Johan-swamp Stuff

[Xietor]

MA Ctis is an average ma race. So it is fairly balanced as is. But KO says you like swamps, so we can maybe make MA Ctis just a tad cooler.

It is a fact MA Ctis sacreds suck, so I was thinking we could spice up the swamps a bit with this capital only sacred:

http://www.azcentral.com/community/westvalley/articles/1104wvalligator06-ON.html

Of course White Alligators are extremely rare. They would have awe, swamp survival, amphibious, a rip type bite(gators don't just bite-they bite and they do not let go. they shred their victim.

A little research also reveals their tail is quite deadly as well.

And what swamp would be complete without nutria? While these are just big rats, they could cause disease, and be a pain to deal with in great numbers(they are prolific breeders).

Just say yes to new swamp creatures!

White Alligators are only found in the swamps of Louisiana. That picture is a baby. They get up to 19 feet in length and weigh 1000 pounds. That would make them at least size 3 I would think. Maybe 4.

Alligators are surprisingly fast on land, and can reach speeds of up to 30 mph.

Alligators are not immune to snake poison. However, they do have extremely tough skin, and an armored back protected by bony plates called scutes. It is possible that this protection may prevent a snake's fangs from penetrating the skin.

[Xietor]

Just in case you were wondering who would be the King of the swamp-the serpents or the gators, I think we have an answer.

FYI, A gator's tail is a devastating weapon. And gators commonly use it to knock down foes such as humans, black bears
to get them in range of their powerful jaws.

In any event, on the the feature:

http://totaldrek.blogspot.com/2005/06/better-than-pay-per-view.html

[Autochthon]

So, if I must phear the Gator, what does that mean for the destroyer of legend, the Hungry Hungry Hippo?

Last I recall, they can bite a gator in half with those lumpy herbivore teeth. That's -gotts- hurt...

[Xietor]

no. lol. I saw an alligator in the la state museum and its head was fully as large as a large car. The American alligator
is the largest in the world.

You may be thinking of some "cousin" of the American alligator that got bit in two by a hippo. I think the chinese gator only grows to 6 feet, instead of 19.

[coobe]

afaik the most deadly animal (according to victims) is indeed the Hippo.. no kidding

[Edi]

Crocs and gators have nothing on the hippo. Even big crocs will give way because a hippo will generally kick their tail. A large hippo can weigh over two tons, so they can just trample a croc or a gator, or failing that, those teeth would really hurt. Hippos kill more people every year than crocs do and they will easily reduce a boat to a collection of matchsticks, toothpicks and unidentifiable splinters.

I would also note that a ten-foot python is not much ofa contest for a big gator or croc, but toss in a 20-footer or bigger one and it starts looking a lot different all of a sudden. For one, a lot more squeezing power, a snake that size is far stronger than a 10-foot one (which is quite capable of killing a human). Anacondas kill alligators and eat them, though once a gator gets big enough, it's no longer a viable meal.

But an escaped household snake against a wild croc or gator? Bleh. No contest.

[Xietor]

The alligator in the la museum was 80 years old, over 19 feet long and weighed over 2 tons itself.

Hippos are not found in the united states, so no hippo has EVER stepped on a 19 foot alligator's tail and lived to tell the tale. fact.

A 30 anaconda would not want to mess with a 19' gator either. For one, it is too big and tough to squeeze to death, so the anaconda could not even damage a big gator.

That gator that killed that anaconda was only a BABY. it was 7' long. so the anaconda was 8' long. Trust me giving the anaconada another 13' and the gator another 16' would in no way have changed the result.

American Gators-King of the Swamp. And it is not even close. A 6' man could walk into the mouth of a 19' gator, and not bump his head. Because of hunting, most gators do not live long enough to get full grown any more, but if you ever saw a full grown gator, you would change your tune.

