I guess in that case what I'll do for myself is go in the mod folder and change the efficiency of tox absorption from -1 to 0 since it seems to work as a temporary workaround for custom xenotypes.

I don't remember the specifics, but we went about it in a roundabout way to support existing wasters when the mod is installed. We can't guarantee custom xenotypes working with it.

I'm having the exact same issue where the pollution benefit genes will not go above or below minor unless tox absorption is present. At first I thought it was because I had three of these genes on a person and it was some kind of hidden balance mechanic. Until I adjusted to only have one. Had to use dev mode to manually adjust the severity of the pollution productivity without recreating the entire xenotype and account for the extra metabolic cost.. This is on a custom xenotype, just like the last person. Could potentially be another mod causing the issue. I'll try testing with all of my other mods disabled sometime.

so after some more messing around I found either a fix or maybe a workaround for this if anyone is having the issue me and Xean were having, if you add the "tox absorption" gene then it starts to scale correctly.

I'm not sure why as this should seemingly be a separate gene that isn't required for scaling your pollution stimulus but this works as a workaround at least.

@xean I'm having an issue with that, for some reason the normal "waster" xenotype works fine but when I add it to a custom xenotype it just stays at "pollution happiness (minor" no matter if my pawn is on a clean tile or a polluted one. I can't figure this out on my end

Are there any issues with giving a custom xenotype one or more of the special mutation genes?

Can we get a cosmetic nose-hole gene?

hey, just to clarify, according to the official compatible mods list on CE, this mod may not be compatible with CE (assuming that list is up-to-date), since this is the only VRE mod not listed there at this time

Because it's a cool story?

This actually makes Wasters even more high maintenance for even less usefulness imo. Why would you ever even take a waster in a mix race colony if they are only getting these buffs in pollution that hurts everyone else and any babies they have will get cancer and they still need psychite?

"32, which was plenty of time for early humans to proliferate." you couldnt raise your child but ok, they´d all be retarded after 2 generations, get no work done, be slow at everything(have no fighting chance), and yet there are wasters spawning that "didnt degenerate yet" which is ONLY possible if theyre clones of the original.otherwise wasters would have reached max degeneration pretty soon, and that´d be their final version. its impossible for wasters without instability to be born naturally, its a paradox. someone is cloning thousands of these and dropping them on the planet, or they would not have an entire faction.
overthinking, maybe i guess, but gameplay wise this probably makes people banish their wasters offspring or outright sterilize wasters. i guess im trying to say there could be some kind of counter measure...? for lore and gameplay consistency?

I personally love wasters so thank you Oskar, you are a true gigachad

What if they waste the waste, thus ruining their waste?

But yea I get it, Just sometimes i like to know how technical things are. Appreciate that. Otherwise its a good update. Only thing that would make it better would be a toxic spray gland or something lol.

Sir, did you see the name of the mod you're commenting on? :)

So burn barrels are actually detrimental to cleaning and more for spreading. Lol alright.

No net positive, in fact net negative.

I have a question: Will burn barrels earn you a net positive on waste reduction or are you just throwing it in there just to pollute?

If the baseline life expectancy is 80, the extreme instability would drop expectancy to 32, which was plenty of time for early humans to proliferate.

I do think that wasters who spawn in should have different levels of existing mutation. With how much thought and care goes into these mods, I don't buy that we're overthinking it.

I think It'd be cool if Wasters used gas masks that gassed them with tox instead of regular gas masks. Right now the gas mask aesthetic the game gives them doesn't make sense for them, since regular masks are actively detrimental for their pollution stimulus.

Also i really think @CrackJack got a point

@Sarg Bjornson why do wasters only ever naturally spawn with nominal cell instability? Can't it be randomized, the way mutations are?

She's a classy lady

I'm not gonna text you that's weird you always send me pictures of your mom

I don't have discord on this PC, but you have my Whatsapp :P

How's your holiday Sarg? Since you're not replying to me on Discord I figured I'd reach out to you here.

That, or it's mechanites

If it really matters to you, consider coming up with your own head canon. Maybe Wasters have a one-in-a-thousand perfect child that's considered the prodigy and the future of wasters, and is revered as they make many babies?

It does matter, to some. That's why people come here to point it out, once in a while. I mean, it's not inherently bad, just kinda nonsensical and we already have some nonsense in this game we choose to embrace or at least tolerate, anyway.

No, you are overthinking it. It doesn't matter

Na, it's just plain, regular thinking.

You are overthinking it

uh, how would these wasters survive multiple generations if they become that unstable? logic wise, where do the stable xenotypes come from if they cant procreate without losing genetic integrity? is there a way to reduce the instability? i mean they´d die off in 3-4 generations and cant spread, how exactly are you explaining their existence? they´d need to clone themselves or kidnap people to inject their xenotype into, to be able to grow into an actual faction

what're you lookin at, smoothskin? never seen a ghoul before?

the world if raiders didnt randomly bash up burn barrels

How dare that shriveled lump of a man flip me off!

Aww, too bad.

Yeah, those two genes won't work together. Asexual reproduction just makes a clone of the pawn

I have an issue with a xenotype I made: it has Progressive cell instability and reproduces with Alpha Gene's asexual fission, but the newborn doesn't get any levels of cell instability and is also categorized as a baseliner. Any way to fix that?

That thumbnail artwork lol crazy :D also about generational instability, you'd think a mutation could 'fix' that at some point, a mutation to change that would be interesting. Or they just make new wasters from crossbreeds lol

@Greedy Mag Yeah I'd like to know that too since that's what I immediately thought when seeing this. For example it would make sense if a baseliner would die to toxicity but instead somehow mutates into waster etc. to create the 1st gen wasters

Entirely lore related question: with the generational instability, how do they spread? at a certain point shouldn't they just die out? How do they perpetuate their existence in the wider space?

The way you make vanilla races actually enjoyable.. makes me wish Yttakin would get some love, especially with the stuipd naked speed -debuff-

Nice work!

Sounds like a vanilla bug. It could potentially work exactly the same with Pollution Stimulus gene.

Noticed the following interaction:
If you create a Xenotype that includes a pollution mutation (Accuracy in this case), AND includes a means of tox immunity (not sure if total tox immune works, but it does with Total Anti-toxic lungs), AND you implant the xenotype into someone who is currently experiencing tox buildup...

The colonist will have their tox-mutation in an always-on state matching the tox buildup state they had prior to implantation. Don't know if this is intended.

Now you know why we say "don't do that" :)

Hey, when I installed the whole pack at once of Vanilla expanded features, all the mods that were red because I required DLC I easily deleted, but a bunch of the extra "races" did not appear red, causing a lot of errors because it took a lot of time to figure out it was the race mods preventing my game from working I guess on your end you didn't tag them to require the DLC, figured I'd throw it out there it's just minor detail.

@Uhthis under normal circumstances, yes. there are some ways to manage it tho. you can use the biosculptor to handle lifespand reduction, as well as other fancy tech to manage the cancer and weakened immune system. or you could use a xenotype to override the instability gene with a weaker one, and offset the metabolic cost of the mutations with other genes. admittedly it is quite ironic the "belligerent filthy raiders" xenotype needs advanced technolgy to survive

Wouldn't the progressive cell instability just... make it to where the xenotype would go extinct pretty much after a few generations?

Cool, thanks for the reply!