Drask change for their eyes.

[Odieman]

Hello.  I have a strange interest in the Drask people.  I think they are just..  Interesting I guess. 

I'll preface this with a bit of insight on their lore and how I think it's a bit conflicting from a biological aspect.

 

One thing I noticed about their homeworld is that most Drask currently live in tunnels, which I assume this is reflected in game by their darksight of 5.  But this doesn't make sense to me.   If a Drask lived out in the snow and ice for any long stage of its evolution, they would develop some sense of immunity to the UV's from Raarumvaar (Raarumvaar is their version of a sun).  How, you might be asking?  Well snow reflects UV's quite well.  In fact, if you live in a snowy area you can experience Photokeratitis if you aren't wearing protection.  There are of course many "Cave Drasks" that seem to live underground and this I assume implies their ability to see in the dark.  However, I think it's far more likely that their initial evolution would cause them to have a darksight of 1, and a resistance to flashes and possible immunity to welding tools.  Similar to how humans are bipedal from (theoretically) evolving to see over high grass, Drask would be evolved to living on the surface, possibly for millions of years before they established underground colonies and tunnels through the ice.  To get away from this evolutionary trait, it would take yet again millions of years in tunnels and such.  And by that time there would be colonies and communities far more advanced than those implied in-game.  If they were a tunnel based species, say, then they would have evolved to look much differently in my opinion.  Possibly quadraped and looking like those things from Mass Effect.  I think it's much more likely they discovered tunnels late into their evolutionary cycle, and they are much more likely to hang up lights everywhere as they are used to everything being quite bright in their ancient ancestral days.

 

That all being said,

I'll show my suggestions for what would fix them and why I think it's balanced and necessary.

 

1.  Change Drask Darksight to 1.  This is a result of millions of years of living out in the snow as a Drask puppy, cat, mouse, whatever they were originally. (/obj/item/organ/internal/eyes/drask)
2. Give them flash_protect = 1 or 2 (1 is resistant to flashes, 2 gives you immunity to welding tools), as millennia of snow and harmful UV's entering their eyes have caused them to be quite adept at absorbing extra light.  *EDIT:  Giving them weld_proof = 1 will make them still susceptible to flashing and they will still get a white light while welding but they will not be injured by it.  This is what IPC's have.
3. Give them a buff and have adjustable eyes.  This is a bit of a long-shot but, say Drask have the ability to narrow their eyes on whim.  This would give them Darksight 5 when they are open, and Darksight 1 as well as flash protect 1 (or 2) when narrowed.  Preferably 2 as they could just wear sunglasses otherwise.

*Note: #1 and #2 are to be added in conjunction.

 

I believe this is balanced because: Drask generally don't have any special abilities that can be commonly used and they are a Karma unlock.  They can drink more alcohol, eat soap, and survive in the space cold (They are not vacuum sealed, however, so they will still die in space.).  Also, breathing super-cooled internals heals them.  They generally do not get access to this however, unless Medical bay is feeling generous with their Cryogenic Oxygen Canisters, or they develop some sort of freezer room themselves (Thanks R&D).  The odds of the station being super-cooled is almost 0, and when it is, it's always an easy fix as hardsuit engineers are resistant to it and can just go out and get to work quickly.  Fire also hurts Drask a lot more than anyone else.  Much more than Vulps and slightly more than Diona (Yes, people made of wood don't burn as bad as Drask).  The odds of a station-wide fire, most likely plasma, are much more common in my experience, that being said, having the Drask have one specific cool ability, like slime-people's arm regeneration, or Vulp Claws, or a Diona's ability to enter space without an EVA suit would be great.

 

I like the idea of playing a Drask but there is really no reason as they have greater heat damage than tree people and only have the redeeming quality of seeing a bit farther in the dark without being colorblind.  I hope my suggestion is received well and I'm open for discussion on other things about the Drask that might be changeable.

Edited December 1, 2017 by Odieman
Fixed some paragraphing, wording, redundancy, etc.

[HugoLuman]

Bear in mind that their planet is at least 10 times further from their star than Earth is from the Sun. So even at the surface it's quite a bit darker.

[Odieman]

On 12/6/2017 at 3:37 PM, HugoLuman said:

Bear in mind that their planet is at least 10 times further from their star than Earth is from the Sun. So even at the surface it's quite a bit darker.

That's a great point.  However, that puts it at the distance of Saturn.  Doing a bit of research, I've found this:

"Although sunlight is about 100 times dimmer on Saturn than on Earth, the sun would still be far too bright to look at without eye protection."

And that's assuming their star is as small as Sol.  Since Saturn is -178°C and Hoorlm is -80°C we can imply that there are either vast differences in atmospheres or Hoorlm is revolving around a larger star.

[Rumiluntti]

"please buff my favorite race for no other reason than lore" -thread #9230

[Odieman]

Well I mean, currently as they stand, Darksight of 5 vs Darksight of 1 and weld_proof = 1 would be a de-buff if anything.  Weld_proof = 1 still makes your eyes flash during a flash, and during welding it just doesn't injure your eyes.