This thread is a space for my WIP suggestions. I'd appreciate it if it was not commented upon, thanks! If you need to talk to me for any reason, just hit up my DMs instead!

☆ A Use for Submales

- TBA
- TBA
- TBA
- TBA

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Yep, it's yet another Sub-Male thread. While Lioden has advanced and improved many things over the years, Submales are still more or less useless unless they're heirs. There are only so many heirs at a time, typically one, meaning that the fate of most submales is to rot, be chased/killed, or turned into females so they can be bred. Anyone who's been playing Lioden even slightly long has the experience of having a kickass cub be born only to see it's gender and then promptly grumble "why are you male".


Kinda speaks for itself, don't it?

Maybe it's about time we bring submales up to date?

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Part 1: Lioden Dark Souls Edition - The Badlands

First thing's first: I have to introduce a spicier version of Lioden. Have no fear though, users, as this wouldn't be a mandatory change! It is very much optional and can be opted out of, too. Badlands would be a semi-permanent change affecting a variety of features.

⭐ Users would be able to change their standard game to a badlands game by going to the "Edit Your Details" section of their den pages (at the very bottom) and changing their personal territory tile to Badlands.



In order to stop users from unwittingly selecting the Badlands, the option itself will be notifed. It will further prompt a popup if chosen.



The Pop-Up:

The Pop-up probably also has a link to the appropriate wikia page. This way, no one can claim ignorance of what they got themselves into!



⭐ Choosing the Badlands playstyle will not affect your linked account. If desired, you can have one account on Badlands and another on Standard playstyle.

⭐ The Cooldown is similar to the one in the Gorilla Enclave or when re-claiming runaway lions. It is not dependent on Rollover.

⭐ The Badlands playstyle would introduce a moderate amount of risk to the player and their lions, however it would allow that player access to unique rewards, encounters, and opportunities.

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Part 2: The Submales - Bonesetters, Scouts, and Sentinels

The use of Submales is predicated on the danger that comes along with being in the Badlands. Sub-Males will be afforded two extra roles, those being the Sentinel and the Scout. Bonesetters can be either sex.

⭐ Bonesetter is a special role that cannot be applied wily-nilly to any lion. It will initially be taught to one lion, male or female, and then can only be passed from that lion to it's protege's, making it hereditary-adjacent. A Bonesetter can have two Proteges, who will passively gain experience as lions are injured

⭐ Sentinels are prime guardians of the Pride. Each Cave can have One Sentinel and he will display where the Featured Lion would sit. This is toggleable-- if you'd rather another lion be there, this will NOT affect the Sentinel's function. For every 10 Territory Slots a user has, players are allowed to assign 1 Sentinel Male.

- Sentinels can be bolstered by more males as they level up. The levels are not so much numerical as they are title based:
❗Novice Sentinel > Intermediate Sentinel> Seasoned Sentinel > Champion Sentinel
Novice - Can reliably defeat 1 lion, small hyena groups, small scavenger carnivores.
Intermediate - Can reliably defeat 2 lions, moderate hyena groups, small scavenger carnivores. + 1 Male Lion helper.
Seasoned - Can reliably defeat 3 lions, large hyena groups, small scavenger carnivores. + 2 Male Lion helpers.
Champion - Can take on 4 grops, mobs of hyenas, small scavengers. + 3 Male Lion Helpers.
Helpers can also be Primal Females, Mane Feathery, Mane Noble, Mane Shaggy, Mane Imperial, and Mane Succubus mutations. NOTE: Female lions will not perform as well as males and being a Helper prevents them from hunting or breeding.

Sentinels are the bulk of a cave's defense. Helpers supplement that strength. They serve together in the event a Helper is seriously injured or killed.

❗ Primals function better as Sentinels than normal lions. Primal males have a higher chance to intimidate roving rogues and avoid fights altogether while still gaining stats.
❗Maneless males will not fare as well as maned males in a Sentinel or Scout role. They CANNOT intimidate enemy males.

⭐ Scouting may seem similar to patrolling, but unlike those lions, Scouts search outside of the Pride rather than round it. Here, they may encounter environmental hazards, hostile animals, and other coalitions of lions that mean them harm.

- Like hunting parties, Scouts can be grouped together and sent out in force. Scouting parties have leaders, however, and Leaders have traits that augment what they may find or encounter.
-They may return with items (green notification) or you may receive a notification that they have discovered enemies such as hyenas, spying or rogue lions, or that one of your lions has been injured due to a mishap (red notification). Successful battles yield stats.

⭐ It is recommended that you have at least three Sub-Males before you begin the Badlands playstyle. It is recommended that these lions be at least 200 stats and have strength as or among the foremost of their stats.

NPCs

This has been moved to another post due to character limit.

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Part 3: Playstyle Staples

There will be features of the Badlands playstyle that sets it solidly apart from the Standard Style. Those, in non-exhaustive fashion, are the following

⭐ Bands of roving, cannibalistic male lions will periodically attack your pride. These will be pretty infrequent, but frequent enough to warrant you being on your Ps and Qs.

