Suggestions for Hydralisk Dash Ability Name
I want to know what you guys think should be alternate names for Dash.
My own suggestions: Sat down to think of what the Dash ability could be renamed to. Not all of these ideas are my own. I'm a biomedical graduate so a lot of my ideas come from a place of wanting the name to reflect the biological processes which may underlie the Hydralisk's temporarily increased speed.
- Cholinergic Deluge / Nicotinic Flash (4/5): Acetylcholine (ACh) is a neurotransmitter used throughout the body for a bunch of stuff. Notably, ACh is used as a terminal neurotransmitter in skeletal muscle, serving as a ligand for Nicotinic Receptors. Essentially, Cholinergic Deluge means that the brain is screaming at the muscles to contract by releasing a very powerful signal, while Nicotinic Flash describes a sudden innervation of all of the neuromuscular junctions in the body, thus leading to abrupt and temporary motion.
- Neurotoxic Hyperkinesia / Myolytic Hyperkinesia (4/5): Neurotoxic = killing nerve cells. Hyperkinesia = excessive movement or movement with excessive strength. Neurotoxic hyperkinesia therefore means "an episode of pronouncedly increased muscular activity, which is chemically damaging to the nerve cells", essentially describing a state where nerve cells are extremely overactive and damage themselves due to neurotransmitter toxicity and cellular stress as they force the muscles to work beyond their usual limits. Myolytic hyperkinesia simply means the same thing, except the muscle cells are dying due to overexertion rather than the nerves that innervate them.
- Parabronchial Architecture / Parabronchial Reassemblage (3/5): Mammal lungs have a single chamber where gas exchange occurs. Birds have two sacs that exchange air between them, creating different levels of pressure at different stages of respiration to increase ventilation and oxygen intake. Humans have bronchi; birds have parabronchi. This name would suggest that the hydralisks have switched from a more rudimentary method of breathing to one which is more efficient.
- Cerebromotor Bypass / Programmatic Reflex-Arc (3/5): Cerebromotor bypass means "overcoming or ignoring the motor cortices of the brain", meaning that muscles of locomotion are no longer being controlled consciously, but unconsciously by lower brain centres and reflex arcs in the spinal cord. Programmatic Reflex-Arc essentially describes a reflex which causes muscles to execute a preestablished "program", such as rapid forward movement, bypassing the need for conscious processing. Conscious strength is typically much lower than theoretical maximum strength due to the brain deliberately preventing self-injury by way of overexertion, so bypassing the descending spinal tract's attenuation of muscle strength would increase movement speed, at risk of more accidents and greater exhaustion. This name is probably a little bit too technical and may not seem to have any relation to its effects on the unit to a layperson.
- Vascular Dilatation (3/5): Literally the act of opening up blood vessels. Real-world muscle increases its oxygen supply via the loosening of small arterioles which are usually constricted in order to keep blood out of the muscles and inside your viscera. The name isn't particularly good imo because it implies that these blood vessels are always dilated once it is bought, whereas the speed ability is temporary.
- Serpentine Movement (3/5): Not very biologically descriptive, but it's straightforward and communicates the idea of the upgrade fairly well.
- Glycolytic fibres / Oxidative fibres (2/5): These are fibres which are abundant throughout the body in varying amounts, and are functionally differentiated by their favoured metabolic pathways and resistance to exhaustion. I don't think naming the ability "glycolytic fibres" would be particularly descriptive for the same reason that I don't think we'd call a durability upgrade for another unit "bones"; you kind of assume that they're already there.
- Adrenergic Surge (2/5): Overlaps with the Adrenal Glands upgrade in theming (which is a bad thing). Simply describes the release of adrenal gland hormones which stimulate muscle activity and blood supply.