User:Emptylord/Custom creatures/Pezosiren

The game's first herbivorous marine mount.

Basic Info
Pezosirens are the quadrupedal ancestors of the manatee, dugong and the recently extinct Stellar's Sea Cow. A combination of the creature's poor quality meat and surprising capability to throw their weight around has seen the pezosiren go ignored by many of the Island's predators - they're simply not worth the time to kill for how fatty the meat is. Also being one of the Island's only herbivorous marine creatures leaves me with no doubts as to how they've managed survive as long as they have.
 * Appearance

Pezosirens spawn up to level 225, similar to Crystal Wyverns. Female Pezosiren spawn with an identically levelled infant (random maturity/age) that follows them closely.
 * Encounter

Pezosirens are fairly docile creatures and will tolerate humans, and only indiscriminate predators pose them any threat in the wild. Similar to the buck-retaliation of a horse, pezosirens will use their bodyslam to startle attacks - but prefer to flee rather. A mother will turn to defend her calf if it gets stuck or is otherwise unable to follow her.

They are capable of sticking to the ocean floor and walking around, similar to the Karkinos - but will kick off to swim if engaged.

Domestication
Adult Pezosirens cannot be tamed. In order to domesticate the species: you'll need to acquire yourself an infant.
 * Taming

The infant must be separated from its mother in order to gain the prompt to claim it, otherwise you'll get an error saying "This calf is being protected by its mother". If its mother dies while under the taming threshold range, the error message will become "This calf has been traumatized by the death of its mother" and it can no longer be claimed. A traumatized calf will despawn after 30 seconds. Gameplay: The death of its mother will initially de-aggro the baby, if it's currently fleeing, and you will have to witness it crying. However, it will resume fleeing if you attack it again.

A tamed maewing or procoptodon can trivialize this encounter, but I'm sure players will be able to come up with some creative traps involving having the mother run off a cliff. I like it when players are given the opportunity to get creative. Gameplay: the "protect the baby" response is a toggle from cowardly to aggressive. Once triggered, can take advantage of the AI to just lead the mother away from where you've trapped the baby, or apply torpor to trigger a "low torpor" response (which would cause the mother to flee again).

Gameplay: calfs can match the speed of their mother and weigh as much as an adult. Pezosiren weigh-in about the same as a mammoth, and so can only be picked up by a quetzal or a hover skiff.

Alternatively, and more simply, Pezosirens utilize the same taming method as the Gacha - a passive tame where you have to drop valid food items on the ground. The Pezosiren is naturally attracted toward discarded items, and Taming Affinity will be credited to whoever dropped the item.


 * Stats
 * Health: 500 (+100)
 * Stamina: 300 (+30)
 * Oxygen: Cannot drown
 * Food: 3000 (+300)
 * Carry Capacity: 200 (+4) KG
 * Body Weight: 400 KG
 * Melee Damage: 15 (+0.75)
 * Movement Speed
 * Walking: 110 / 253
 * Swimming: 150 / 555

Pezosirens can be ridden bareback and have natural armour, similar to the Shadowmane, which is to represent their thick-fat. Unlike Shadowmane, I think it would be neat if the armour value scaled with their Food stat instead of total level.


 * Usage
 * LMB.svg - Munch. Deals minimal damage. Capable of picking up dropped items and harvesting hand-picked resources.
 * RMB.svg - Bodyslam. Slams forward a short distance, dealing increased damage and stunning targets briefly. 10 second cooldown.
 * W - Move forward.
 * Cursor - Will turn toward the cursor while moving (like most terrestrial creatures).
 * While swimming, swill turn to the face the cursor while idle (like tapejaras).
 * A/D - While swimming, will strafe left/right.
 * S - Move backward.
 * Space (Jump) - Take-off (if in water or space).
 * While already swimming, this hotkey will ascend.
 * C (Crouch) - Descend (if swimming or floating in space).
 * X (Prone) - Attempt to land (if swimming or floating in space).


 * Roles
 * Aquatic Mount - A fairly durable combat mount that is capable of stunning-and-running. Does not use Stamina to swim.
 * Bush/Coral Harvester - Their primary attack will harvest from bush and coral nodes (coral nodes would subsequently be interactable by any bush-harvester, but the Pezosiren would have an affinity for it).
 * Hoover Mouth - To date, the only creature that is capable of picking up loose items on the floor (stones, pearls and dropped items).
 * Ocean Floor Mount - To date, the only tameable creature that is capable of sticking itself to the ocean floor. This can be used at any depth, similar to flying creatures.
 * Automated Hoover - While set to Wander Enabled, the Pezosiren will autonomously pick up nearby loose items, as well as harvesting from bush/coral nodes. The Pezosiren, similar to other automated dinos, can still perform this function while encumbered provided either it or the valid resources are moved nearby.


 * Gathers
 * Food (e.g. Berries, Rare Mushrooms, Rare Flowers, Aberrant Mushrooms and Seeds; maybe Coral as a new resource)
 * Surpasses most existing herbivores.
 * Scales with melee damage.
 * Marine collectibles (e.g. Silica Pearls)
 * At least as good as an anglerfish, or perhaps slightly worse.
 * Scales with melee damage.
 * Loose items (e.g. stone and aberration earthquakes)
 * As above.
 * Space collectibles (e.g. Aberrant Gems, Black Pearls and Element Dust)
 * As above.
 * Would likely be the best available method as even the Tek Stryder doesn't seem to significantly surpass humans, but maybe that's a bug?

Their slam attack can destroy trees and rocks, but gain minimal resources.

The destructible coral nodes in the Genesis Simulation (and other maps) should grant resources! This could yield existing resources, such as a random selection of aberrant mushrooms and/or rare mushrooms. Alternatively, "Coral" is a new edible resource that is comparable to raw meat in food/health values for herbivores.