---
# System prepended metadata

title: Elzuosa rework plans
tags: [Deprecated]

---

###### tags: `Deprecated`
# Elzuosa rework plans

Alright, let's get these bitches in and get tgstation's ethereals OUT.

## Reco's Dev Checklist
#### sprite-side stuff:
- [x] Bodysprites
    - [ ] elzu spikes poke out of clothes, should look into making them Not Do That for things like hardsuits
        - dies of masking issues
        - this will need to have new code added probably; that, or figure out what hardsuits opt to do
        - might want to be per-limb? check tags for what makes underwear show up and then apply that to arm/leg thorns?
- [x] Horns
    - [x] Make some proper overlay states so it looks good over hair and hats and things
- [x] Tails
    - [x] PUT IN ACTUAL SPRITES WHEN AVAILABLE
    - [x] Make sure there are proper overlay states etc etc same drill can probably just set everything to BEHIND
    - [ ] Tailwag animations suck right now. Need some new ones.

#### code stuff:
- [x] Potentially change out weird ethereal color set for arbitrary coloring
- [x] Adjust glow intensity (it is WAY too big)
- [ ] Switch to sarathi namegen
    - need to make sure this won't break anything relying on elzu namelists. i don't know what else WOULD but it's good to check
- [ ] Make you Not Fucking Die From Starvation if you're SSD
    - check that dwarf rework pr that was made a little while ago, it has a check to stop them dying while the player is SSD
- [ ] Fix discharging when dead
- [ ] Figure out wtf is up with gibs and hair and horns and things
    - may be untenable i think that stuff is fucked overall right now
- [x] Potentially pull Agender trait.
    - give these plance pronouns
- [ ] **CHARGE REWORK**
    - [ ] Nutrience meter that fills charge up to 80%, using either:
        - [ ] New meter system
        - [ ] Use hunger and remove ability to eat most things (like ipc shitcode! golly! i want to look at THAT!)
    - [ ] Make electrolytes reagent fill that instead, bulbs/apcs still fill charge directly
    - [ ] Rooting species action that functions on planetary turfs, buckles you in place and slowly fills nutrience

## Spriteside
- [x]  Revise the body sprites, they need to be made a bit thornier and more alien
    - [ ] Additionally, determine if we re-add the glow aura manually through sprite or if this can be done with funky codeshit with outlines?
    - [x] Slight concern in that people making #FFF characters will have invisible eyes as the new base sprites are fairly whitened
    - [ ] Thorn masking underneath clothes is going to be a whole Thing.
 - [x] Antlers
     - [ ] Homestuck reference horns
 - [x] Tails
     - [x] Normal
     - [x] Bifurcated
     - [x] Docked
     - [x] gone (this one should be easy)
 
## Codeside
~~Little bit less organized on this end.~~ has been organized
### Charge rework

- New nutrient meter. Nutrient meter drains itself to feed the existing charge meter until charge is at 80%. A full nutrient meter is enough to keep the charge meter full for a slightly shorter amount of time than the human hunger meter lasts.
    - This can either be its own meter, or it can hijack the existing hunger system, by removing their NOHUNGER trait and making it so that most sources of nutriment don't work on them.
    - Intent is to make it reasonably believable that these creatures survive in nature. Feels less like a race against death. 
 - Make the Electrolytes reagent feed into the nutrient bar instead of directly into charge. Things like touching lightbulbs and APCs still directly use charge.
 - Nutrient obtained by rooting on planetary soil/sand turfs. Rooting can just be a species action button that buckles you to the spot until you unroot.

### Misc rework-related content

* Change namegen to use the lizard namegen.
    * I would LIKE IT if lizard namegen could be generated dynamically from the Kalixcian language, but that's a personal gripe.
* Remove the ETHCOLOR stat entirely and just make them use mutant colors like everyone else.
    * Multi-tools can be used to change or randomize ETHCOLOR. That'll need an entire recode. Look into squid body color change code and IPC eye color change code.
* Do they need any nerfs to counter-balance the fact that the rework buffs them outright?

### Fixes from Ethereal shitcode

* They lose charge when dead, apparently?
* Glow needs to be made less annoyingly bright. Possibly done by add some white to the color used for their glow color.
* The underwear selectable on a given character slot is still determined by what the selected gender on that slot is, even if the AGENDER trait has made it unselectable. eg, have human slot, set gender to Female, switch to Elzu or IPC, you can only select ladies underwear for that slot. 


<!-- Charge needs to be a little bit reworked. Main issue is that charge goes down so much more quickly than a creature would have evolved for- this is the point of the "rooting" lore they have. Gaining charge from lightbulbs and APCs is a stopgap measure and not healthy in the long term- they should have  a second meter of stored electrogenic nutrients and microbes, gained from rooting, that slowly feeds into charge as charge depletes. Having nutrients stored shoooouuuld give you more or less a similar timer to regular foodness. It's still harder and more dangerous than being human since rooting is harder than getting food is and getting to the bottom still kills you whereas being starving doesn't, but it should feel slightly less "literally how do these things survive in nature". -->

<!-- Give them a species action button that gives them an armblade-like nonitem that's basically just a lighter that costs a little bit of charge. I just think it'd be neat. -->

<!-- ~~Fix their blood being regular blood, turn it back to liquid electricity, or like, some shit that stores liquid electricity. "Liquid electricity" = a fluid that carries those aforementioned electrogenic nutrients/microbes. To fix the infinite charge by removing and re-adding your own blood, make the reagents that grant charge a separate reagent from electrogenic fluid. Electrolytes? (they're what elzuosa crave)~~ << All of this got done already in another PR ! <3 

Most of this shit is just buffing them, they probably need a fresh new downside to balance this out. Unless everyone more or less judges them to be underpowered in their current state? -->