Impossible Creatures Creator

[Christopher]

I just stumbeled over a remade classic on Steam. A RTS were you make your "units" by combining peices of up to 50 animals. The cover propably shows it best

(is that a skorpion-lobster-tiger?)

 

http://store.steampowered.com/app/324680/

 

This game can be used as to create images/get ideas for monsters of mad geneticists, chimera creating wizards and the like.
D&D has some classical examples, like the Owlbear or Landshark.

 

Also Shapeshifters that do animals parts don't nessesarily have to stick to existing full natural shapes, as the Shapeshifter Mr. Imp shows quite well on this webcomic page: http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Heroes_Alliance/5498108/

Why be only a tiger, a scorpion or a lobster when you can be all 3 at once?

[Christopher]

Played the demo. Not as good as it appeared to be at first.

First you can blend 2 creatures. And you can't put previous creations into the blender. So no Tiger, Lobster, Scorpion Hybrids. Or the Wolf-Praying Mantis-Scorpion hybrds seen in some cutscenes.

 

The mixing is not quite bad: Some behavioral traits are always in the final creature. Otherwise you have to choose between 2x5 body parts (head, tail, front legs, aft legs, torso). Wih also affects teh creatures stats like health and defense.

 

As a RTS it is pretty bad, as far as I can tell. It is all about creating a good army, but you don't even get a chance to look at the enemies armies creatures and thier abilities. If there is a fight, one side clearly looses and is done.

Could use some much better filters on the creature lab and some way to auto-optimise some stats (defense, health, cost) after you choose and locked in the important body parts. It is a pretty old game, so no wonder they lacked those features back then.

[Badger]

I actually had that game a real long time ago.  Had good potential, but was clunky and mostly a lesser Command&Conquer.

 

My favorite creation was the crociphant.  I put the head of a crocodile on the body of an elephant.  (my theory was a "tank" with bite)

[Badger]

Played the demo. Not as good as it appeared to be at first.

First you can blend 2 creatures. And you can't put previous creations into the blender. So no Tiger, Lobster, Scorpion Hybrids. Or the Wolf-Praying Mantis-Scorpion hybrds seen in some cutscenes.

 

The mixing is not quite bad: Some behavioral traits are always in the final creature. Otherwise you have to choose between 2x5 body parts (head, tail, front legs, aft legs, torso). Wih also affects teh creatures stats like health and defense.

 

As a RTS it is pretty bad, as far as I can tell. It is all about creating a good army, but you don't even get a chance to look at the enemies armies creatures and thier abilities. If there is a fight, one side clearly looses and is done.

Could use some much better filters on the creature lab and some way to auto-optimise some stats (defense, health, cost) after you choose and locked in the important body parts. It is a pretty old game, so no wonder they lacked those features back then.

 

Yeah, a big part of my C&C strategy was heavily towards scouting my enemy out, and it proved unworkable in this game (one reason I didn't stick with the game-basically it and another unremarkable game was in packaged together at my Wal-Mart for something like $12.99, so I figured why not)

 

Note: With C&C, me and a friend made for a good tag team, with my love for scouting and his love of base building.  (I had a devious love of ambushing the enemy, running away with them in pursuit right smack into my friends' defenses where some of theirs would get slaughtered.

[Christopher]

Yeah, a big part of my C&C strategy was heavily towards scouting my enemy out, and it proved unworkable in this game (one reason I didn't stick with the game-basically it and another unremarkable game was in packaged together at my Wal-Mart for something like $12.99, so I figured why not)

 

Note: With C&C, me and a friend made for a good tag team, with my love for scouting and his love of base building.  (I had a devious love of ambushing the enemy, running away with them in pursuit right smack into my friends' defenses where some of theirs would get slaughtered.

It has the classical issue of any "adapt your army to your enemies army" games: Not enough time to adapt in a hectic RTS environment.

Similar issues plagued the Earth 2150: There to you can design your units armor and weaponry (along the axis: Conventional, Energy, Chemical/Fire). But in practice this is more of a problem (as you can't figure out what you need ahead of time) then good idea.

Fixed unit compositions per faction became the default for a reason, after all.

 

Sid Meier experimented a bit in that area. Both Alpha Centauri and Beyond Earth have aspects of the "adaptable/chooseable army", with AC being almost too variable.

That also means it would work well for any P&P RPG, however (as they are all turn based).