Now this wouldnt change the existing walking dionae much...besides adding the ability to evolve into something else, we could use the blobs mechanics for this. Acording to lore dionae can grow into huge stations near wery hot stars... or grow into ships! But unlike blob which basically grows its own resources, dionae would as usual require light to grow AND maintain their size!
There would be 2 choises... rooted and mobile (rooted being basically a station, mobile being a space ship/pod), And now to explain it all!
Rooted/station starts similar to blob (after you chose to evolve into it, and preferably found a lit enough space)... you start with one tile of ...roots (floor), and can be built upon and walked on (but unlike blobs, dionae dont have a central node, meaning if ya wanna kill it ya have to cut light to it or make it use more resources than it produces, or just burn it).All "body" parts regenerate automatically but wery slowly if they have resources, if not they slowly wither and die and then rot.
Roots- most important part which is floor, can be built on and walked on, transfers nutrients to other parts, it can grow in empty space or ower existing ground/floor
Leaves- basically solars of the Dionae,wery fragile, but cheap and easy to grow, grows on branches only, fully automatic light tracking, use nutrients and water in small ammounts but produces "light" resource which is VITAL for survival and most used resource grows quickly, but also whithers away quickly if its not receiving water and nutrients constantly
Branches- can grow on roots or from trunks, use water and nutrients and light medium growth time
Trunk- wall which self repairs quite durable and airtight (a bit weaker than normal metal wall but unlike other parts a lot more resistant to fire, blocks light) use water nutrients and light long growth time due to its mass and size,also when destroyed drops wood (thus can be used for wood production, from which planks are made, and from them even crates for item storage)
Membrane- transparent "window" of sorts, fragile can mutate into door (quick to grow)
Membrane Door- a transparent airlock a lot weaker than metal doors on station, but unhackable
Moss- produces small ammounts of water and other nutrients, but in lit areas self sustainable and has a trickle of "light" resource, can be walked ower and harvested for eating/drinking, and used as dirt for farming (in which case all water and nutrients are spend on plant) but another being must farm on it (station itself cannot) also acts like an air filter if it has light, producing wery little air, but filters the air quickly however due to it being so multifunctional costs quite a bit to make and takes time to grow, but is a wise investment for long term because in right condition it covers its maintenance cost and produces a trickle of all 3 resources, however not wise to invest in that only as it would mean covering a large area for a decent income of resources!
Thorns- for deffence can be grown on walls and floor, also toxic (can cause stuns from toxins) good defence from unarmored intruders (especially space carps)
Melons- a water storage growth, harvestable and drinkable, bigger it is more it contains (uses small ammounts of nutrients and a lot of light) grows on moss, fragile
Fungus(Mold)- doesnt require any light, but uses small ammounts of nutrients and water, capable of dissolving anything for resouces (best used when working with other beings who put things on it) can be walked ower
Shrooms- grow on fungus only, act as nutrient storage, requires no light, bigger it is more it contains also edible and uses a lot of water also fragile
Nuts- pretty much like canisters,but can store any gas or liquid in them, alas unlike other forms of grown storage are reusable, and bit less durable than their metal counterparts
Geobacter Growth- litterally a bacterial power generator, uses water, nutrients and light to produce electricity, good for recharging anything from tools, weapons, power cells to robots and mech directly from it, costly to make and maintain and takes time to grow but wery atractive to other machine using species,can be conected to cable like a generator would, acts basically like the machine counterpart except it cannot be moved.
Shewanella Growth- while it takes time to grow it can convert raw energy (electricity) to metal, glass, and plastic its costly to build and maintain, but hey produces basic resources to attract other species!
Nymph Pod Spawner- medium cost to make but wery low if any maintenance...as ya guessed this spawns seeds from which nymphs grow! Gotta spread yanno....
Plasmic Growth- Costly to make but acts both as a reservoir and factory of plasma which is used by many space faring species
Air Bubble Growth- its basically a fragile storage for breathable air, useful to refill equipment, (nuts) canisters, or even rooms in case of a breach so any breathing crew on board doesnt suffocate
because moss is too slow at air production, it automatically fills itself with excess air moss makes, thus keeping air pressure ideal for other species!
Mobile/ship form is basically like the machine pods space faring species use with ability to regenerate, they can grow needed apendages for example mining, they make their own air for crew and have their own propulsion, however cannot last for long without light (light can be from space or the crew or station or even fitted with some) can hold 2 or 4 crew in it, not pilotable (since the ship IS the pilot)
Feel free to state yer ideas and opinions, if this gets implemented, dionae which are nearly useless cause of their slowness (besides that they heal on their own, hit hard and can soak up damage as long as they got light and dont get on fire) can replace stations ,or parts of them, be transports (or miners with proper equipment/apendages) thus being fun on long rounds, useful in crysis and low pop servers!
