Hi.
I saw this old RFE request on the old site, which seemed like a good idea to me, that'd add some richness to the game:
http://www.adom.de/adom/report.php3?ident=1744
They suggest the effect of the “de-evolution” corruption ("you look somewhat apish", etc.) should depend on species (“race”). It doesn't make sense that a drakeling, for example – a lizard creature – should de-evolve to look more like an ape. So I'd suggest re-proposing the idea mentioned in that post, that different species/races should de-evolve differently. I'd also like to add some suggestions for the newfangled Mist Elves and Ratlings:
Mist Elves: These are supposed to have originated from the “Mists” of creation... supposedly incredibly far back. So, I'd imagine their regression to then be towards the state of the primordial otherworldly mist, losing more and more their connection to material reality and becoming more and more sublime or ethereal. What this would mean in game terms is that in addition to the stat changes for elves as mentioned in the original post, the “touch of impure metal” thing should become more and more severe. First, the damage done by iron would start to increase. Then, at some point, mithril would start to become slightly damaging (maybe 1 damage point every 100 turns), then get worse (the 1 damage point becomes more frequent, e.g. 95 turns, 90 turns, etc.) up to some point (perhaps less than iron, e.g. 1 damage point every 10 turns maximum), then after that adamantium begins to hurt (starting again at say 1 dp/100 turns and going down to 1 dp/30 turns). Eternium remains safe. However, I'd suggest this process be very, very slow, otherwise it could be too harmful to gameplay. Removing the corruption would, of course, remove this effect, and the counter would be reset for the next time the corruption appears (if it does). In addition to this, every 4 turns of the "remember your ancestors" message, there would be a gain of 1 Mana point.
Ratlings: These would, naturally enough, regress toward more rodentlike forms. I'd suggest St -1, Le -1, Dx +2, Pe -1. Note that the Pe decrease isn't 100% realistic if you interpret “Pe” as “sensory power”, but is necessary given the limitations of ADOM's perception system. Rats have very poor visual acuity, thus we want the view circle to shrink as the eyes regress, but their hearing goes up into the ultrasound. However, hearing frequency range is not modeled in ADOM's limited sense model. I suggest -1 to force the loss of eyesight, despite that in the “world behind the game”, I'd imagine their hearing frequency range to be expanding. In addition, rats have good noses so their sense of smell should also go up, but ADOM doesn't use smell as far as I can tell.