about the skimmer

MedinB

Colony
After seeing this post, I did some digging, and I found a few things. I am very curious to know why the game refers to the skimmer as a 'she'. The in-game model is based on a male. Mature females aren't that blue. It just seems the developers treat everything in the game as female, I don't understand why. Was it a mistake, or was it intentional? If it was intentional, I'd like to hear a reason why.

Mike did respond to this question on the Discord, but it seems Mike doesn't know either. I think the best person to ask this question to would be Liam, as I'm pretty sure a lot of the research for this game is done by him.

There is of course still time for the lines to be updated, but I doubt that will happen. There has been a lot of speculation on this in the official SD Discord and in the ICS.

Mature females aren't that blue.

EDIT: I would like to mention something. After doing some more checking in the ICS, color is not really an indication when it comes to the gender of the skimmer. It's the tail tips, no matter the species, males, and females have different tail tips. I hope this clears up a lot of the confusion.
 
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syrian dugong

Soldier
Ecosystem Beta Tester
After seeing this post, I did some digging, and I found a few things. I am very curious to know why the game refers to the skimmer as a 'she'. The in-game model is based on a male. Mature females aren't that blue. It just seems the developers treat everything in the game as female, I don't understand why. Was it a mistake, or was it intentional? If it was intentional, I'd like to hear a reason why.

Mike did respond to this question on the Discord, but it seems Mike doesn't know either. I think the best person to ask this question to would be Liam, as I'm pretty sure a lot of the research for this game is done by him.

There is of course still time for the lines to be updated, but I doubt that will happen. There has been a lot of speculation on this in the official SD Discord and in the ICS.



EDIT: I would like to mention something. After doing some more checking in the ICS, color is not really an indication when it comes to the gender of the skimmer. It's the tail tips, no matter the species, males, and females have different tail tips. I hope this clears up a lot of the confusion.
"color is not really an indication when it comes to the gender of the skimmer. It's the tail tips, no matter the species, males, and females have different tail tips." I heavily disagree with this statement. Take a look at a bunch of dragonflies mature males & females and also immatures.
 

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syrian dugong

Soldier
Ecosystem Beta Tester
After seeing this post, I did some digging, and I found a few things. I am very curious to know why the game refers to the skimmer as a 'she'. The in-game model is based on a male. Mature females aren't that blue. It just seems the developers treat everything in the game as female, I don't understand why. Was it a mistake, or was it intentional? If it was intentional, I'd like to hear a reason why.

Mike did respond to this question on the Discord, but it seems Mike doesn't know either. I think the best person to ask this question to would be Liam, as I'm pretty sure a lot of the research for this game is done by him.

There is of course still time for the lines to be updated, but I doubt that will happen. There has been a lot of speculation on this in the official SD Discord and in the ICS.



EDIT: I would like to mention something. After doing some more checking in the ICS, color is not really an indication when it comes to the gender of the skimmer. It's the tail tips, no matter the species, males, and females have different tail tips. I hope this clears up a lot of the confusion.
After digging up about the males and females of the genus libellua (which the genus that the skimmer in game is under) you are right about them only having different tail tips but this is only in some species and it isn't the case with some species such as the Great blue skimmer Libellula vibrans
 

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syrian dugong

Soldier
Ecosystem Beta Tester
After digging up about the males and females of the genus libellua (which the genus that the skimmer in game is under) some species have males and females having same colorations and different tail tips. But this isn't the case with some Libellua species such as the Great blue skimmer Libellula vibrans
And also keep in mind that immature males of L. vibrans can look very SIMILAR to L. vibrans mature females
 
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MedinB

Colony
I've been getting confused about this; I've heard that all immature forms of the skimmer are brown, and mature forms are blue, no matter the gender. I've even seen pictures claiming this, and I can't really say if this is true, because not every source is creditable.

this is only in some species and it isn't the case with some species such as the Great blue skimmer Libellula vibrans
I'm not sure where you got this information from, because I've seen people discussing on both the official Slug Disco Discord, and ICS, saying females and males have different tail tips. Visual pictures don't immediately make a statement true. Continue this conversation if you wish, but I feel like this is getting a bit heated.
 