- You will never be attacked multiple times in one day unless you live in the Skull Lands. They are limited to once per rollover everywhere else.
- Bands of males range in size from 2 (most common) to 6 (rare) will attack your pride.
- Smaller bands will only attack one cave at a time, while larger bands may strike up to 3 caves.
- Players will receive notifications about attacks, whether they were successful or failed, or whether or not anyone was hurt.
- Unsuccessful: Your lions fight off the intruders, gain EXP and stats. There is a chance lions may be hurt even if they fend off enemies.
- Successful Your lions fail and the rogues pillage your pride. Rogue Males will reduce food uses in your hoard, injure lions, and have a 50% chance to kill or kidnap cubs who are NOT protected by a Broodmother and whose survival chance is under 50%.

⭐ Lion injuries. Lions can gain an injury from a number of activities, including hunts, territory defense, scouting battles or mishaps, ect.

- Injuries range from Minor, Moderate, Severe, and Critical. Minor injuries will reduce a lion's effectiveness at their assigned task (hunting/brooding/patroling/scouting/ect.). Moderate injuries will prevent them from undertaking the task until rollover, in which case it will be active again. Severe injuries will take far longer to recuperate from, unless the pride has an assigned Bonesetter. Bonesetters can also turn Moderate injuries into minor ones-- however, incompetent bonesetters may worsen issues, turning moderate injuries into severe ones and severe injuries critical.

- It is not possible for your lion to die from injuries sustained from battles, hunting, ect.. However, it IS possible for a lion in a critical state to die after Rollover, meaning your Bonesetter could be your lions doom if not well trained. Make sure your doctors can doctor!

- Successful defenses can yield items such as Lion's Tooth, Tail Tuft Hair, White Lion Pelt, and Lion Meat.

- Any fight can apply scars as well as the messy mane decor to afflicted lions. There will be scars unique to severe-level injuries. Like all decor, these can be removed if desired.

- There will be items available in shops to reduce the injury level of a lion for a price.

⭐ Hyena clans will also attack your pride. They will interfere with hunts-- you may receive a notification that a clan of hyenas stole your pride's kill. You will have the option to send Scouts after them and wrest your kills back after a successful battle. These vengeful battles have a low chance to reward a Hyena Meat, but will more likely yield a Hyena Pelt and Scars.

⭐ Thirst will be a constant concern. Similar to the drought event, you will have a thirst bar, as well as every lion in your pride. While you can and should use and collect water items in order to combat thirst, the majority of your pride's hydration will come from settling among Oases.

-- An Oasis is a community location that can be found during a Scouting Venture.
-- While a Pride is around an Oasis, their Thirst meter does not deplete and automatically refills to 100% if it is not already there.
-- Oases vary in size from piddling, reliable, generous, and abundant. Piddling Oasis only last 1 Rollover before they run dry and force users to move on. A Reliable Oasis will last for three days. A Generous Oasis will last a week. Finally, an Abundant Oasis will last a month.
-- There will be Other Users around the Oasis you choose. ( There are [Number Amount] of Kings who share this Oasis with you ). The Oasis will provide all lionesses and all lions with a unique function called "Let mingle?" Mingling will allow passive breeding between indicated male lions and female lions. Male Lions can only "mingle" with 3 lionesses a month. Players do NOT get to choose which males pair with which female; it is random.


I understand that suggesting sub-male breeding is unpopular, but the fact of the matter is that Lion is a breeding game and by disallowing male lions to participate in the game's main gameplay loop, Lioden has essentially made them useless. This is a small workaround that allows male breeding WITHOUT overloading the system.

❗Lions will be more attracted to lions who share their same personality and age range. They are unlikely to mate with lions who have opposite personalities to their own (evil/good).
❗ Male specific items are not available for mingling male lions.
❗ Mingling does not guarantee breeding. Either way, if a lion mingles successful with another pride's lion, the users will receive a notification.

⭐ Semi-Nomadic Playstyle. There are four zones that prides can wander within and settle among and they will determine other things such as the kinds of passive encounters they receive, how much water is available, how difficult the attacks are, ect.

-- Where a User Is will be revealed in their Lion's name. A 💧 or similar icon will denote whether or not they are settled near an Oasis or not.

-- Players are allowed to move once per rollover. It takes 50 Food item uses to make the trip.

-- If not near an Oasis, lions lose 10-20 thirst a day.



⭐ Abandoned cubs. From time to time, a scouting venture may return with an abandoned cub. This cub must be placed with a Bonesetter in order to survive rollover. Bonesetters can only manage 3 cubs at a time-- their Proteges, if Adolescents, can manage one at a time.
-- Badlands cubs are unique; they lack heritage, can be of either gender, and have tree cub level stats. They can also spawn with Badlands Unique Markings, Mane Colors, and Eye Colors. There is a very rare chance they come with a Special Badlands Base.

⭐ Lioness moods operate differently in the Badlands. As it is dangerous, your females will be less likely to leave to fend for themselves, and so mood dropping is lessened across the board.

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Part 4: Lore of the Badlands

We are the Lords of the Forgotten lands, strengthened by the adversity around us. This is no country for softling lions. Weakness, wherever it is found, will be punished with blood and with death.

