Ears (Pinnae)

[outer zealot]

Ears (Pinnae/Auricles)
Darwin can sense/hear things. Sounds can even deafen. Has early stage ears? Body hears via vibrations?
An evo can make them visible! (hence Pinnae as alt)

3pip | Prey & Trickster

• Causes nearby offscreen enemies that make distinct noise/moves/impacts to be shown as side-screen indicators (like Snout shrooms, but mini enemy icons)
• +Senses moderately (10/15%?, as ears do)
• +Terrain Adaptation marginally (5/10%?, congested terrain? bigger radars! distant comms? bigger radars! underwater? no! skinflaps bad!)
• Fact: Maned Wolves are known for their loud "roark" - a low guttural roar-bark used for communicating long-distance over the tall grasslands that they also loom over with their lengthy legs.

Notes/Alts:

• Prey: perceive danger / Trickster: +"special effect"
• Quite a close copy of Snout in many ways. May need to distance itself.
• Rarity: Blue feels best? Can argue Green cuz ears feel basic / Purple if +addl. stats below.
• +Heat Adapt -Cold Adapt marginally (15/30%, ears release heat, especially in hot climates)
• +Speed marginally (.25/.5?, reaction speed for escape)
• +Social marginally (.5/1.5?, animal ears are incredibly emotive. if trying to hide emotion, tail & ears WILL show the truth)
• Terrain Adapt should be minimal, as it seems exclusive to Branching Evos, therefore should not outscale those even at max rarity?
• I'd love default Ears to be orange. but Snow Dive gets tiny orange ears? Decided Tail's default gray could be base & change via color/skin evos.
• Cold-Blooded animals/traits would not have pinnae, & I feel Antennae would mutually exclude. Exoskeleton too?
• Accessibility friendly?~

Extra:

• Wanted to try to emulate the art style, but stuck with thin lines, & did not attempt much shading or similar motion lines.
• Source = Maned Wolf! They've MANY unique features (tall, mane, roark, weed urine), but ears felt very missing & most possible within game mechanics.
• I love these endangered cryptids~

[outer zealot]

Edited a few things:
I crafted and prepared this in full before joining the server, so as not to steal or be influenced by ideas. Completely forgot about temperature regulation! Only noticed due to the "Big ears" submission (by Mitzy). So fully admitting that I was influenced by that post after I posted mine, but it feels significant enough to include as a possible alternative stat. But my focus was still "to hear better", lol. But their's was first.
Keeping all that within a single message limit was a task in of itself, so I nudged formatting and wording to still fit. Again. My fault for overexplaining and making sure to include every possible option or alternate interpretation... Sorry, just how I work.

[plucky vapor]

this is very well made! I love it

[austere drift]

TLDR bruh

[dusk turret]

Please keep the #rules in mind:
Kindness is Key and you don't have to reply to something that you can't say anything nice about

I personally love it when ideas are actually well-written and thought out

[outer zealot]

👂 ! (fancy words for outside ears)

3️⃣ - 🐁 🦊
🔓 ❌
🔒 🐊 🐍 🦗

• Snout's special effect, but for creatures
• +++ Senses
• • Terrain Adaptation
• Fact: Maned Wolves are loud and tall!
  [other logical stats in case devs want to fiddle with it: +🔥 -❄️ // +🏃 // +👥 ]

(Mods, this is in humor, with intent to also help anyone who may not quite parse all I put down. The original wall of text was mostly "this is my reasoning/this is also possible" parentheticals anyway, so I fully understand it could be tough to read. I get this a lot... And if this docks me favor/points, so be it, I just want to help folks out.)

[hot granite]

I think it should only ban antennae
3️⃣ - 🐁 🦊
🔓 ❌
🔒 🦗

[outer zealot]

Heh, reusing my emote summary... wild.
I wholly agree mechanically it should probably disable Antennae only. Doesn't make sense for the other evos for what they provide.
But I took it an extra step, that may absolutely be too far, cuz evolutionarily cold-blooded creatures just don't have them. Either lack of internal heat to regulate, and/or removing drag while in water. Which:

• I attributed Scales to only be cold-blooded-adjacent - yet pangolins exist, but also I don't think they have Pinnae either?
• And an second extra step for Slithery cuz I attributed to snakes outright, which I admittedly should not have done.
  I personally want ears for aesthetics, but I crafted for attempted accuracy? (which I am still upset I initially forgot the heat regulation aspect)

[hot granite]

you can have 6 legs, wings, arms, trunk and fur in the same time, but can't have ears and scales?

It doesn't make sense to refer to real biology in THIS game

[dusk turret]

Yet they are definitely free to do so in their submission 😉

[outer zealot]

Does your version of the game not have Unlocks/Bans on some evos? I always thought those were present to at least attempt a sense of reality. Of course not always, endgame Darwins are often unholy abominations, but we still cant ever have Fur & Scales & Exoskeleton at once.

I don't get why folks are so mad with my thought processes. Even though I agree with yall?...
Maybe I just misinterpreted now the game presents itself.
Methinks having submissions public like this was a mistake. This community is apparently feral... But at least yall are fueling attention this direction~

[feral slate]

I'm liking it quite a bit! I love your way of thinking!

[rain tree]

Also like... the final implementation will obviously be up to the devs and I fully expect the winning submission to include changes for balancing and cohesion with the rest of the game. Players tend to be notoriously bad game designers (not saying this is the case with your proposal at all - just a general observation!) so I don't think it's very productive to discuss the details of any mechanic at this point.

Let's treat these as what they are: conceptual ideas for new evolutions. If you take issue with how the new evo will show up in the game, you can direct your complaints through the official channels, but let's try to appreciate the creativity and innovation shown by the community here instead of dissecting ideas because they don't exactly match what you would like to see - or just submit your own version that's more to your liking 😉 Personally I think you did a great job, and explaining your reasoning in such detail shows how much thought you put into this, definitely deserves appreciation!