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WaffleGuy

Colony
Other websites:
Based on these websites, we can assume that immature skimmers have no blue pigment at all, instead primarily brown and yellow. However, male skimmers will take a deeply blue cover, but females will have less of that blue, and even more brown. Solely based on color, the skimmer in-game appears to be a mature male. I have yet to research physical features.
 

syrian dugong

Soldier
Ecosystem Beta Tester
I've been getting confused about this; I've heard that all immature forms of the skimmer are brown, and mature forms are blue, no matter the gender. I've even seen pictures claiming this, and I can't really say if this is true, because not every source is creditable.


I'm not sure where you got this information from, because I've seen people discussing on both the official Slug Disco Discord, and ICS, saying females and males have different tail tips. Visual pictures don't immediately make a statement true. Continue this conversation if you wish, but I feel like this is getting a bit heated.
I've been getting confused about this; I've heard that all immature forms of the skimmer are brown, and mature forms are blue, no matter the gender. I've even seen pictures claiming this, and I can't really say if this is true, because not every source is creditable.


I'm not sure where you got this information from, because I've seen people discussing on both the official Slug Disco Discord, and ICS, saying females and males have different tail tips. Visual pictures don't immediately make a statement true. Continue this conversation if you wish, but I feel like this is getting a bit heated.
Actually I take back what I said. No dragonfly species actually have males and females only having different tail tips and having the same coloration. Immature males of every species though (here's an example)
 

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syrian dugong

Soldier
Ecosystem Beta Tester
I've been getting confused about this; I've heard that all immature forms of the skimmer are brown, and mature forms are blue, no matter the gender. I've even seen pictures claiming this, and I can't really say if this is true, because not every source is creditable.


I'm not sure where you got this information from, because I've seen people discussing on both the official Slug Disco Discord, and ICS, saying females and males have different tail tips. Visual pictures don't immediately make a statement true. Continue this conversation if you wish, but I feel like this is getting a bit heated.
It's actually true..? Blue skimmer immature males are brown, it's literally the same colouration as mature females. This also makes it's hard to identify/differentiate between L. vibrans mature females and immature males.
 

syrian dugong

Soldier
Ecosystem Beta Tester
Other websites:
Based on these websites, we can assume that immature skimmers have no blue pigment at all, instead primarily brown and yellow. However, male skimmers will take a deeply blue cover, but females will have less of that blue, and even more brown. Solely based on color, the skimmer in-game appears to be a mature male. I have yet to research physical features.
The only physical feature are the robustness of the tail. Most if not all dragonflies species the females usually have broader tails while males are much more narrow
 

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MedinB

Colony
why is the skimmer in game referred to as "she" when it's actually a male?

Solely based on color, the skimmer in-game appears to be a mature male.

I think I'll end this female/male debate, as this thread is just more or less a question.

Was this a mistake? If it was a mistake, what happened? Did this just accidentally get slipped under the radar, or was it intentional? If it was intentional, then what was the reason for doing so? It just currently seems the developers treat everything in the game female, and I just can't understand why.

I can't really understand if it's a mistake, as with all the research put in this game, I feel like this being a mistake is unlikely. I do of course need to understand mistakes happen, but anyway, I wonder what's the reason here.
 
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WaffleGuy

Colony
being a mistake is unlikely
It being a mistake would make sense given that there is very few information about the Great Blue Skimmer you can find online. It's possible that an article was basing information off of the wrong species or that it just didn't know, or that we are wrong and that females, with all certainty, are exactly as displayed in-game. If the latter is correct then yeah, but otherwise I'd think it's safe to just change the voicelines to show that the skimmer is a male, just for safety purposes.
 

MikeSlugDisco

Community Manager
Staff member
Community Manager
Just a mistake - we're only human. We might see if we can get Callum back to re-record a few lines that reference it but in the grand scheme of things this is a minor oversight, and that it took more than 2 months from release for anyone to really notice it confirms that.
 
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