/breach or vice versa where the abilities prime the enemy and the weapon causes the explosion.

Sounds cool. But...
It doesn't fit the concept of Nanomorphs. They are more refined, elegant, mysterious, not tin cans with piu-piu guns(like Necrons from WH40k).
Also, technically, it sounds too overloaded and too imbalanced. And I'm not sure I can implement something like that.

Thanks for replying!
I see... lore wise Necrons are very refined, elegant is kind of subjective so it's hard to get a good read on that one, and mysterious is also a difficult descriptor to turn into content other than "no one knows how this stuff works".

I'm not very well versed in how Rimworld is balanced since I go between different mods of different power levels, so I'm not entirely sure what can be called "overpowered". I thought the "weapon that gives nanogel on kill" could work well since the only way I've found to get a reliable source of nanogel has been scrapping mechanoids as another commentor explained. It would probably be best to make it a small amount depending on damage done, which I didn't make clear in my previous comment.

I use the Necrons as inspiration because of the parallels they have with your Nanomorphs. Necrons use necrodermis, a form of "living metal" (usually used in place of nanomachines) to not only repair themselves but also their ships and structures as well as how the originally organic Necrontyr turned into the Necrons via replacing their flesh with necrodermis which is a whole nother story.

Nanomachines are usually linked with physical versatility, surgical precision, medical practices, space age industry and prolific self-replication, basically an excellent explanation or how something works when it probably shouldn't. So maybe summoning minions with a limited lifespan could be something they could do if you want to expand on the general self-replication ability attached to nanites. If you want to go the "post-human evolution" route you could weaponize nanogel into physical melee weapons or advanced limb mounted ranged armaments (particle weaponry, rail/coil weaponry, general energy weaponry, etc." Crysis Ceph style all of which can be very precise. If you want to go the viral route like the abilities you've given nanomorphs you can use particle weapons, or even lasers depending on how much mass nanites have, to accelerate said nanites to essentially "eat" the enemy, which I wouldn't say is very elegant, but likely very effective. Could also simply lace nanites to a physical projectile to do what I said before, once again, probably not very elegant.

What are your descriptors of "refined, elegant, and mysterious"? Refined can go many different ways, refined as in material/physical perfection i.e. monoblades made from their own bodies could be defined as refined, so could complex energy weaponry as said before, I'm not sure about "conventional" chemical propellant firearms being particularly "refined" but the wealthy and influential of the past did have ornate weapons to show status which goes in to refined in the societal sense, of which I've always believed "elegant" weaponry would be very precise, little external damage but major internal so you don't get anything dirty.

When it comes to elegance for technology or weaponry in scifi it's usually precise energy weaponry, mono-molecular shuriken/filaments (40k Aeldari style), something stylish and ornate, also something relatively clean to use so you don't mess up your appearance (then again there are plenty of "elegant" weaponry that do cause some pretty gruesome injuries like Star Wars Lightsabers, not sure how that's "elegant").

Mysterious is particularly difficult because it deals with unknowns, as in you're not supposed to know how something works (like Necron weaponry that use borderline magic to do anything). If we're talking mysterious in the Rimworld sense, your lore for the nanomorphs said they were made by a Archotech, so maybe some kind of skip weaponry? I don't think the skip abilities of Archotechs has been very clearly defined in Rimworld lore so that could count as mysterious.

Nanomachines in scifi media aren't usually elegant. Refined? Sure. Mysterious? They can be. Hmm.... Thinking about how nanomachines could be refined and elegant, I think of clean chrome, or white marble like surfaces with metallic accents, soft lines, mix of sleek curves and sharp edges, maybe a more organic look? If we're doing weapons, nanobot based weaponry is almost always highly complex and not very well explained in function, so they have refined and mysterious by default. For elegance that's the one I'm mostly hung up on.

Do you have any specific inspirations that helped you make your art? I'd like to know so I can better throw out ideas.

Originally posted by RosÉ:

Originally posted by Lored:

Sounds cool. But...
It doesn't fit the concept of Nanomorphs. They are more refined, elegant, mysterious, not tin cans with piu-piu guns(like Necrons from WH40k).
Also, technically, it sounds too overloaded and too imbalanced. And I'm not sure I can implement something like that.

Thanks for replying!
I see... lore wise Necrons are very refined, elegant is kind of subjective so it's hard to get a good read on that one, and mysterious is also a difficult descriptor to turn into content other than "no one knows how this stuff works".

I'm not very well versed in how Rimworld is balanced since I go between different mods of different power levels, so I'm not entirely sure what can be called "overpowered". I thought the "weapon that gives nanogel on kill" could work well since the only way I've found to get a reliable source of nanogel has been scrapping mechanoids as another commentor explained. It would probably be best to make it a small amount depending on damage done, which I didn't make clear in my previous comment.

