When it comes to a setting without horses what special considerations should be implemented for insect mounts?
>Cracked shell?
>Weather conditions?
>Feeding and grooming?
also insect rider dump
>>43756126
>>43756134
>>43756159
>>43756126
>Cracked shell?
Does chitin heal naturally over time, or is an insect with a cracked shell fucked forever?
>>43756126
There may be periods where some of them are unrideable because they're moulting.
>>43756402
>Striking Arthropod Andy's Assaulters during the molting period of their camel-spiders
I like this
Hmmm. Insects that large should have at least child sized brains right? They'd make perfect mounts and companions for travelers and merchants.
What amount mount inception?
>>43756126
If you have ants, you probably have an ant queen somewhere, which I imagine would be quite expensive to look after.
>>43756126
>>43756678
You'd probably also have to live with the ants for a long time, long enough to make them consider you a member of the colony.
Maybe you'd even have to be there from the beginning, stealing an egg and some royal jelly and raising the queen yourself. From a squirmy larval puppy that wants to be held constantly to an affectionate giant insect tyrant that eventually ravages the countryside and refuses to let you leave her subterranean citadel without a pack of overprotective giant soldier ants following you everywhere.
>>43756839
I don't know about Ants, but with Bees if you spend about a year with them, and avoid approaching them in a threatening manner, they get used to your smell and treat you like another piece of the scenery. So after a while you don't need a suit anymore, just only a little bit of smoke
>>43757451
Would leaving a piece of sweaty cloth be enough?
>>43756126
>what special considerations should be implemented for insect mounts?
Suffocations since the square-cube law would prevent them from getting enough oxygen to function.
>>43757493
you just need too pump more mana into it who knows what it will grow with enough exposure too it
Ya'll know insects can't be domesticated, right?
>>43757654
>>43757493
Oh no, real life rules are preventing me from using something in my make-believe setting
OH NO SCRAP EVERYTHING, SEND IT ALL TO THE INCINERATOR
>>43757780
You just have to address the real life limitations famjam.
>>43757654
You do know the Silkmoth is domesticated right?
Granted it's the only insect (that I know of that's domesticated) but it is possible
>>43757493
>Implying that any species of insects that would have managed to evolve to be that size wouldn't have already developed a different breathing system
>>43757805
I think that Guillermo Del Toro movie Mimic even dealt with that.
Giant cockroach/termite hybrids (did you know that termites and mantids are apart of the same group as roaches?) have grown to 6ft+ and the entomologist keeps freaking out about how they should be impossible to be that big until they do an autopsy and find they evolved lungs
>>43756235
Chitin heals though its slow. At your average insects size its actually quite fast but the bigger it gets the worse it is due to the cubed squared whatever energy law. It grows at the same sort of rate our fingernails do. It starts from the wound healing the flesh underneath then actually starts secreting the liquid that hardens into chitin to keep structural integrity. You'd have to take into account for their spiracles because at that size they'd be around fist size holes in the insects body. Water at that size would act like an actual liquid rather than a goo so it would pool in those spiracles if it rained or went into water drowning it. Ants at their size don't actually drown due to water tension and hair on their body, they suffocate. The compound eyes would have to be shielded as lens would get scratched like glasses and wouldn't be repairable unless you have some sort of clear, hard setting shellac or some such. Food would be a problem since they aren't that energy efficient especially at rideable size what with the 6 legs all moving all the time.
>>43757780
Or come up with cool ideas on how to circumvent the limitations. Like in Morrowind where they shove sticks into the nerve clusters of giant mites in order to control them. Or why not illusion magic to make them see things which aren't there, in order to trigger certain reactions?
>>43757799
True, I suppose. But mostly in the sense that they no longer recognize other things as potential threats, so I'm not sure how useful mounts they would be.
>>43757486
They need to see you moving and such. Leaving a sweaty cloth their wouldn't prepare them for a giant heat signature grabbing their shit that just so happens to smell like that rag thats sat there for a month. They gotta know you move but don't mess with them before they come to understand your just there cause you always have been and thats just how it is no harm done.
>>43756126
Depending on the insect, how drastically different are the males and females?
Can you only use one or the other? How long are they out of commission while they breed? How many will you lose to the breeding process assuming females eat the males?
>Insect Rider dump
Here's a battle hopper.
>>43757878
All solved with appropriate applications of the material Handwavium and the solution of magi-er I mean, evolution
But yeah these are all problems I've had to address in the book/setting i'm writing where it's an Earth that followed the path of invertebrate dominance and sapience instead of vertebrates.
