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[Failbird105]

So, an important question: How many creatures can be used in the creation of one unit?

Because I really want to make a massively hybridized super-beast at some point.

[Rockeater]

Sorry, answered in the core thread.

[Rockeater]

Genome Sequencing Facility: [Insect] (Normal)
(3+3)=6 Above Average

The construction of the facility was fast and efficient. Even though some insects may require specialized housing, none require much space allowing for plenty of space for storage and computers for the various tools needed for the task. Fortunately, insects are commonly used in genetic experiments making acquiring the research tools easier to access.


Genome Sequencing Facility: [Arachnid] (Normal)
(1+4)=5 Average

Like with insects, the housing for Arachnid takes little space in the overall facility giving us plenty of space for other needed things. Unfortunately, Arachnid are less used in genetics than Insects, but using the existing research and that on Insects we were able to create a decent set of software and instruments for the job.


Genome Sequencing Facility: [Plants] (Hard)
(2+3)-1=4 Below Average

Sadly the Plants facility have proven harder challenge then the others, first with the fact that the plants take much more space and much harder to move, meaning that we didn't have the constant access to testing subjects as with the parts, more importantly, the plant kingdom is much larger and more varied than the two classes used before, and proved too much for our current technology to handle, in the end we had to compromise, where only defining features from order level upward are calculated.

(Edit note: on the battlefield, only the creatures are present, so a stationary creature will need to be carried by another creature)

This is the second infrastructure\Scanning phase, you have three actions.

Spoiler: Equipment (click to show/hide)

Genome Sequencing Facility: A large structure filled with equipment, computers and samples built for the purpose of enhancing the work with different phylum:

  Insects wing: With the well researched tool available , this wing allows a much better understanding and utilization of Insects DNA.

  Arachnid wing: With the tools available , this wing allows a better understanding and utilization of Arachnid DNA.

  Plants wing: With the limited tools available compared to the size of the kingdom, this wing allows a better understanding and utilization of Plants DNA down to the Order level.

[TricMagic]

Scanning.

Scanning: Bullet Ant
The Bullet Ant is known for an extremely painful sting, akin to lighting the body on fire. Other than this, they aren't dangerous, but the pain will make for a useful addition to hunters that prefer numbers, overwhelming thought.

Scanning: Asian/Japanese Giant Hornet
On the list of the world's largest insects, the Giant Hornet has a potent venom that can kill a human if applied in large enough doses. However, nest sizes are also small. A dangerous research subject, but an effective one to start with, as the size will mean they can be used as is, modified, or used as a base for gigantism in other insects or arachnids. Either one would do for scanning, as their traits are similar, and the JGH is the subspecies. Though it should be noted this is only a color difference, and can't really be classified as taxonomic names, simply informal.


Scanning: Doberman Pinscher
Intelligent, Pack oriented, and relentless, this powerful creature... Is something that can be acquired with some ease for study, as they are domesticated. Originally bred to be ferocious and aggressive, these traits have been toned down, but can still be seen. They make for a good starting point when creating a pack unit with other traits. Light of foot and also being of good size and muscle are also good traits for a hunter. The other option was wolves, but trained Doberman Pinshers can be obtained for scanning without having to deal with the issues wild animals would cause.


Here you go. Plants are a bit lackluster, but insects are certainly available for use. On average, those rolls were average.

Scanning
Bullet Ant: (1) TricMagic
Asian/Japanese Giant Hornet: (1) TricMagic
Doberman Pinscher: (1) TricMagic

Also Antdogs. The Giant Hornet is likely to be the other unit, without any mixes, just some minor edits to make them more deadly.

The limit of Plants to Order on up means specific species don't really benefit. So Moss, various algae types, ferns, as well as seed, spore, and flowering plants.Sadly, sundews are a bit too low for order to affect them, Droseraceae family. Well, that was the reasoning for three infrastructure, more rolls.

[Failbird105]

Scanning
Bullet Ant: (2) TricMagic, Failbird
Asian/Japanese Giant Hornet: (2) TricMagic, Failbird
Doberman Pinscher: (2) TricMagic, Failbird

Ye.

[chaotick21]

Scanning

Scanning: Hippopotamus
Large with extremely powerful jaws, hippos are one of the most deadly animals, killing their targets by crushing them.

Scanning: Cuttlefish
Cuttlefish are tentacled mollusks with the extraordinary ability blend in with any location. They hunt by hypnotizing prey with flashing colors, then grabbing them with their tentacles, and pulling them in their mouthes.

