The Mad Rat’s Lab

Here I am, preparing the last things I need to do before the tournament starts.

The first thing I must do, as I already promised myself, is to temporarily remove all the Silent Kidnappers from the dungeon. 

“Haaah… what a shame I must remove them… If only it was possible to tell the game to not capture certain units! I suppose it’s for balance reasons so that we can’t get free bodies without doing anything and also make sure all of them are exactly what we want or need… But still, it’s a shame!”

Yeah, I’m sure it’s an intentional flaw from the DMA developers. The Flesh Monstrosities can already be considered the most broken faction in terms of versatility and individual unit power, but it’s balanced by how much more effort the players must put into obtaining the units.

If instead, they allowed the players to automatically capture all the units they want, it certainly makes the Flesh Monstrosities too powerful. The maximum they allow is to automatically capture random units so that we can’t control what units we get. And this can be a bad idea if your stasis chambers get filled with random useless bodies as it happened to me…

Anyway! What I’m going to do now is spend most of my cp in stasis capsules so that I can capture more stuff later on; as well as start the research on Fleshlings!

Oh, and talking about research! After completing both the research for upgrading the Hybrids, as well as unlocking the Basic Chimeras, this amazing new unit type appeared in the techs available for research!

When I saw the new research, I immediately unlocked it. I didn’t know when, but I was absolutely sure I was going to create Monstrous Hybrids in the future.

The research description pretty much explains everything, but yes, Monstrous Hybrids are units that can mix a humanoid unit with a non-humanoid one.

Until now, all units were either exclusively humanoid or non-humanoid. And there are a few reasons, apart from aesthetics, for this: like skill balancing or movement types. For example, almost no humanoid units can fly or properly fight underwater, but the same doesn’t apply to non-humanoids. So with a Monstrous Hybrid, you can easily make a flying Champion if you want to.

They can also be amazing options for roleplaying. But I’m going to stick with the Mad Rat because I like it better.

Though not everything’s good. The extra 50 cp cost seems like nothing, especially when talking about powerful units, but in fact, it’s quite a lot if you’re under a tight budget like in a Dungeon Battle.

Aaaaand… I’m going to create the first Monstrous Hybrids right now! Hahaha!

This isn’t the only reason, but a very important reason is that I really need to use some bodies because, right now, I have very few empty Stasis chambers. Yes, the only free ones are those I bought just a few minutes ago.

Though it isn’t like I’m going to need them in any short amount of time because the tournament goes mostly by the PvP rules; which means that nobody can obtain cp or special resources during it. I’m sure you remember that during Dungeon Battles you get an amount of cp that changes if you win or lose the battle, and you can’t obtain special resources at all.

I’m sure it’s so that players can fully focus on the fights instead of obtaining resources. And we’re lucky because otherwise… I’m sure Ricard would chase after anything that moves to obtain even one more soul.

…Don’t look at me like this! I’m not like that too, ok!? I only lose my composure sometimes!

Aaargh, stop staring at me with those accusing eyes! …ok, ok! It’s good for me too because, otherwise, I won’t be able to concentrate either… Happy now? You forced me to say it.

Anyway! Returning to the Monstrous Hybrids I’m going to create…

What I want to do is use those slimes I captured the other day,  the Spitter Slimes, and mix them with the Apprentice Technomancers I captured in the Magic Engineers dungeon.

My plan is to use them as laboratory helpers when the Lab Assistants aren’t enough. Oh, and I’ll put them in the same room as the second Lab Assistant… this way, the two fights won’t be exactly the same.

“Monstrous Hybrid, I choose you!” I shout at the same time I start the creation of a new Template. Why do I do it? I don’t know, but for some reason, I feel good shouting it.

Then I select both the Apprentice Technomancer and the Spitter Slime as the ones to use for the creation of the new unit.

A fun thing I wanted to point out here: the Apprentice Technomancers are incredibly weak. And with this, I mean basic unit levels of weak, so they have a 5 or 6 in all stats… except for the Dexterity one, where they have a whole whopping 30. Of course, this is because they are supposed to be the ones operating the Magic Engineers’ contraptions and traps, so they only need high Dexterity to do their work.

Also, I’m sure the 30 DEX isn’t a random value at all, because it’s the value needed to operate most of the basic machines and equipment. That’s why they have 30 Dex: it’s the minimum value required.

They also have 6 Intelligence, higher than the usual 5. Which I suppose is there to help players customize their behavior when manipulating contraptions and traps.

In comparison, the Spitter Slime has the most typical stats for a slime: very high HP and CON, low WIL, and abysmal AGI and DEX.

You might say it’s a bad decision to use them as the other unit because of their low Dexterity, and you would be right… if I needed it to be higher than 30 DEX. But I don’t need anything with so much Dexterity for now, and if I needed, I already have the Lab Assistants.

Furthermore, there’s another reason I want to use the Spitter Slimes. And it is because of their innate skill: Slime Spit. It isn’t the best skill, but it’s an innate skill exclusive to the Amorphous faction. And what’s better: it works very well when paired with the Lab Assistant’s AoE skills.

By the way, Apprentice Technomancers don’t have any innate skills. Do you know why? Yeah, you guessed it right. It’s because they’re HUMANS! Fucking humans! I hate them so much! And now I have lots of them in my stasis chambers, preventing me from capturing actually useful units, so I’m hating them even more than usual!

The next step is unit customization. I make the new unit look like a normal human… except it doesn’t have any defined features because it’s made of slime. Do you remember when I was creating the champion? It looks very similar: a humanoid shape made of translucent material and without defined features. Plus it drips goo all the time.