>Chitin heals slowly but molting (by the species small enough to do so) speeds up the recovery. Resins used by intelligent members act like casts or even replacement chitin.
>Spiracles have evolved hinged valves to hold their breath and facilitate the evolution of a lung and respiratory system.
>Eyes are protected by a thin transparent lens, a permanent nictitating membrane similar to what canines, crocodiles and some birds have.
>Larger species have evolved to rely on four limbs for movement to address the matter of energy conservation. For popular examples the pokemon Scolipede or the Chaurus from Skyrim exhibit that trait. Some of the species ended up using their foreward pair of limbs as hands and graspers like modern Mantids and some beetles and flies do.TO be fair a lot of the books setting is explained away by extradimensional mad-scientists using a parallel earth as their laboratory and after they were evicted (violently) the remaining experiments continued to evolve on their own
>>43757493
>insects have breathing that is exactly as efficient as their size requires to use the least amount of energy
>known as natural selection
>If they grew bigger, of course none of their organs would ever change, they would have to be exactly the same just bigger
ok
>>43758082
I understand hand waving would be needed. Just threw out things that would need to be addressed. How about bugs for certain jobs?
Fastest mounts ever? Grab a huntsman spider.
Need to go to war? Hop on your centipede, attach its pseudo flamethrower bombadier beetle guns, strap on your ironclad beetle armor, and grab your termite fontanellar guns that shoot lethally poisonous glue at opponent so they either die to poison or centipede bite.
>>43758593
AoW have forever cemented my love for siege beetles.
>>43757563
>pump mana into bug when you need to ride it
>pump mana back out when you need to store or feed it
I can just imagine adventurers each having a little pet bug they take everywhere.
>>43758689
That sounds like something I would totally play/run.
I can see similarities to pokemon in keeping a handful of different bugs to use depending on the situation
>Climbing: Jumping Spider
>Battle: Centipede or Scorpion
>Flight: Hummingbird Moth
>Digging: Mole Cricket
>>43757451
Similar truth with hornets. I actually knew a guy who used 'tame' hornets as part of his security system. Claimed they had to get used to your specific heat and scent signature. He admitted though that they were only not hostile towards him but plenty unfriendly to other people.
Once you do that they are good. I don't know if this works that way for ants tho.
>>43756126
Food gonna be a bitch with them extra limbs and if their big enough...the damage as well as the size of the bug hives can do is gonna be immense.
They are gonna suck at cold weather too.
>>43757833
Urgg is there a example of how to make giant insects non-terrifying?
>>43759429
fuck it. make them furry moth-things
>>43759429
>>43759429
I know, not insects, but... jumping spiders are fuzzy and have huge, adorable eyes. That gotta count for something right?
>>43759429
I dunno. I think insects are adorable as is.
They're the closest thing to biological natural robots out there
>>43759429
For starters, that's not an insect.
>>43759682
They're all arthropods so its close enough. Wonder if crabs and insects taste similar....
>>43756126
I think in the case of a giant ant mount, in the presence of a feral queen ant it could defect.
>>43759809
I think I've heard people say that some beetle grubs taste like lobster.
If the Western world could get over their aversion to eating insects and arthropods that would solve a lot of hunger problems.
Cockroachs breed and grow so rapidly and efficiently you could, and people do, keep dozens of them alive in a fish tank feeding them nothing more than fish food once a week. They are a good source of protein and easily processed. Unfortunately they possess the same gene that Cilantro does that makes them taste overwhelmingly like soap.
There's even a way to turn freezedried and ground up insects like grasshoppers, beetles, roaches, crickets, etc into a flour that can be made into a healthy bread.
>>43759455
>furry moth-things
>non-terrifying
>implying
http://exhentai.org/g/732189/4094cba865/I have no idea why is this relevant so often on /tg/ but I'm not complaining
>>43759958
She goes from this adorable faerie looking thing to...
>>43759946
I for one would like to try eating insects, but it's not exactly available form the grocery store and I don't trust eating wild, not to mention it would be a pain to catch a reasonable amount of them.
>>43760020
To this monstrosityNot to mention what happens to the children she abducts...
>>43760039
If you live close to mexico or in southern states you can sometimes find little corner shops that will grill or fry up grasshoppers. Had a kid in high school that would bring in fried and sugared grasshoppers. People were grossed out but me and a few other people were convinced to try and I swear they tasted like dried, crispy churros flakes
>>43760085
No such luck, I'm scandinavian. Then again, there are a few stores around that specializes in importing foreign food, I might be able to find something if i look around. This may take a bit of research...