I use the Necrons as inspiration because of the parallels they have with your Nanomorphs. Necrons use necrodermis, a form of "living metal" (usually used in place of nanomachines) to not only repair themselves but also their ships and structures as well as how the originally organic Necrontyr turned into the Necrons via replacing their flesh with necrodermis which is a whole nother story.

Nanomachines are usually linked with physical versatility, surgical precision, medical practices, space age industry and prolific self-replication, basically an excellent explanation or how something works when it probably shouldn't. So maybe summoning minions with a limited lifespan could be something they could do if you want to expand on the general self-replication ability attached to nanites. If you want to go the "post-human evolution" route you could weaponize nanogel into physical melee weapons or advanced limb mounted ranged armaments (particle weaponry, rail/coil weaponry, general energy weaponry, etc." Crysis Ceph style all of which can be very precise. If you want to go the viral route like the abilities you've given nanomorphs you can use particle weapons, or even lasers depending on how much mass nanites have, to accelerate said nanites to essentially "eat" the enemy, which I wouldn't say is very elegant, but likely very effective. Could also simply lace nanites to a physical projectile to do what I said before, once again, probably not very elegant.

What are your descriptors of "refined, elegant, and mysterious"? Refined can go many different ways, refined as in material/physical perfection i.e. monoblades made from their own bodies could be defined as refined, so could complex energy weaponry as said before, I'm not sure about "conventional" chemical propellant firearms being particularly "refined" but the wealthy and influential of the past did have ornate weapons to show status which goes in to refined in the societal sense, of which I've always believed "elegant" weaponry would be very precise, little external damage but major internal so you don't get anything dirty.

When it comes to elegance for technology or weaponry in scifi it's usually precise energy weaponry, mono-molecular shuriken/filaments (40k Aeldari style), something stylish and ornate, also something relatively clean to use so you don't mess up your appearance (then again there are plenty of "elegant" weaponry that do cause some pretty gruesome injuries like Star Wars Lightsabers, not sure how that's "elegant").

Mysterious is particularly difficult because it deals with unknowns, as in you're not supposed to know how something works (like Necron weaponry that use borderline magic to do anything). If we're talking mysterious in the Rimworld sense, your lore for the nanomorphs said they were made by a Archotech, so maybe some kind of skip weaponry? I don't think the skip abilities of Archotechs has been very clearly defined in Rimworld lore so that could count as mysterious.

Nanomachines in scifi media aren't usually elegant. Refined? Sure. Mysterious? They can be. Hmm.... Thinking about how nanomachines could be refined and elegant, I think of clean chrome, or white marble like surfaces with metallic accents, soft lines, mix of sleek curves and sharp edges, maybe a more organic look? If we're doing weapons, nanobot based weaponry is almost always highly complex and not very well explained in function, so they have refined and mysterious by default. For elegance that's the one I'm mostly hung up on.

Do you have any specific inspirations that helped you make your art? I'd like to know so I can better throw out ideas.

Thanks a ton for the massive write-up and the ideas, seriously, that’s a lot of thought you’ve put in!
Unfortunately, for my Xenotype series mods I don’t add armor, weapons, or similar gear. Right now, Nanomorphs are actually my first real “experiment” where I decided to introduce new resources at all.
The only thing I might be willing to consider is the idea of adding some kind of trophy weapons, but if I do that, it would be for all of my Xenotype mods, not just Nanomorphs. And the only logical place to add that kind of content would be in the main Obsidia Expansion mod.
That being said, I’m currently pretty burned out from modding, so I’m not planning to create anything new for a while outside of bug fixes. I’ll definitely toss the idea of unique weapons usable only by my xenotypes into my idea dump, though. The catch is, I’d have to make sure:

1. They fit the lore and theme of the xenotypes.
   
2. They’re reasonably balanced.
   
3. They’re something I can actually implement on my own.

Since I do everything myself(except the characters preview artwork), my options are a bit limited but the idea is now in the pile.
As for inspirations, I don’t really have any solid sources. I create everything myself, but if there happen to be similarities with other franchises, that’s pretty much unavoidable. Still, there are a few small references and easter eggs sprinkled in here and there.

Thanks for reading my massive wall of text! Sucks when burnout hits, hope you take some time and come back whenever you're ready!

I honestly find it amazing at all you can add so much to your mods, the code alone would make my head spin.

Thanks for all the great mods!

Surprised there's not nano crafting. Any reason why?

Originally posted by Tormound:

Surprised there's not nano crafting. Any reason why?

Same as Artistic. Since they don't have unique stats, unlike other Skills.