Bio Engineer Archive

Last week, I got every special to stick where I wanted it. It was all controlled from the Aggression for Special 1 and Psych for special 2. I never missed with this, though I saw many people say that this formula did not work for them.

This week, I can't get anything to stick where it is supposed to. Granted, I am playing with a larger variety of DNA, but still, I've got specials pulling exclusively out of prowess now, even over higher quality DNA in the other slots.

I've been looking over the forums, and I've not seen any reliable method of knowing if the specials will stick. Some of the systems people have come up with contradict themselves.

I've tried doubling up specials in particular slots (like intimidation in special2 in both psych and mental) and not got it to stick.

Anyone have a solidlock on what causes a special to stick in a particular slot? I've had aggression specials not get used at all, while mental and prowess do (which before never mattered at all). Does anyone else think the system may shift?

Hey Matt,

I saw something similar before logged off out of disgust last night. I use to be able to get speicals to stick if they were in Aggr and ranged if it was in Mental. If one of the Aggr doesn't stick, normally a mental one gets put in its place if there is one. But last night I got only 1 special to stick and it was not one of the ones from the Aggr/Mental dna's. I assumed it might have been the result of a "fail" in combing that the system didn't tell me about. I don't recall if it happened before that or not.

Give my method a try and let me know how it goes.

Special 1: Physique slot (slot 1)

Special 2: Agression slot (slot 5)

Open Wounds, Area Combo, etc. won't stick.

I was having similar stickiness problems last night trying to get knockdown to stick from VHQ rancor youth DNA. I ran 3 clones with rancor youth DNA in Psych and NEVER got knockdown to stick.

Theory, then. Do certain special abilities attach to certain slots? For example, would knockdown be attached to Prowess instead of Psych or aggression?

Theory two. Special abilities depend on trait stats. For example, the Psych pairs would need to be high enough for Knockdown to appear. I don't believe this to be the case because I've never seen a special attack change due to experimenting.

Thoughts>?

I'm glad its not just me then. I was feeling like an idiot.

Theory 1 - Specific slots work with specfic attacks, not necessarily specific special 1 or special 2

Theory 2 - Special 1 and special 2 are linked to a specific slot (What I have thought, but suddenly doesn't work anymore)

Theory 3 - Special 1 and special 2 are linked to several slots, and some factor decides which slot selects the special (which I'm inclined to believe now)

Theory 3a - The factor is the level of the stat pairs within that slot (Experimentation does not change specials, though)

Theory 3b - The factor is the quality of DNA

Theory 3c - The factor is random

Theory 3d - The factor is hidden priority in special attacks

Theory 4 - The number of times the attack apears in that special inthe clone determines whether it is selected.

It could still be 2, and a weird level of coincidence made me get the slots wrong. I hope that is all it is.

Most frightening, considering several of us are experiencing major changes in how we thought it was working, is that it will shift over time. I really hope this isn't true.

My number one theory about dinosaurs, by Ann Elk

Dinosaurs are thin at one end, much much thicker in the middle, and thin again at the other end. Thank you.

(special bonus prize for whoever can say where that came from )

My number one theory about specials;

Each special has a primary determiner dna slot (Agg for S1) and other slots are secondary determiners in a specific order (e.g. Psy - Phy - Pro - Men). Sample quality gives a base chance of a special sticking with a modifier for the slot you have put it in. If an illegal special is present, that special is ignored for that slot. If the sample is listed as having no special in that slot, that may still be picked up by the template.

E.g. some numbers to help, as this is hard to describe in words.

• VHQ sample = 80% chance


• HQ sample = 60% chance


• AA sample = 50% chance




• Primary slot = 100% chance


• Second slot = 80% cance


• Third slot = 60% chance


• Fourth slot = 40% chance


• Fifth slot = 20% chance

So, VHQ sample in primary slot gives a (100%*80%) 80% chance of that special sticking. If it doesn't, and there is a HQ sample in the second slot, that would have a (60%*80%) 48% chance of sticking. And so on. The numbers used here are purely for the sake of explanation, I have nothing like the volume of data to even get the slot order worked out, let alone any numbers, but I believe a system like this would explain the general evidence we see as well as help explain some of the apparently wierd results.

Actually, there is one, more horrifying possibility - there is a bug in the DNA data that screws up an otherwise logical system.

If the answer is that you can NEVER be certain what is going to stick in your clone, I'm going to be very disappointed.

I don't know the answer but a couple of observations. One I've run a lot of experiments with dragonet (dizzy strike, nothing) in physique and prowess with giant sand beetle (blinding, stunning) in mental, psychological and aggression. In every case but it was the GSB traits which came through (blinding and stunning). In the exception case I got no special 1 and stunning for special 2. I'm not sure if it matters but I was only using above average DNA for the aggression slot. In any case I think there is some weighting rule being used to determine which special attacks get through. This would suggest that the more often they appear the more likely they are to get through. Of course certain special attacks can't be gotten through (area attack, poison spray, ...) and in my experience seem to lower the chance of getting any special to come through. With an experiment of (Rancor[SS,INT], Rancor[SS,INT], Ancient Graul [DS,BS], Horned Voritor Lizard[SP, PS], Ancient Graul[DS,BS]) the only specials to come through whereDizzy and Blind from mental and aggression.

I was farting around with bugged clones, and trying to learn the ropes, and ended up with a mystery guest in my final products.
The DNA I had was almost exclusively nocuous kamurs, kamurith defiler, rancor, gnarled rancor, and rancor youth. I don't remember anything in my inventory that wasn't one of these five, or second (or third generation) pulled from these five.

I don't remember any of them having disease listed (Both of the kamuriths are strong poison, as I recall. Maybe the answer is that i just missed it, and the defiler IS disease or disease and poison, but I know the nocuous isn't disease bearing).
One of my clones ended up a CL33 gurreck, with dizzy and strong disease. Unfortunately, I wasn't paying close enough attention to notice this during the creation process, but to call me surprised when I saw it on the template would be an understatement. When I'm using nothing but samples with intimidate, knockdown, dizzy, strong poison, seeing any clones end up with strong disease was unexpected.

I'm currently favoring the 'stickyness' being slot related AND stat related, though when I started paying close attention and trying to pattern match, I failed utterly to recreate anything consistant.

No, MATT!!! NOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not a bug!!!!

I might agree with the % in the primary slot if it weren't for the fact that the ones I tested last night were with Very High Quality all in the Aggro slot and I still lost the specials at times. I'm starting to lean more and more towards some randomness due to non-displayed "fails" that aren't crit fails. I'm going to start watching the combine message to see if it says "Great Success" or just "Success" on the combine.

Mirrl, I'm not sure just the abundance of a certain special is the answer either. I've made countless pets last night were the only slot I put the special in that I wanted was the Aggro slot and I came out with it almost 80% of the time. When I didn't, it was either a single special from that slot or a combo of that slot and something in the Mind slot. About 5% of the time I got something I couldn't explain where it came from.

what ive found to be the most reliable ifsomewhat limiting method ofguaranteeingbothspecial attacks is to use dna of the same creature type in both mental and agression. while it may be a little crude not havingthe flexibility of mixing and matching many specials it rarely gives and unexpected result. since mental has little bearing on resists it doesnt have the negative an impact on the defensive stats that comes with theaggression slot. of course the real limitation to this is finding a creature with a pair of desireable specials - for example regular rancors with their stun & intimidate arent bad for pve tanking pets.