>>43760181
Melorme(I can't remember the english term so I hope the names the same in most of scandinavia) have been in the news a few times as good eating, they're probably the most easily available .
>>43760181
Don't know how dedicated you are to this endeavor but the bugs they use to feed lizards and such in petshops should be parasite and disease free and then there are websites where you can order the bugs in bulk if you want to try cooking them yourself
>>43760227
Quick googling, and I did find it available in a Swedish store, intended as bird/reptile treats. Also, (probably) terribly overpriced, it costs more than twice as much as pork. Might still actually consider it just to try.
>>43759474
Jumping spiders are fucking terrifying because they have big eyes. They're black and dead and stare into your soul.
>>43760247
Yeah, this should have been obvious to me.
>>43760309
Let me introduce you to my favorite spider after Jumping Spiders
The Ogre-Faced or Net-Casting Spider
>>43760379
plz no bully
>>43760379
It looks oddly concerned.
>>43760379
Anyone got a gif of that thing in action?
>>43760085
Speaking of bug snacks in states near Mexico, I remember my local grocery store used to sell these mother suckers with your choice between scorpion, cricket and grasshoppers inside. I was too grossed out to actually buy any but I do remember those being sold.
>>43756550
Brain size =/= intelligence. Cows have child-sized brains too. Whales aren't the smartest animal, we are.
>>43762413
Not to mention these fuckers.
>>43762246
Hey, my friends got me one of those during their trip to Texas. I've got it in my room because I ain't eating that shit. Also, it looks cool.
>>43762413
Yeah, but if it has the brain the size of a human adult then they must be able to be taught tricks and stuff, right?
>>43762449
Caw?
>>43761987
Gotchu
>>43763076
Imagine that thing one hundred times larger and chasing after dogs and kids. Holy shit that'd be terrifying.
>>43762610
No dude, it's PROPORTION that matters, not size. Hence why I used cows as an example. Cows may have big brains, but not when compared to their bodies.
>>43763131
Poor centaurs
>>43763328
Centaurs are horses, not cows.
>>43763724
Poor bovitaurs
Thought you guys might be interested in this story
https://forwearemany.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/sandkings.pdf
Does anyone remember a few months ago where there were the threads detailing the creation of the Leech and Fly folk?
I think they were called Hirudo and Miga. We got really into creating them and their histories and cultures and thought we were onto something really interesting.
>>43756126
The most fabulous riding competitions known to mortals. Even the red dragons are amused.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYIUFEQeh3g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq-r20mlGes
I also imagine they being herbivorous, draining sap straight from the tree with their fangs.
>>43763328
you could explain they have additional chunks of nerves which control the horse part (like some walnut-brain dunusaurs), so i guess the human brain does run on normal capacity
>>43763131
Its not proportion. Its diet and structure. They might have a 20lb brain but if they don't eat a fat and protein heavy diet it won't be functioning well. Actual architecture of the brain is a problem as well from how much gray matter there is to how many connections the neurons are making with each other. Just because its big doesn't make it smart and just because its small doesn't necessarily mean they're stupid. Parrots for example have a much much more developed speech center that we do and they're brains are smaller than walnuts.
Idc what anyone else thinks I still think this mount is the bees knees like holy shit it's a black qiraji battle tank THE LEGENDARY MOUNT. Also why Nostalrius needs to do Ahn Qiraj already.
>>43767405
That's so adorable.
>>43767829
That thing was my white whale back when I played Vanilla WoW.
I tried so hard to get that damn bug
Endless speeeess
>>43763111
A peadophile's familiar of choice.
>>43756839
>>43763076
that's terrifying and awesome
>>43768155
Let me introduce you to my friend the Portia Spider, the spider hunting cannibal assassin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imbURfauJW8
>>43765762
I enjoyed that, thank you anon.
>>43765762
Welp, I didn't want to ever sleep again anyway.
>>43767014
yeah I was there.
>>43768198
I enjoyed that immensely. What's better than a spider? A spider that's nearly undetectable to other spiders and eats other spiders much larger than themselves.
Discovered today that tiny little stingerless scorpions use bats as transport to get from place to place. I'm not sure if that helps at all, but it does make for a neat image.
>>43772227
Source?
Are these the same ones that ride frogs?
>>43772227
pseudoscorpions!
They also live inside most books eating mites but are so tiny most people don't notice them. Go to any library and you will find a population of them
>>43767930
Best Stealth Sci-Fi, 10/10
>>43762841
Ca-caw.
>>43756547
>YEEHAWWWW