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The Badlands has a different Explore Map That Standard Lion. It is it not level restricted-- any user of any level can anywhere at anytime. This map also serves as a Residential Indicator and you can see where your King is in the Badlands at anytime by going to explore.

The Zones

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐅𝐄
Largest of the Badlands territories, the Lands of Strife are owned by no one power and instead, many animals eek out an existence here. The Powers That Be of the other realms war constantly to take control of this disputed realm, thus it's name.

Water: Moderate
Danger: Moderate
Major Power: N/A

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐋𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐒
The Tangle Lands are home to the Prides of the Green Moon. They worship a deity called the Bone-Father, a leonine god of funeral rites, decay, and poisons. The Tangle Lands itself is a darksome swamp full of brackish water, venomous creatures, and the Tangelanders themselves. They hide themselves in the muck, grab victims, and then drown them in the swamps dirty water. They use the corpses of their enemies to feed the swamp, that is might grow and spread into enemy lands.

Water: Average
Danger: Considerable
Major Power: Queen Nusra, Mother of the Mosses

If desired, players can swear themselves to the Green Moon and join it's prides. After this storyline is completed, the game confers certain boons, such as resistance to injury, an extra breeding slot for mingling males, better success in hunting when in the Tanglelands, and more proficient Bonesetters and Proteges. Tanglesworn Bonesetters never fail when healing a patient.

-- There will be traits specific to this zone on lone lionesses and abandoned cubs.

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘
Highly sought after by the lions in other zones, the Lands of Plenty are the most like Lioden. Also called the Svelte, it is temperate, comfortable, and with water to spare. It seems like a paradise, but then you run into the locals; Svelte-lions are vicious, intelligent, and cunning. They seem kind, but this is only to lure prey into a false sense of security. They worship a cruel maneless god call The Flenser of the Pale Moon who commands his faithful to capture and flay lions, particularly males. The Sveltelanders believe if they do not provide what The Flenser desires, he will take away their bounty of land and greenery.

Water: Plentiful
Danger: Very Dangerous
Major Power: King Kikalio the Generous

Players can become a disciple of the Flenser, if they desire. After completing the storyline, Scouts will find water easier in all areas, hunters will succeed more in all areas, lioness breeding cooldowns will be reduced by 3 days being bred, abandoned cubs will have a rare chance of being mane mutation AMPs, and players can flay enemy lions to receive either Pelt of the Unworthy decor or White Flay Lion item. However, either a pelt or a male adol or adult lion must be sacrificed to the Flenser periodically. Otherwise, he will disown you.

-- There will be traits specific to this zone on lone lionesses and abandoned cubs.

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐊𝐔𝐋𝐋 𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐒

Harsh even by the standards of native Badlanders, the Skull Lands is called home by only the hardest and strongest of creatures. The Prides of the Red moon, or Skull-landers, worship a god of battle and strength called the Apex. They are brown and tawny furred lions who take the skulls of feirce enemies and then wear them as grisly helmets. Water is scarce here, as is food, forcing Skull landers to raid their neighbors frequently. Of the Zones, Red Moon prides are the strongest and most capable in battle.

Water: Scarce
Danger: Extremely Dangerous
Major Power: Riot-Queen Muhina the Skull-Adorned

For those who crave battle, the Apex calls. Players who swear to the Apex and complete the Red Moon storyline will enjoy boons such as greater chance to intimidate, higher strength, and fewer visits from Hyenas looking to steal food. Apex Sentinels can adequately protect two dens at any level and recover easier from injury. Primal births will be more common, especially Ferus and Smilus variations, and Skullsworn Players will have a rare chance to produce a new king of variant: Primal Apexus.

-- There will be traits specific to this zone on lone lionesses and abandoned cubs.

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Part 5: New Shops and Items

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐗𝐈𝐋𝐄 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐏
Once Maluuni is restored to his throne, his pride will provide Badlands unique items. These will be available year round. If you choose to align yourself with one of the Badlands moons, King Maluuni's flavor text may change.

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐒𝐒 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐏
The Moss Shop is presided over by mother Nusra and will contain Green Moon specific items. It will be available to unsworn players, though what can be purchased will be limited to tier 1. Only those Sworn to the Bone-Father can take advantage of Tiers 1 and 2. Swearing to another moon will lock players out of this shop.

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐏 𝐎𝐅 𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘
The Plenty Shop is overseen by King Kakilio and will contain Pale Moon specific items. It will be available to unsworn players, though what can be purchased will be limited to tier 1. Only those Sworn to The Flenser can take advantage of Tiers 1 and 2. Swearing to another moon will lock players out of this shop.

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐏 𝐎𝐅 𝐆𝐋𝐎𝐑𝐘
The Glory Shop is overseen by Riot-Queen Muhina and will contain Red Moon specific items. It will be available to unsworn players, though what can be purchased will be limited to tier 1. Only those Sworn to The Apex can take advantage of Tiers 1 and 2. Swearing to another moon will lock players out of this shop.

Part 6: Miscellaneous and Considerations