[lch]

Yay, off-topicness. I do remember that Hippos are among the most dangerous mammals, too, and googling for "dangerous hippo" seems to confirm that (have a look at the first three links). Crocodiles seem to stay clear of hippos in general.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL0ScGo8SJc

[Edi]

A 19' gator is a monster of epic proportions and you don't get too many of those. If you measure by length, equal length will always favor gator, because it has greater mass for the same length.

But most crocs and gators don't grow to such monstrous sizes. Neither do most pythons, in the wild anyway. Anacondas are substantially larger than pythons (thicker, more mass) even if they do not achieve the same length. I grant that the gators that anacondas hunt tend to be young ones.

I've never seen a live gator, but I've seen enough footage of various types of croc (including the Australian sea crocs that grow up to 35') to know just how big they are. Even Nile crocs can reach impressive lengths.With regard to that, even the big Nile crocs (12-15') stay away from hippos because the potential reward for tangling with one is not worth the risk of injury. They do attack young hippos when they can, though.

[Xietor]

the comparison between the american gator and the crok, however, is not a great one.

While the croks are longer, the gators are much "thicker"
and "broader."

For the purposes of MA Ctis, I would like the White Sacred Alligators to be the full sized ones, 19' variety. And yes, seeing a 19' Gator is actually akin to seeing a sea monster.

It is staggering. But that is the size they reach in the wild if they are not killed by hunters. sadly, almost all of them that get large these days are killed before they reach full size.

[Xietor]

What race could get a hippo? heh.

[johan osterman]

My gator can beat your gator.

[Xietor]

My gator is bigger http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[SelfishGene]

So if it's a sloth of bears and a murder of crows, what's a bunch of 'gators called? (No, can't use rednecks or thugs http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif ).

[Xietor]

what's a bunch of 'gators called

Gumbo

[tibbs]

Why don't you guys just go to youtube and type in snake vs alligator. I'm sure there's some video. They have plenty of others like lion vs tiger, panther vs snake and so on...

[Sombre]

Do they have 25 sleepy otters versus two pigs and a bat with only one wing? Because that's all I really want to see.

[llamabeast]

Hey Sombre, me too! Man, it's great to find a forum where you can meet people with common interests.

[Kristoffer O]

Bah, Sombre is lying. All he really wanna see is a bog beast vs a bigger bog beast!

[Shovah32]

Bog beast on bog beast action?

Its like a dream come true!

[Xietor]

I wish i had a photo of the 19' gator on display at our(Louisiana) Dept. Natural Resources. It actually defies logic it is so big.

Did find a picture of a much smaller, but still big, 13' gator.

http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/wcgator.asp

Here is a picture of a 12-13 foot gator swimming with a deer in his mouth. Size was estimated, as no one went down to measure him.

http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/gatordeer.asp#photo

[Valandil]

Saltwater Crocodile (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Saltwatercroc_kakadu2.jpg)

I always liked this picture.

[Xietor]

Nice Picture, but we are proffering potential MA Ctis sacred units.

We need things that live in Swamps!

[Valandil]

Hm. True.
Something Chameleonic might be interesting, more from a creator's perspective than a gameplay one. Also, I always wondered why there were no Poison-Arrow-Frog Archers (Although they don't really suit C'tis). There is also a conspicuous lack of tongue attacks.

[Xietor]

Well,

I live in a swamp. New Orleans is the miasma brought to life, including a dire history of disease affiliated with humans living in swamps.

"The population of New Orleans also suffered from epidemics of yellow fever, malaria, and smallpox, which would periodically return throughout the 19th century until the successful suppression of the city's final outbreak of yellow fever in 1905."

From the perspective of someone who has lived in MA Ctis dominion since 1982, I think the lizards are great. But the White Alligator would be really really cool. And though they are nasty, nutria are a part of the miasma swamps that are Louisiana.

[HoneyBadger]

The Nile croc is the largest in the world-it's estimated that they could get up to 30 feet long, potentially. That's dragon-sized.

Are there Will O' The Whisps in the game?

I'd like to see more done with bog mummies-and specifically Jotun-sized bog mummies, since there's real-world evidence of actual giant (6'6 +) redheaded humanoids living in prehistoric times, or possibly more recently, and ending up in swamps.

