Critter Flux-O-Matic
Critter Flux-O-Matic is a Story Trait that can generate in asteroids or planetoids, which is focused around the building of the same name. Once the story trait is completed, the Critter Flux-O-Matic is capable of changing Critters into different morphs of the same species.
Description
The Critter Flux-O-Matic story trait generates a single Point of Interest: a room made of Obsidian mosaic Tiles accessible via a Gravitas Door, with one Critter Flux-O-Matic building in the center, plus one Computer Podium, one First Aid Kit, and one Anatomy Poster. Part of the floor on the right-hand side of the room is made of Copper Ore Mesh Tiles, below which is a small pool of Polluted Water. This Point of Interest can only generate roughly 3 Biomes from the Printing Pod, except not in biomes which are very hot, too close to the surface, or are Oil Biomes.
The Critter Flux-O-Matic itself is a building 3-by-4 cells in size, of which its middle column is solid. The lower-left cell and the lower-right cell are its cells of interest: Critters are input at the left, and output at the right.
Progress
When initially discovered, the Critter Flux-O-Matic building is inactive.
Initiation
The first step to begin the story trait is activating the building. This must be done by a duplicant; the errand must also be requested manually through a button in the Flux-O-Matic's interface.
Scanning
Once activated, the Critter Flux-O-Matic must be supplied with the species data of critters of five different species. Critters occupying the machine's lower-left corner cell will be sucked into the machine, scanned for 15 seconds, then dumped back out on the machine's lower-right cell. Critter Drop-Offs can be used to facilitate their transfer to the machine.
Five critters of different species must be scanned to complete the story trait; once a species has been scanned once, more critters of that species can still be scanned, but they will not contribute their species data towards progression. This means that e.g. scanning a Hatch and a Drecko will yield 2 progression points, but scanning a Hatch and a Stone Hatch will only yield 1 point. The number of species that have been scanned can be verified by checking the building's UI, and is also shown in the circular indicator at the top-center of the machine: each wedge of the five which is colored indicates one species that has been scanned.
Completion
Once five different species have been scanned, the story trait is ready for completion via the notifications in the interface. Completing the story trait gives a reward of one Keepsake, the 
Ceramic Morb, which can be displayed on a Pedestal; it also unlocks the Gene Manipulation Mode of the Critter Flux-O-Matic.
Gene Manipulation Mode
Once the story trait is completed, the Critter Flux-O-Matic can still be utilized, although it works a bit differently than before. With Gene Manipulation Mode active, the Flux-O-Matic will display its status as "Online" in its interface, and it will also display if it is ready to receive critters. When ready, critters can be delivered for scanning, just as before (see above). However, scanning variant morphs has no effect - the critter is scanned, output, and the Flux-O-Matic is instantly ready to scan again.
If a critter of a base morph is scanned, it will be converted into a random variant morph of its species. This has a caveat: The choices (and percentage chances) of morph are determined by the critter's current egg chances (or, if it is a baby, its morph's default egg chances), excluding its species' base morph. This means that any given critter can only be changed into a morph which it currently would be able to lay an egg for (again, except for the base morph). This means that a Hatch by default has a 50% chance of becoming a Stone Hatch and a 50% chance of becoming a Sage Hatch, whereas a Pokeshell by default has a 66.7% chance of becoming an Oakshell and a 33.3% chance of becoming a Sanishell; a Shine Bug has a 100% chance of becoming a Sun Bug and cannot become any other morph.
Once a critter is successfully morphed, the Critter Flux-O-Matic will enter a cooldown period of 540 seconds before it will be ready to scan any more critters.
Gallery
The Critter Flux-O-Matic in its idle state, showing the progress indicator (circle at top) advancing.
For a high-res animation, see here.
History
- U43-525812: Introduced.