[chaotick21]

Scanning
Bullet Ant: (3) TricMagic, Failbird, Chaoskl21
Asian/Japanese Giant Hornet: (2) TricMagic, Failbird
Doberman Pinscher: (2) TricMagic, Failbird
Hippo:(1) Chaoskl21
Cuttlefish: (1)Chaoskl21

[TricMagic]

First, double posted. Second, that doesn't really take advantage of the insect module. Third, those are water-based creatures. Our first battle zones are likely the mountain peak and forests. Fourth would be differences in size with the Bullet Ant, and those creatures not being able to take full advantage of the pain from the bullet ant. Fifth, probably difficulty in creating insect/hybrid units with hippos, unless your proposal is the cuttlefish with it, in which case, wrong modules for that.

The Ant Doberman would have a painful bite, somewhat armored body, and a lot of strength from it's ant heritage combined with the strength already present. Along with it's sense of smell, pheromones, and other advantages. And being a pack unit, they would do well at taking down larger foes.

The Genesis Giant Hornet meanwhile would mostly have a more piercing stinger, along with increased venom glands/sacs. Improved intelligence would also be a goal.

[Failbird105]

Now hang on, I agree with most of your points, but I don't see how mixing an invertebrate with a hippo is harder than mixing it with a dog.
At least, in any ways that wouldn't apply to fusing anything with a hippo.

[TricMagic]

Hippopotamus. 1 of only two extant species of Hippopotamidae, the other being the pygmy hippopotamus. Both are threatened by habitat loss and are extremely aggressive. This on top of poaching for meat and ivory teeth.
Put simply, it is not a good subject to scan because of these things, as it is classified as Vulnerable. The Pygmy is threatened meanwhile.

Granted, these problems apply to anything that would be fused with it. But another issue with fusing it with the bullet ant is the fact that they are already dangerous enough without adding a pain-type effect to their bite. Said bite would normally kill in the first place. There is also the issue of size difference, as well as what one would even gain from fusing a hippo to an insect. They wouldn't be able to fly, their dangerous enough not to need poison. Had plants gone through there could be an argument to be made to combine the two.

As for the cuttlefish, it's aquatic. Might have gone well with the sundew, probably would go well with the Hippo for a land/water unit.

[Rockeater]

Is there a chance for a decisive vote in the next few days?

[TricMagic]

That would be a no, other than us three being the only voters. The Antdogs were already planed though, so.. The AGH meanwhile are already dangerous enough for an air-type unit without modifications, so they are a decent scan choice for being so large already.

I'd like to add web production to them for building very ridiculous traps for larger creatures, but simply working with their base DNA shouldn't be too hard with the above average Sequencing. For a first unit anyway.

[Rockeater]

Bullet ants (Easy)
(4+3)+1=8 Unexpected boon

Scouring the internet for people describing ants on sale as surprisingly strong or painful gave us some good result, which is a bit of a surprise considering the fact that ants are surprisingly strong for their size and bullet ants are surprisingly painful. In the end we had enough good quality specimens to create ants with a very painful sting, bigger and stronger than the average bullet ant and great coordination between members of a colony.

With the genes of the ants scanned and used and our great facility we were also able to do one extra thing. We were able to create a subspecies where all members, not just males and queen, have wings and can fly. Those wings are inferior to those of proper flying insects and the flying capability is more limited and harder for the ant to control, but flight is flight.


Asian giant hornet (Normal)
(1+1)=2 Utter failure

The crew was set, contacts with Japanese authorities and useful groups were made before-hand and all was ready to go. But then the news of finding Asian giant hornets in the Us came, which forced us and our contractors to consider the option of them getting loose. Simulations showed this could become a major issue of the research.

We tried to proof the facility for that case for cheap, getting nets and sealing windows. But the more we sealed the more holes we saw. Airlock style doors were needed, the air ducts needed to be watched by cameras, the entire building needed a wide variety of sensors to insure nothing would escape. In the end none of the project budget was left for actually sending people to get the hornet, but the building is more secured for creatures we are able to bring here.


Doberman (Trivial)
(3+2)+2=7 Superior craftsmanship

The dog breading community was extremely receptive to our attempt and supplied us with a truly staggering amount of information, the detailed and long standing pedigrees in addition to the more recent and accurate DNA testing have done most of the work for us. We were easily able to use this information to find and scan the most idle candidate, strong fast, loyal to the group and ferocious, with our technology we were able to take this sample with addition to a few tweaks from other candidate to make the most supreme of Dobermans, sadly in this stage our creation need to stay infertile meaning there is little to no profit in selling them at large.


This is the unit creation phase, you have two actions.

Spoiler: equipment (click to show/hide)

Infrastructure:

Genome Sequencing Facility
A large structure filled with equipment, computers and samples built for the purpose of enhancing the work with different phylum:
    Insects wing: With the well researched tool available , this wing allows a much better understanding and utilization of Insects dna.
    Arachnid wing: With the tools available , this wing allows a better understanding and utilization of Arachnid dna.
    Plants wing: With the limited tools available compared to the size of the kingdom, this wing allows a better understanding and utilization of Plants dna down to the Order level.

