the lizards by default will not seek to harm you, UNLESS you intrude in their personal space. they will let you know when you get to close, either by growling or attacking you if you get too close.

BUT, there is a way to bypass this. by offering specific food (any type of butchered meat, xeno fruit or any snack in your MRE), they'll calm down and become friendly to you and YOUR ENTIRE FACTION.

if tame, they will completely refuse to engage in combat with you and your faction. at most they will run away from you if you hurt them badly enough. why? it's because i'm a bit lazy to code in a better system right now they love you, and are unable to process the thought of betrayal! :D

this works for ALL FACTIONS, including xenos. the only food that xenos are able to offer it are resin fruits on account of them not being to pick up anything else.

if you try taking away its food (and you're not its friend) though it'll get pissed the fuck off and proceed to immediately maul you

unlike other simple mobs, THEY WILL NOT STOP HURTING YOU UNTIL YOU STOP BREATHING. regular simple mobs will stop attacking mobs that are not conscious, but these guys will rip you apart if you're on the ground.

if they take too much damage, they will start retreating from combat entirely, refusing to stop moving until there are no hostiles present in their view.

combined, this makes them a mild threat alone, and a slightly more terrifying threat when in packs. however, they're not much of a threat to the "perfect lifeform", outside of the short stun that a pounce can inflict. it will be hard to kill them, though, as they're much faster than most xenos.

this is where i list some neat features n tidbits that aren't really that big in themselves:

• unlike literally every other simplemob these guys can be set on fire and will actually take damage from it

• since it's a simplemob, it cannot be infected (there would be some balance implications that i don't want to get into if they could get infected)
  

• petting it while its friendly to you will make it want to lay down and sleep

• every lizard has an aggression value which gets higher whenever it takes damage. if you anger them and they start combat, and do your best at not harming them, they'll calm down and go back to minding their own business

• they heal 5% of their hp per Life() tick if they're resting. this is their main way of healing, but you can use bandages to heal them up yourself if you feel like it

• if there's a friendly mob on their tile and they're resting, they'll refuse to get up (they enjoy the warmth, i suppose)

• this is all simplemob code and is prone to exploding 50% of the time

• it can be allied to HUMANS and XENOS at the same time. additionally, it handles human factions and not humans as a whole. if survivors feed a lizard, it does not mean it'll be friendly to marines.

• they will NEVER attack monkeys in order to stop them from devastating small host populations

• supports player control:

• more to come...