A nation of Jotunesque bog-mummies would be awesome.

Were-boars or a race of humanoid boars would make for cool swamp monsters.

Lots of fish and salamanders live in swamps-real life salamanders in Asia get up to 6 feet long. And there's urban legends about catfish growing to the size of a bus!

Good inspiration for aboleths, so maybe there's a less intelligent, but still dangerous, amphibious version?

How about Swamp Thing? Not only do the comics provide lots of monstrous inspiration, but it'd be cool to have, say, an independent heroic, stronger and more intelligent version of a Vine Ogre, with lots of Nature magic, named "Swamp King", performing basically the same function as Bogus, only for nature-related events.

When talking about albino crocs, don't forget the urban legends about albino crocodiles living in the sewers of New York.

Hippos are very dangerous, but I'm pretty sure that they wouldn't stand a chance against a full grown bull African elephant. For that matter, the Ratel, or "Honeybadger", is considered, pound-for-pound, the most dangerous mammal in Africa. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

[Valandil]

"How about Swamp Thing? Not only do the comics provide lots of monstrous inspiration, but it'd be cool to have, say, an independent heroic, stronger and more intelligent version of a Vine Ogre, with lots of Nature magic, named "Swamp King", performing basically the same function as Bogus, only for nature-related events"

There is. He's called Intor Vadul the ancient presence.

[HoneyBadger]

I don't think that's quite the same thing. Along the same general lines, maybe, but in a game this big, there's nothing wrong with similar themes embodied in different ways.

[Valandil]

Fair eough, yes. And its not like randoms occur often enough that anyone would notice, really.

[HoneyBadger]

I was thinking maybe a high Prod scale combined maybe with high Drain (and high misfortune, ofcourse) would cause the "Swamp King" to appear with, say, half a dozen to a dozen of the better Crossbreeding units.

Now that I think about it, one could assume swamps would make an excellent home *for* crossbreeding units which escape into the wild.

[BigDisAwesome]

HoneyBadger said:
Hippos are very dangerous, but I'm pretty sure that they wouldn't stand a chance against a full grown bull African elephant.



ZOMG NERF ELEPHANTS ALREADY!

[Sombre]

Xietor said:
I wish i had a photo of the 19' gator on display at our(Louisiana) Dept. Natural Resources. It actually defies logic it is so big.




Actually defies logic? When I was little I had a 2 foot long novelty colouring pencil which did that too. Completely illogical.

[Valandil]

Logic:
Assumption- all Alligators are not more than 15 feet.
IF this is an alligator, AND it is 19 feet, AND 19 is greater than 15, THEN...
the assumption is false.

[llamabeast]

But the assumption is a very reasonable one. I think you've just proved that logic is false.

Aaaargh! *science collapses around llama*

[HoneyBadger]

There used to be alligators or crocodiles in prehistoric times that got up to 40-45 feet long.

It would be nice if the Early Age had more prehistoric beasties running around. Especially ones that actually were around in the last, say, 60,000 years, since that's only 1/1000ths of the time since the dinosaurs were around, making it a lot more believable that such critters would have had a major effect on real world myths-aside from the occasional "dragon bone" that might pop up?

[Valandil]

Some saber-toothed tigers and cave bears to eat the independant cavemen?

[Autochthon]

Valandil said:
Logic:
Assumption- all Alligators are not more than 15 feet.
IF this is an alligator, AND it is 19 feet, AND 19 is greater than 15, THEN...
the assumption is false.



Crap, I thought the answer was 10:45 PM http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

So, am I correct in assuming that 100 albino pirate hippos could beat out 100 albino ninja crocs? Or are we still debating this?

[lch]

HoneyBadger said:
There used to be alligators or crocodiles in prehistoric times that got up to 40-45 feet long.


Everything was supersized back then because the oxygen levers were higher. Those big dragonflies with wingspans like an eagle, we could have them back if we'd just have lots more oxygen in the air. And don't forget that they're lethal now.