Scans:

Bullet ants: Most capable of the spices, strong and large for being ants, with a very painful sting in general.
    Flying Bullet ants: A subspecies of the Bullet ants created by our labs, the flight is inferior to that of those that naturally evolved it, and with more limited control.

Doberman: The ideal doberman found after intensive work with the breeding community, Strong, loyal and ferocious, those are the best Doberman we could have gotten.

[TricMagic]

Rip hornets. Other two went very well though, and the security could be used later on when bringing more dangerous creatures in. Though I'd still want some.

Well, we have two slots. An Antdog is up on the table. A flying giant bullet ant and a Giant Doberman are the other two. shrugs, having the AGH would have been nice for a flying unit, sad we did not get it, but the other two drained the luck~

Bullet Jacket Ant

The Winged Bullet Ant offers a good starting point. Sadly the AGH did not come through, so this project will have to go without. The Bullet Jacket Ant, in description, is a gigantism project. The resulting insect has a thick layer of carapace, streamlined for forward movement, with nerves/muscles spread throughout connecting to their durable insect wings. They have a central core of flesh where most functions occur which the armor surrounds, as is normal for ants, though theirs is a lot thicker Their legs are used to launch themselves, their strength allowing a high, if temporary, forward speed. They then use the wings to direct their speed and latch onto their prey in numbers, before burrowing in through the flesh with their enhanced mandibles and mouths as the target is subjected to immense pain. Bullet Jacket Ants are no larger than Asian Giant Hornets, but in numbers and with coordination they are very powerful.

In forests, they are undoubtedly a predator that hunts predators for being able to launch from tree to tree, though even in mountains their legs and temporary flight allows for interesting movement patterns. The main upgrades other than size tends towards their jumping ability when moving forward, their wings only serving to direct them and glide for longer distances, with very little flight involved. Their mandibles are more suited to tearing apart wood and flesh due to the size increase and a focus on better edges. Which is needed as their size means they need more food for those still growing. Diets are omnivorous by default, which isn't any different from normal for ants.

An interesting note is that Bullet Jacket Ants love honeycomb, particularly broodcomb. This is likely due to their origin as ants, since most ants have honey and insects as part of their diet.


There are other details, like colonies spreading over multiple locations as the queen travels to each under heavy escort, but that's not really relevant in this case, being something that would only occur if they were fertile. Their feeding ranges are a lot larger. Anyway, this is a pure modification. It likely will be compatible with AGH if we get those at some point. Cause these guys need venom we don't have to give them to reach true effectiveness.

Spoiler: Extra research notes for GM/development team (click to show/hide)

https://phys.org/news/2019-12-ant-species-abdomen-extra-power.html

Next is Antdog, will write later.

[Failbird105]

Antdog

Bullet Hound
While the Asian Giant Hornet project fell through, the two species we had needed for our primary project were massive successes, beyond our wildest expectations. This project seeks to capitalize on our successes, to make a frontline fighter for our forces, the likes of which the world has never seen. Enter, the Bullet Hound.

The Bullet Hound is a hybrid of our Prime Bullet Ant DNA and our Prime Doberman DNA. Its body structure takes largely from the Doberman, being a large canine of exceptional strength and speed. Its head is part-way between the two, possessing the mandibles of the Bullet Ant, with the canine jaws of the Doberman, allowing it to grip onto and maul targets with incredible effectiveness.

The canine body is reinforced with some of the ants natural proportionate strength(though square cube law is liable to prevent getting the full 10 times body weight), allowing it to sprint with greater speed, and both pull and carry far greater weights than either source species could on its own. The body is additionally reinforced with a layer of exoskeleton over the limbs and vitals(including the head), in addition to the normal canine internal skeleton.

Finally, the normal canine tail has been replaced with an abdomen, tipped with the stinger. Within the abdomen is also housed a redundant set of vital organs(we felt it was easier to simply keep both sets than remove one) and the venom glands. The abdomen, being more consciously controlled than a dogs tail, is used for stinging. While we do also intend to make the venom able to be injected through the mandibles, having the abdomen intact with stinger should prove an effective fallback should all else fail.

All told, the Bullet Hound should prove a terrifying combatant and hunter in our ranks. Trained to be capable of both more direct assaults, as well as ambushes. The goal being to pounce on foes, hopefully knocking their target to the ground if not pinning them, in order to then employ their debilitating sting and maul the victim. With its bred-in loyalty and pack instincts from the Doberman side, and the colonial instincts from the ant side, we expect them to be incredibly capable of working in groups and cooperating between different units of Bullet Hounds.


This should leave us with a unit that is not only a deadly pack hunter and capable of both working in group and coordinating between them, but also particularly durable thanks to doubling up on the skeleton. Particularly in terms of the head.