And as it couldn’t be any other way, I make each of them a different color. There are exactly four of them, so the colors are, obviously: blue, red, green, and yellow. Like in that famous board game for four players.

As an unrelated topic, though it’s kind of related: during the dungeon exploration, Ricard made sure to explain why there are no humanoid units in the Amorphous faction. And that’s because… almost all slimes can be used as Champions. So they don’t need humanoid units at all.

Yeah, you heard it right. How does this work? Well, the slimes take a humanoid shape but retain the original slime’s innate skills, stats, and color/texture. He told us that they can even be customized to have faces and/or hands and fingers.

Anyway! Let’s return to the new monster I’m creating!

For now, I’m not going to level them up. After all, I only want them for their innate skills’ slow, and to manipulate machines. The only skill I give them with the level 1 skill point is this one: Sprinter.

There’s a reason why I give them the Sprinter skill, and it’s because of what I’m going to do next with the AI modifications.

Now for the last but not least thing! The AI!

The first change I’m going to do is to change how they work outside of combat, to the same as the Lab Assistants: don’t move and stay where I tell them.

And the second change is how they behave during combat. What I do is make them run all the time as they continue to use the Slime Spit skill. But it isn’t normal running, no… this would be too lame.

What they do is ‘run away from any other unit that gets close to you’. Yeah, they run away from the enemies, they run away from the Lab Assistant, and they even run away from the other three. I’m sure if there was a mirror somewhere, they would run away too. And they do so at a relatively fast speed thanks to the Sprinter skill, and let’s not forget about the Slime Spit slow…

There was only one name I could give them: Panicky Spitter. I’m sure you understand why.

The last thing I do is add the four Panicky Spitters to the second laboratory area. But I also make two changes to the dungeon: I increase the second laboratory size a bit, to give the Panicky Spitters more space to run; and I add a simple condition to the door that leads to the next area. The condition is ‘only opens when all Lab Assistants and Panicky Spitters from this room are defeated’.

Oh, I also allow the Panicky Spitters to leave the laboratory area if they are being chased by an enemy. This way it can be very funny - for me, not for the invaders - to see somebody chase after a Panicky Spitter throughout the whole dungeon. You know… because, if they don’t kill the Lab Assistant AND all the Panicky Spitters, they won’t be able to open the door to the Minitaur area.

“Hahahaha! Aren’t I evil!? Hahaha!”

By the way, these are the stats for the Panicky Spitters.

 

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Now, there’s just one more thing I wanted to do before the tournament starts. Believe me or not, it’s something that’s been bugging me since the moment I created the Champion.

I’m sure you have felt too that annoying sensation you have when there’s something you know you could do better, but can’t find the motivation to improve… And the more you delay it, the worst you feel about yourself… but when you finally convince yourself you have to do it, you then look for excuses to not do it. I’m sure everyone has experienced something like this at least one time.

And yes, I’m talking about the Rat Transformation skill right now! Since the moment I decided to seal it, I’ve been bugged by the knowledge I could be doing better than what I’m doing now. But every time I thought about testing it again, I got sick just by remembering the first experience.

And no, I’m not going to create another Champion. I like the Mad Rat, I like the image of a mad scientist with a rat head, and I don’t mind having a skill I can’t use as long as it doesn’t interfere with the rest.

That being said, what I’m going to do right now is practice the Rat Transformation skill and see if I can get used to the sickness it produces.

“Ugh… I feel sick already, and I haven’t used the skill a single time yet… Well, here I go…”

Reluctantly, I activate the Rat Transformation skill, and a moment later, I’m in rat form.

“...I want to puke already…”

It doesn’t look like I’m going to get used to it anytime soon.

 

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I’m going to start with the conclusion: no, I didn’t get used to the nausea produced by the new form. But, and it’s a big BUT, I did manage to achieve something.

What did I manage to achieve? Well, that’s an easy answer: I managed to activate the Rat Transformation skill and then return back to my humanoid form in less than three seconds. And as long as I don’t move at all, it’s… bearable. After all, the transformation only lasts an instant when I use it like this, so I don’t have too much time to get sick.

You might be asking ‘how the heck is this useful!?’, am I right? The important part is the size difference between the two forms, making the rat form a lot harder to hit because it’s a lot smaller than the humanoid one. If I time it right, I might be able to avoid attacks or skills during the transformation. The keyword here is ‘might’.

I like to call it Rat Avoidance Transformation Trick, or RATT for short. And no, the name I gave to it isn't a coincidence.

“Amazing progress, isn’t it? From having the skill sealed, to be able to use it in combat!” If you can call the RATT as ‘using in combat’, that is. I don’t care about such nuances, so I’ll do it. “Hahaha!”

I’m not sure it will ever be useful. But who knows, maybe it will? In truth, I don’t have too many expectations for it.

 

“Don’t be distracted by the other stuff! The most important thing you MUST remember in this damned dungeon is to ABSOLUTELY NEVER allow a single Panicky Spitter to run away from the room you find it! Block the exit with support mobs, focus on them first while ignoring the other enemies, and then nuke the whole room with your biggest AoE skill… Whatever you do, NEVER allow a single one of them to leave the room! Otherwise, it can turn into an eternal chase through the dungeon, and YOU’RE NOT GOING TO ENJOY IT! You can say that it’s the WORST mistake you can make. And it’s easy enough to prevent it, so… DON’T FORGET!”

- Extract from the Chapter ‘Important things to look out for’ from ‘How to Stay Sane in The Mad Rat’s Lab’.